Blackrock is, as I have mentioned before, an old house. It was built around 1864 and A.'s great-great-great uncle* (I think that many greats--anyway he's referred to always as Uncle Doctor because, uh, he was a doctor) bought it around 1890. So what we have here is over 100 years of continuous family occupation. What this means is a continuous accumulation of family furniture, papers, and other things that just . . . stay in the house.
One of Cubby's favorite things to play with is this umbrella stand that holds a bunch of random canes. Canes as in the kind of thing old men lean on and use to thump smart-mouthed children on the head, that is. I never paid much attention to these canes before, except to notice that many of them have very fancy heads on them. One is horn--like an antler, I think--one is ivory with a silver band, and one is gold. The gold one, which is Cubby's favorite, is inscribed with "Presented by ---to---" with the initials of Uncle Doctor's wife as the presenter and Uncle Doctor as the presentee. The other side is inscribed with a date of September 18, 1880.
What? Doesn't YOUR toddler play with a 131-year-old gold-headed walking stick?
ANYWAY.
The point is that Blackrock is full of things like this. Old things, and probably pretty valuable things. But I don't really want to know the monetary value, because we still use all this stuff. If I knew what it was all actually worth, I'd be a nervous wreck all the time. And really, what good are antiques that you can't use? You may as well just live in a museum.
Which brings us to our game!
Here is a photo of a collection of items that we use all the time. They were once common, but I had never encountered them before moving to Blackrock. Despite the size difference, they all serve the same purpose. And I think the big one and its contents will probably give it away, but let's play anyway.
So, duckies! What are these objects and what are they used for?
Tune in tomorrow for the answer! And some more mindless chatter. That is what you come for, right?
12 comments:
salt cellars I would think....
My guess would be salt cellars... I think it's awesome that you use all the older things. My mom passed down several things from my great grandparents and my grandfather's cousin to us and we use all of them as well. My mom was shocked at first ("aren't you worried it'll break") but what's the point of having it and not using it?
Egg holders? IDK. I'm way out of tune with 100-year-old kitchen appliances.
Love the new series, though. :)
Salt cellars! Which I bought once because I cannot resist the allure of the miniature (the ones I bought also come with tiny individual spoooooons OMG). Now Sadie uses them when she pretends to feed her stuffed animals cereal.
Salt cellars, but where are the tiny spoons?
Well the big one is a salt cellar but the other ones look like shot glasses!
We used to have these in our family too. Salt cellars. I don't know what happened to them. Obviously we have had too many moves! Mary in MN
Even if several people hadn't already answered, I wouldn't have said anything. That would be cheating, since I actually used those once. And I'm pretty sure they had the little spoons.
Word verification: slyedwin -- reaching the bottom of the snow covered hill first
Sugar bowls? Creamers? Finger bowls for water? Nah, that's more of a European thing.
By the way, we live in an old home, too - we've found odd things in the walls and in the attic, but nothing as historic as your cane collection. It's not a family home. My next door neighbors, however... their kids are the fifth generation to live there. They find lots of fun things in the attic and closets!
Had no idea, but the collective wisdom sounds plausible here. I'm just happy to see that salt is accepted somewhere in the world nowadays since it seems like every restaurant, household and individual around me takes great pride in telling me how awful it is for you.
I LOVE SALT. Let it be known.
And also bless the salt cellar.
Amen.
I use a salt cellar every day to keep my morning vitamins from wandering about the table.
Becky in Utah
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