Collections, relatives, & things you wish you knew

[LocktownDog]

A button link provided by Warbaby in another thread got me thinking.

My great-grandmother passed away 30 years ago. My father and I were cleaning out her house afterwards and found a closet with nothing but boxes of catalogued buttons. They were all displayed neatly sorted by color and style, and dated. Dad says there must have been close to 100,000 in total ranging from the 1850s and onward. Each different. Nobody knew she collected them. All the boxes and pages were donated to charity with the exception of a few kept by relatives.

I can only imaging having those now. But how would an 11 yr old kid know what a resource that would be in later years? Hell, there was even a wall of books and magazines in my great-grandfather's study ... but who would want those dusty musty ol' things? I was a boy! I was going to spend the next day chasing chickens and throwing rocks, not thinking about future potential interests.

Sigh.

 

[Gracie Lee]

My great aunt was one heck of a woman. She and her husband owned a string of businesses and investments, and became very wealthy. She treated herself to something lovely at an auction once, and I remember it being stunning. She bought an emerald green dress, beaded all over, that Debbie Reynolds had once worn for an awards show. Years later, in her retirement, she became a shell of the woman she once was, and on a whim gave the dress to her chauffeur's granddaughter, 10 or 12 years of age, to wear in a school play. I was, and still am, crushed by the loss.

 

[The Shirt]

My grandmother had hundreds upon hundreds of salt and pepper shakers. She was just a simple farmer's wife who never travelled beyond 100 miles of her home I imagine. However with 11 sons and daughters, many of whom served in various wars and travelled all over, she amassed such an amazing collection. I know that when she passed, the salt and pepper shakers were distributed amongst the kids. My father passed and we have no idea where the sets ended up. I used to spend an hour at a time staring at the cabinet, discovering all sorts of new ones. For the life of me, I don't think that cabinet was ever opened, nor did I ever touch one.

 

[RetroPat]

When my grandparents moved from their Chicago apartment to a Northwest Indiana home in the country in 1974 there was quite a bit of stuff to move. Of the many things they acquired, a drawer full of fountain pens was one of them. While cleaning out the apartment, my dad through all the fountain pens away thinking that no one in their right mind would ever want them. That was long before I was born, but as a fountain pen user today I would give anything to have my grandparent's fountain pens.

 

[Phineas Lamour]

When my grandfather died all of my extended family came from out of town and pretty much looted his closet. They took everything; suits,jackets,shoes,ties. The only thing they gave me was an old bible. It had my name inside and said to my grandson on his birthday. So the only thing I got to keep of "his" was actually already mine. A "vintage" bible from 1979.

 

[PistolPete1969]

Sad to say, but I have several from my family.

My mother had several maiden aunts living by themselves on farms in rural Illinois. Visiting them one day when she was 11-12, the aunt decided to clean the attic. She carried down several armloads of old books and threw them in the fire! My mother stopped her and managed to save several; family books from the late 1700's that had survived the trip "west", several floods, and fires at various times. Those are in safe keeping

Another is one of mine. My great-great uncle was a fighter pilot instructor in WWI. I remember visiting him as a kid; he was in his 80's at this time. He had his complete uniform hanging up in the basement; blouse, leggings, campaign hat, and all. When he dies my grandparents inventoried the house and asked if we wanted anything. Of course I wanted the uniform. Sorry; it was gone. Apparently he threw it out right before he passed on.

Go figure....

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

My grandfather had a lot of cool fedoras, suits, overcoats, and general accouterments that dated from the '20s to the '50s, but my crazy aunt threw most of my grand parent's stuff away when my grandmother became ill and passed away. Grandfather was a large man too, over 6 feet tall, and probably wore a size 46 suit I would think,...