Dec. 31/12
the back-story
The snow has piled on the roof of my porch… and has started leaking through some spot in the roof into my porch… and into the storage places filled with “stuff”. (Anyone want to come here and climb up on the roof to clear it off?)
the middle-story
One of the treasures amongst “the stuff” is a collection of scrapbooks of my Mom’s. She has put together dozens of these books and on one of her cleaning sprees she cleaned out some of the books that she didn’t want. And so they came to me. Now, as many of you know, I am something of a packrat, not wanting to get rid of things that have sentimental value or a possible future use. These scrapbooks fall into the sentimental category.
the now-story
When I got the scrapbooks I knew what was inside them, as she has been putting them together since before I was born. (Yes, we are talking over 50 years and that makes them antiques as well, right?) The scrapbooks contains articles that she has clipped out of magazines and newspapers. They contain craft ideas, time-saver tools and strategies, and humorous stories, songs, etc.
Sadly the books were in the “drip-line” of the melting snow. Fortunately I found the problem before too much damage had been done to the contents of the cupboards. Only the bottom book in the pile had any serious sogginess. Out of the cupboard they came and the bottom one was opened up to dry.
This morning I sat down and took a gander at the pages.
the point of the story
Amongst the stories and craft projects were quite a few gardening ideas. There were some brick and wooden benches you can make around trees, a pretty cool indoor garden area made of bricks in a window area… and there were outdoor garden containers made from frying pans and old dresser drawers!
Today, we get all excited with the new-fangled ideas of creative container gardens. Who would have thought of using a drawer? Well someone did… back in 1958.
the future story
As I looked through the pages of the book, which also contained lots of ideas for creating things for children, I thought of my grandchildren… and their children.. and their children.
Wouldn’t it be cool if these scrapbooks were still around and my grandkids could say to their grandchildren, “These were put together by your great-great-great-grandmother.”
-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)
3 comments so far
daltxguy
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778 posts in 1234 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 139 days ago
We are clever, but very forgetful.
In Turkey, I was told that nothing is considered an antique unless it was at least 400 years old.
We have probably forgotten or annihilated more knowledge in the last century, than we have added and we keep patting ourselves on the back for having reinvented things, over and over. ( Did you know that you could heat your house with the sun?)
Our knowledge is limited by what we already know. When the Europeans first occupied the Americas, their survival was only due to the help of the native people’s, who knew the forests, bushes, rivers and knew how to survive using the abundant resources available. The British settlers, seeing an ocean of oak trees, chopped a few down, painstakingly squared up the timbers, added mortise and tenons, carved pegs and built timber frame buildings, which they then had to clad in more wood, pitsawn into planks. They then burned 100’s of acres so that their sheep and goats had somewhere to graze. This is what they knew. The Swedish, seeing an ocean of pine trees, cut some down, notched the ends and made a log cabin and then went fishing for cod. This is what they knew.
-- Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. - Thoreau
MsDebbieP
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13897 posts in 2137 days
hardiness zone 5b
posted 139 days ago
400 years … well I guess I’m safe then!
-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)
TopamaxSurvivor
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190 posts in 1440 days
hardiness zone 7b
posted 139 days ago
Reminds me I have a sampler sewn by my great-great-grandmother ;-) It is interesting how we continue to reinvent what was considered old fashioned and therefore taboo just a few years ago.