Tuesday Twosome

1. Do you possess any family heirlooms, and if so, what two heirlooms do you value the most:

I do now: Mom's china that she never used, the tier table that's now in our foyer (along with this end table/bookshelf bit of furniture), a big old steamer trunk with Mom's wedding dress and some other textiles in it that used to be in our cellar, some Fifties Christmas ornaments, and some Trifari jewelry pieces. I'd have to say I love them all, but the one that means the most is the manger set. It's not Fontanini or anything like that (I actually don't like the Fontanini sets), but pieces that were bought from Woolworth's and Grant's one and two pieces at the time. They are mostly ceramic but there's still a couple of rubber ones. I have a collectors' book that says they were made in Japan. They're all chipped, but I love them.

Right now they're in the trunk. At least I hope they're in the trunk since I haven't seen them since we packed up Mom's house last August...

2. Did you have a childhood hide-out, and if so, describe it:

Yeah, after my dad fixed the cellar I had a corner of it. There was my child-sized roll-top desk and chair and a couple of bookcases and my paint-by-numbers on the wall and a shelf above the desk for more books.

3. Describe your relationship with your immediate family and how it makes you feel:

I think "immediate family" means brothers and sisters and parents, and I never had the first two and the latter are gone. I miss them. We had a lot of fun together.

4. Do you and/or your family do anything for the needy, and if so, explain:

Before or now? Mom was always giving to different charities, especially diseases and religious ones. It was sad, really. She gave what she could afford to ten or twelve charities and they just deluged her with more requests for money. When we transferred her mail to our address we got six or seven of these requests every day. I opened them at first and was appalled at the minimum "suggested amounts." Some of these folks wanted at least $100. Even the church envelopes used to suggest you give a certain amount. My mom was living on a small pension.

I like to give to the Can Bank at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I wish Kroger and the other markets would leave the Can Bank bins up all year. People don't just get hungry at the holidays. I know you can go by a certain church or place and donate food but it would be so easy for people to just buy a few extra groceries each time they went shopping and then put it in the Can Bank box and they could come pick it up. I think they'd get more donations that way.

5. Did you have a close relationship(s) with any of your grandparents? Describe your relationship(s):

The only grandparent I had who survived into my adulthood was my father's dad, my Papà. He was from the old country and was very brusque at times and didn't speak English, only Italian, most of the time. Sometimes I didn't mind, but sometimes I found him scary, especially when I was smaller. He used to have a wonderful vegetable garden and grew the most delicious tomatoes, and also made wine that Mom and I used to bake wine biscuits.

Dad's mom died when I was three, so I don't remember her at all. My mother's parents died within a few weeks of each other when I was seven. I remember loving to go visit with them. Grandma had always been sick with coal dust lungs she got when my grandfather worked in the mines. Grandpa went blind from cataracts and I remember him just sitting in the living room all the time listening to the television.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:27:00 AM

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