Treasures

We all know the saying,"one man's trash is another man's treasure," and in our case the opposite is partly true. Around noon yesterday, we met with the rest of the family at Mom's place to divvy up her treasures. This sounds horribly quick, but in our case, Michele returns to Minnesota on Wednesday, with no planned return trip in the foreseeable future. And so we went...

Mom made a detailed list of about 60 items of special family significance. Some were passed down to her, and some she's passing down to us. There are several pieces of Carnival glass from Great Grandma Peck (Eileen), whom I'm not sure Bruce ever met. During the clean up process I discovered the obituary notice for Bruce's dad's father, Ferdinand Peck, a name that never came up in all the years I've known Bruce. Turns out, he divorced Anna, way back when, when divorce was considered scandalous, thus his name was MUD. According to the notice, he moved to the Harrisburg area of Pennsylvania, remarried, had a child, and opened a convalescence home. Interesting...

Anyway, for those of you unfamiliar with Carnival glass, here's what it looks like with some of the beautiful roses I referenced the other day:I'm really liking the iridescence of this vase, not to mention the ruffly top edge and ribbed body. The day has been dreary, dreary, dreary, so I hope to get a spiffier picture once I get some LIGHT!

Now, for something silly--I decided that this little guy would look very fun in our yard:Whether or not I keep the Coke wagon has yet to be decided.

What I'm most excited about is this:Amazingly, this is a diary from Oscar Loveland (Judy's maiden name) from 1882. Again, poor light is hampering my efforts at showing you how cool it is. As well, it has been closed for so long that it won't lay open very well. Nevertheless, it is in excellent shape, and although the handwriting is somewhat difficult to discern, I plan to read every page. For now, I've read some of the entries, mostly they are about an agricultural life. There is a baby mentioned, mostly the weight is documented. I'm not sure if it is a boy, or girl, as the child is referenced as "the baby." I kept reading about corn. Naturally, this intrigued me, so thanks to that most wonderful invention, the world wide web, I searched for Rodman, the town he was from, which is adjacent to Adams, where Bruce grew up. Discovering that there were numerous grist mills and distilleries, the corn references made more sense. Feel free to skip over this part if history doesn't do anything for you, although reading the names is way interesting! I've made Ada Loveland's bold.

"Through the same means, and having access to important papers and records, the names of still other settlers may be recalled, though not perhaps among the pioneers. However, all are believed to have been in Rodman previous to the closing years of the war of 1812—15.

In this connection may be mentioned Asa Cooley, a prominent figure in early town history; the Gates family in the west part of the town; also Stephen Cook, John Burton, John Butterfield, Nathaniel Harrington, Jacob Heath, the Priest family (Joseph, Job and Solomon), Willard M. Winslow, Aipheus Nichols, Judge Abel Cole (in the assembly in 1818), Nathan Strong (in the assembly in 1832), William Sill, James Loomis, Roswell Blanchard, Bazabel Gleason, Cyrus H. Stone, Luther Eastman, Beloved Rhodes, Nathaniel Crook, Peter Yandes, Isaiah Post, Richard I)ye, George Thomas, Calvin Clifford, Enoch Murray, Eliah Russell, Caleb Woodward, Zachariah Walsworth, Abel Loveland, Timothy Underwood, D. Eastman, Abijah Kellogg, Stoddard Eastman, Nathaniel Tremain, Amariah Babbitt and Gren Kellogg, In the same manner may be reca.lled and mentioned Nathaniel Nichols, Nathan Whitman, Lyman Lawrence, Thomas Harrington, James Wright, David Corey, John Hackett, Reuben Tremain, Ebenezer Blackstone, Aaron Loomis, Bernard Warren, Titus King, Luther Woodworth and Heman Swift, all of whom were settlers of the period and’ identified in some way with the early history of the town. Among their cotemporaries, and just as earnest and devoted in the work of settlement and development, were Winslow G. Tracy, Daniel Field, William A. Flint, John Burr. Harry Wagoner, Joseph Pratt, James Ralph, Alanson Cummings, Charles Palmeter (or Parmeter), Alvin Buck, Ansel Brainerd, Samuel Kelsey, Benoni Edwards, Return Russell, Philo Booth, Asa Hill, John Glass, and still others whose names are worthy of mention but have been lost with, long passed years, the period of which we write being all of four score years ago."

Here's a link to Rodman today. Just in case, linking is not your thing, a highlight is that Frank Woolworth was from Rodman. It's about the same size as it was back then...

Reading through some of the history of where Judy grew up, made me more appreciative of who she was and what formed her. It's that connection to the past that she wanted to hold onto. Family heirlooms were not to be taken lightly and beautifully handmade things had real value, unlike today. Which reminds me; while going through her house with Jonathan, he remarked on a cross stitch sampler on the wall. When we took it down we discovered it was made by "yours truly" back in 1978, which would have made me 23; Matthew was two years old, and I was pregnant with the twins. Here's what it says: Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing older. At the time her grandchildren were Matthew and Katie, five more would follow. Additionally, in the bathroom dressing area, another wall hanging, this time with crewel work, had my name on the back with the date 1975, just two years after Bruce and I married. Through the years the Pecks moved multiple times, yet she still carted those "treasures."

All this got me to thinking, is there anything made today that will last over 100 years?

I'm all for modern, but maybe our homes have gotten a little too stylized. Recently, Angela has been nagging me about our entertainment center, saying I've got way too much stuff on it. I protested that it's our life on there. Her response was typical of today's thinking, "you don't need all those books--it is too cluttered!" Well, yes I do, they are my treasures, thank you very much.

So, although I've no idea where I'm going to store some of my new treasures, I'm glad to have them. I'm also a wee bit jealous that Bruce's family has been traced back all the way to England (Peck side), whereas I know very little about our family history. It may be littered with broken families and relationships but I'm learning anew how important that family matters are. After all, they are the most valuable thing we have.


Addendum: As I woke up this morning I was thinking about this post and realizing I'd gotten all sentimental and forgot my thesis. The trash I mentioned above--what to do with Little Black Sambo figurines including one that has a hand to mouth feature?