This bone-handled carving knife has been in my family since before I was born. It was a wedding gift to my maternal grandparents, who married in 1919. My grandmother and mother used it in preparation of most of the meals I ate until my mother remarried in 1957 and we left my grandmother's house to move to Texas.
After Mammaw died in 1988, Mother used the knife in her own kitchen on a daily basis. It came into my hands when Mother passed in 1999, at which time I retired it from regular use. No doubt it would still work beautifully to make perfect slices of tomato or roast beef, but its blade is almost paper thin, and I don't want it to break on my watch.
The knife is a thing of beauty, chipped and battered as it is. I'd like to mount it in a shadowbox and hang it in my kitchen. So far I haven't found the right-sized shadowbox, but I'm still looking. I think the knife has shown its durability and will wait for me.
Tucked away in my china cabinet is one lonely teaspoon that somehow managed to survive through all the years. I discovered it in a box of miscellaneous articles from my parents' basement and recognized it immediately....this spoon or others just like it, I had used when I was a small child on the farm. So, it now has its own revered space in the cabinet as well as my memory. I do soooooo understand where you coming from on this one.
ReplyDeleteDon't you wish that you could take all your good memories, put them on a flashdrive and upload them to your children so they could honestly experience and FEEL the emotions of them too?
I have the "dipper" from my grandfather's farm. My mother's first job was to pack water to workers in the fields along with the dipper to take a drink.
ReplyDeleteWow, how exciting to check out your blog this afternoon and find so many new posts!! Reminds me of the old days. Love the knife.
ReplyDeleteIf you know any gardeners, they would probably love to have your hosiery to tie up their plants. My husband confiscates my old bras and uses them to keep the watermelons off the ground. What can I say, he's thrifty!!
Val, I know just how you feel about that teaspoon, and your idea of uploading those good memories to our children is a wonderful one. All we can do is hope they have mementos and great memories of their own.
ReplyDeleteHolly, I like the story behind your dipper. That's cool!
Pup, thanks for expressing your excitement; I've been trying to get back on track.
Your husband's gardening tricks make me want to come up with some sort of joke about bras and "melons," but it's probably best that I don't go there. :)
Velvet, no bird can measure up to those peacocks at your place. Love the old knife.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather was a baker in a tiny little town in Ohio. He also sold ice cream. I have the ice cream dipper from his store. I'm 67, so it must be 75 years old. I love to just look at it and remember the sounds and smells of his bakery.
ReplyDeleteSister-Three, I haven't seen the peacocks in the last couple of years. Don't know what happened to them. I miss them.
ReplyDeleteKybeadmaker, that's a nice memory. Is it my imagination, or were ice cream scoops bigger in those days than they are now?
Interesting! We have a vegetable peeler that Mom thinks is older than I am. She says that if it ever breaks, she's going to cry. It's the easiest peeler I've ever tried, and I still use it. They don't make stuff like that anymore.
ReplyDeleteJanet, I once heard a story about a potato-peeler manufacturer whose product was so reliable that it never wore out. Unfortunately, that meant fewer new sales. The company solved the problem by painting the handles of the peelers brown, which increased the odds that customers would accidentally toss them out with the peels. Don't know if that's true, but I thought it was a good story.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that was the manufacturer of my potato peeler?
ReplyDeleteThat's the trouble with good quality stuff-they don't wear out, the manufacturer doesn't sell enough new ones and goes out of business. Sad.