I’m a creative, experienced, multi-purpose artist and art director
who can take projects start to finish in a variety of styles.

Good designs sell –
my designs sell out!

Saturday, September 20, 2014

"Novelty"


Companies keep telling us that they've got something "NEW!", but I'm not so sure there's anything new under the sun.  Everything is a variation on a theme, and sometimes the old stuff is way cooler.  The latest IPad is just a chalkboard without the chalk.  Might we be better off with the chalk?

I liked hula hoops for a while.  I could hula hoop forever around my waist, long time on my leg, even longer on my arm, a while on my neck.  I hula hooped 3 circles at a time making them spin in different orbits on my waist, or a couple of limbs and a waist.  Geez, I was bored with nothing to do.  I showed off to Grandpa and fell down laughing when he hula hooped too.

Grandpa was born in the 1800s and was retired by the time I was born.  He was from a small town in central Tennessee.  Our family is supposed to be related to Robert E. Lee, but folks down there make sure you know that there are 2 Lee families in the area, the rich ones and us.

I tried to get Grandpa to talk about his growing up, but he wasn't a story teller.  He was a doer.  The rush seat of my child's chair wore out?  Grandpa wove a new one on it with nylon cord.  Durable.  Cotton would've looked nicer, but nylon is forever.  Nobody would ever need to weave a new seat for that particular chair.  He made lye soap that could take the skin off you.  Effective.  Grandma used it for laundry and kids were threatened with that soap if we got too dirty.  I tried to stay clean when we visited.

I got an unusual email this week.  A woman wrote to say that she had my great grandfather's bed and is willing to sell it.  She said I was the only one of the family she could locate, I'm guessing because I wrote about my great aunt Ila Rhea on this blog.  Cool!  A side benefit I never expected from blogging.  Any family interested in the bed and dresser, let me know.  I've asked how much they're asking, but don't have an answer yet.  The furniture is currently in Florida, so you'd also have to figure out how to get it.  (I suppose I shouldn't mention my naughty wondering whether or not the owner of this bed has to do things Presbyterian missionary style or S&M?)  The "history" referred to in the note is the genealogy that my great grandfather wrote.  If there's any family that wants to read it, I've scanned it and can send it to you.

I suppose my great grandfather must've been studious to write a genealogy.  I know he wrote a lot of letters in order to write it because that was before ancestry.com.  He was a mailman, riding his horse around the county. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."  I suppose he got all of that on a horse, but I like to imagine that it was a good job for someone who liked to visit with people.

I can't really say much about him since he was before my time, but I imagine him a lot like his son, my grandpa.  The kind of man who'd use nylon cord for a child's seat, and who would do the twist with a hula hoop.

Just playing with PhotoShop brushes to make the hula hoop today :)

Note ~ Mom says the bed was part of a bigger bedroom set and was supposed to go to my grandpa, but he didn't know how to bring to Ohio so it was willed to Ila Rhea instead.

10 comments:

  1. My great grandfather in Nova Scotia also wrote about the family's past and a nephew posted it on the web for the family to see. Nice to look back words written by ancestors...

    I'm sure that if you want the bed and dresser there are lots of people on this blog that would be willing to help out with donations for purchase and shipping! (I am, let me know!) They're beautiful pieces and it's nice to have things that come from family.

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  2. That's really sweet Rand :) Thanks! I'm just kind of hoping that she doesn't ask too much for it, let alone trying to figure the shipping costs. Very cool that your nephew posted your genealogy online. I suppose I could do that here too unless someone's got a better suggestion?

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  3. Wow Linda what a fascinating post. The furniture is very beautiful and has so much history with it. Family history is so interesting. ..my Dad's cousin managed to trace ours back to the 1600s and gave a talk to us all and presented us with a printed family tree. I really hope you get the furniture. .If it is something you want and yes it's a great idea to see if us fellow bloggers could help that happen. Much depends on the price though! Fingers crossed xx

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  4. I still haven't heard a price yet. All I can hope is that they don't want very much for it. I never considered that anyone would offer to help buy it. I'm overwhelmed by your generosity. I think looking at genealogies is fascinating. Those of us who've got them are lucky when someone else does the work!

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  5. I have an antique bed that has been on my Mom's side of the family since the Civil war. If walls could talk...

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  6. Linda, I think you must take after your great grandpa a bit- Your blog is like a weekly mail and story delivery, only digital. What fun that must have been to hula hoop with your grandpa! I have some fond memories of hanging out with my grandpa, too- He always kept us in stitches. If my mom heard us singing some of the songs he taught us, we probably would've had our mouths washed out with that soap!
    Retrieving the family furniture could be fun road trip...Perhaps you could set up a fund raising "drive" (no pun intended) to raise the cash needed?

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  7. OMG! Just spit water across my desk at work when I read your musings about how the bed was used! LOL!! Another great post, Linda!
    PS - I love to hula hoop, though just the waist for me!! Not talented enough for other body parts! :)

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  8. I feel like I've done a good thing to cause someone to spit water :D

    Part of what made my grandpa funny is that he was so stoic most of the time -- and then he'd play "Santa Got Run Over By a Reindeer".

    I like hearing about other people's treasures and stories. I'm glad when one of my memories sparks someone else's. Thanks for the comments everybody! I think going to FL could be a fun road trip?

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  9. Fun to get access to your family's history from unexpected corners of the country. The bed is surely beautifully crafted, but I see the challenge getting it posted in the mail. Not even your grandfather would have taking it on his horse... Otherwise I agree with you first statement. New isn't always better, just as often it's a way to get us to buy again what we already have. I am particularly thinking in my line of stuff, you know Gillette - the best a man can get - has been adding more and more blades to their razors. When I started buying razor blades, the big thing was the double blades. Now I think we are up to five. And I always wonder how many blades will be the latest fantastic news by the time I crawl into my coffin. Maybe unnecessary to say but I still only use the double blade...

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  10. I recently saw something that said some men are going back to a single blade. Sometimes progress looks backwards. The woman who wrote me still hasn't gotten back to me about price. I think I'm onto the next week's word "wish" and wishing she'd say she'll just give it to me :)

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