True Family Heirlooms

[Anonymous]

This thread makes my heart so happy - thank you. I have an old cotton apron in my kitchen drawer that belonged to my grandma. To her it was useful, to me it is a treasure (and still useful)!

[Anonymous]

All I have or wanted was a big music box made in the late 1800’s that I loved to play with at my grandparents and a kids size rocking chair. My grandchildren love both. I let my siblings have everything else, even things of great value because the music box and chair were priceless for me.

[Anonymous]

I have my grandmother’s engagement/wedding ring set, that were purchased in the 40s. She passed before I was born, but my mom gave them to me when I moved out on my own. I use them as my own rings now, and they are lovely. I’m about to have a daughter, so I’ll pass them down to her in a couple of decades!

[Anonymous]

I have a fan that my grandmother won in a spelling bee in grade school. I loved playing with it as a kid at her house. She gave it to me for my high school graduation.

[Anonymous]

I have my grandmother’s charm bracelet, with charms she collected her whole life. Some are engraved with names and dates from the gift giver (including some flight wings from a man who wasn’t my grandfather). I wore it on my wedding day, and one day it will go to my daughter. I only know some of the stories of the charms— and man, I wish I had thought to ask her before she died.

[Anonymous]

I have a casual long sleeve cotton tee-shirt that belonged to my aunt. Her house was filled with all sorts of stuff but I remember her wearing that shirt on casual days all of the time and it’s the only thing I wanted. It’s folded in a drawer and I’ll never get rid of it. Sometimes I take it out just to look at it. It’s been over 10 years.

[Anonymous]

We have my great-grandmother's side table where the base is a camel. When I was younger I wanted my mom to take it to Antiques Roadshow to see what it was worth and it was then that I learned my great-grandmother and mother had bought it at Fortunoff's in the 1970s...not exactly a valuable antique! But when my parents moved it was the only thing my sister and I asked for and we now have a shared custody agreement where we each get it for 5 years, and the one getting it is responsible for picking it up or paying for it to be shipped. This has worked well since we've both been on the East Coast for many years (we've generally just delivered it to the other's house when we visit!) but now she is moving far away. She's due to get it again in 2023 and she may need to take a road trip to pick it up from me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aw. I get it. I have a lot of nicer stuff, but the French pillowcase my great-grandfather brought back to my great-grandma from fighting WWI is framed and in our entryway. I am sure people wonder WTF, but it is special.

That is very cool.

[Anonymous]

Totally not heirlooms, but my dad died a year and a half ago. Me and the kids got to spend four days with him right before he died. He was on the couch and had been using this Pottery Barn throw blanket that is flannel on one side and that soft sherpa on the other. He spent the whole time we were there own the couch under that blanket and I snuggled under it with him too . When he died, my step mom gave me the blanket. I have it only couch and me and the kids use it al the time. We call it "Grandpa's blanket". Man, I really miss him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a metal mixing bowl that my grandma bought after her second husband moved her (and my 10 yr old mom) from Kansas to Oregon in the 1950s. I have a lot of memories of her mixing bread dough or cookie dough etc in that bowl and I love that I have it now. It’s one of my favorite possessions.

I also got her piggy bank. It’s old, mostly white with some pink and blue on it. I always liked looking at it as a kid, and learning about counting money with its contents. In her 80s she moved to a retirement community and they’d play bingo with dimes. I haven’t touched the contents of the bank and it still has her bingo dimes just as she left them when she died in December 2003.

My grandma (both grandma's actually) lived in farmhouses without indoor plumbing. My maternal grandma had a couple of white enamel dishpans used for washing dishes (water heated on woodstove, although she used electric for cooking). I always got stuck drying at family gatherings because, of course, being a girl.

Years later, my mom and I were visiting one of my mom's brothers, and his wife told us she'd been making bread dough (for homemade buns) that morning using grandma's dishpan as a bread bowl and thinking about grandma.

I have my other grandma's worktable (maybe it was called something else?) from her pantry. It has a pull out cutting board and 2 bin drawers--the sides and back are wood with a metal sheet that goes from the top of the drawer and curves under. Those were where flour and sugar were kept.

She had a gold watch, a brooch type (cover opens like a pocket watch) she wore pinned to her dress when she was young, my mother inherited that, then my younger sister.

[Anonymous]

When my dad died, my mom had his pants turned into rag rugs by a local woman and gave rugs to my sister and me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have an oriental rug my great grandfather rolled himself up in to cross the border, which saved his life. We also have a Marc Chagall painting that allegedly the artist gave my granduncle in exchange for saving his life.

Ok you have to tell the rest.

I have an old 2 pronged fork that came from my DH's parents. Allegedly it once belonged to Edgar Allen Poe who was related to someone among his ancestors' families, but my sister says "do you have a letter of provenance?" Um, no.

My good friend from h.s. has a knife with a bone handle, I think it's from a deer, and the sheath is the hide with the fur on it. It is accompanied by a letter. The ancestor who owned it went on a buffalo hunt and the letter describes the hunt (yes, the thousands of buffalo slaughtered, etc). I think he was an army surgeon or something, the hunt was in the 1870's.

[Anonymous]

So many thing from my dear mom. I love her 1960s white ceramic electric orange juicer bought at a garage sale and her giant thermos. I use the juicer but have not had a need yet for the thermos. Thank you mom. Miss you every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Totally not heirlooms, but my dad died a year and a half ago. Me and the kids got to spend four days with him right before he died. He was on the couch and had been using this Pottery Barn throw blanket that is flannel on one side and that soft sherpa on the other. He spent the whole time we were there own the couch under that blanket and I snuggled under it with him too . When he died, my step mom gave me the blanket. I have it only couch and me and the kids use it al the time. We call it "Grandpa's blanket". Man, I really miss him.

So sorry. I lost my mom three years ago and missing her so much.

[Anonymous]

Today would have been my mom's 88th BD. I have a well-worn wooden spoon, dark now from so much use, and I use it to sauté. Think of my mom as well as my dad, who used it after he retired.