My Favorite Things
I confess I’m not very sentimental. (See With This Ring and Baby Shoes)
But there are some things I own that are older than I am and that I treasure.
One is certainly the brass dinner bell my grandmother rang to call the guests to meals at her small Catskill hotel. (See My Heart Remembers My Grandmother’s Hotel, Hotel Kittens, and The Cat and the Forshpeiz)
Another – a graceful ceramic pitcher and bowl that belonged to a beloved aunt who died tragically when I was quite young. (See White Shoulders for Aunt Frances)
And two small silver boxes my husband’s parents brought from South America where they’d lived for several years after fleeing Europe and before emigrating to the States. (See Tracing Our Roots)
And two large seashells my mother found as a child on the Rockaway beach where she grew up. (See Still Life)
And of course the Eisenhower jacket my father wore when he served as an Army captain during World War II. (See Parkchester, Celebrate Me Home)
These are among my favorite things and I’d hate to part with any one of them – so I guess you can call me sentimental after all.
– Dana Susan Lehrman
Dana Susan LehrmanThis retired librarian loves big city bustle and cozy country weekends, friends and family, good books and theatre, movies and jazz, travel, tennis, Yankee baseball, and writing about life as she sees it on her blog World Thru Brown Eyes!
www.WorldThruBrownEyes.com
What a wonderful, beautfiully photographed collection you have and have shared with us, Dana. Plus, the perfect title for your story. Finally, as I noted in my reply to your comment on my story, I love that you count your father’s WW II jacket among your favorite things.
Thanx John!
Wish our dads could have met and compared notes!
I must look back and read your previous stories!! You are, indeed, sentimental!
Despite my earlier denial, I guess I’m guilty as charged Sara!
Those are wonderful items to cherish, Dana. I echo the others’ sentiments (and your own). It is OK to be sentimental. When Dan’s grandmother died, though I am not a blood relation (I am married to one), I was offered a chance to take something of hers and took a little teacup and saucer. It doesn’t match anything of ours, but I tucked it away in a cabinet with other small china items I value (from my mother’s home). There it sits, a constant reminder of a woman who was wonderful to me, who died just as I became pregnant with David, who is her namesake. We need these items to remember out past and those we love.
Thanx Betsy, and a teacup and saucer sound like a wonderful remembrance of your grandmother-in-law.
I’m so glad you included all the photos in your story, and the “favorite things” make up a lovely collection. As others have noted, Dana, it’s OK to be sentimental.
Thanx Mare, altho I’m known as a big throw-outer I realize some things I could never part with!
You are definitely sentimental, Dana, and I loved seeing the photos of your beloved things from the past. My mother-in-law had a bell just like that. I have no idea what its original purpose was, but her grandchildren loved ringing it and hiding it. I hope one of my sister-in-laws still has it.
Thanx Laurie, I now confess that I AM sentimental!
When I think of our disposable, now “minimalist” society, Dana, I must salute your tender care of these special family objects. Others would have disposed of them, hard as it is to contemplate. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Thanx Susan. I’m actually more of a purger than a keeper – but some things I’ll never part with!
Those are wonderful things to have kept, and despite your disclaimer, I would say you have kept quite a few things. All with stories of course. Thanks for sharing them.
Thanx Khati, I guess I should disclaim my disclaimer!
You have told us over the years what a purger you are, so I am delighted to read this story about the items you have saved, and your admission that you are at least a little sentimental!
Yes Suzy, I guess this prompt showed me that I am a bit sentimental after all!
A wonderful collection of items with their associations. I have my Dad’s Army jacket hanging in my closet; it looks similar to the one depicted. (He made it to First Lieutenant, not Captain.). What is the origin of the term, “Eisenhower jacket,” which I have never heard? And to which jackets does it apply?
Thanx Dale.
I always heard this short army jacket called an Eisenhower jacket. Just googled and indeed that’s what it is, named obviously for Ike!
Very nice story, very nice collection of heirlooms. And I think the Von Trapps, as imagined in the Sound of Music, are an heirloom for us all.
Thanx Jon!