Things

Last night, the Hubs was making his dinner in the kitchen and I heard a hearty "SHIT!" which could mean anything, so I hesitantly asked "What happened?" and he came to the doorway between the family room and kitchen holding up a 1 cup Pyrex measuring cup in one hand and its handle in the other. I said "Well, we've had it for 30 years. I guess a replacement is due." So now I'm thinking: what else do we have that's been here -- well, with us, if not in this physical location -- for 30 years?

Let's see. My parents gave us a set of Farberware pots and pans as our engagement gift. Still there, still using them every day. (Well ... I don't use them every day, but someone does.) I still have several pieces of Tupperware from the first year we were married because that stuff pretty much lasts forever, and if it doesn't, they're supposed to replace it. Unless you microwave the old stuff, which we have, so that warranty's pretty much voided. But the bowls are still good anyway.

I've got the brandy snifters, or whatever they are, that Edith gave us as an engagement gift, because really, what house is complete without such things?



(and as you can see, they're still in the carton in which I tried unsuccessfully to unload them at numerous garage sales over the years.)

When we got married, we bought two things: a good Sony TV, and a queen-sized bed. Both gone, both replaced, although the bed only a few years ago. All the rest of our furniture was hand-me-down, mostly from my 92 year old Uncle Joe (Edith's father, btw), who had recently passed away. All that's gone now, too.

I have a step-stool that an elderly neighbor gave me once, around the time I was engaged, probably Depression-era. Funny what you keep and still use.



The good dishes are still around, somewhere, but never used. I never got silver, and I liked the crystal we got, although it wasn't expensive; that's somewhere, too.

I have LOTS of stuff older than 30 years, of course, but those things came to us later, long after we were married, like my parents' furniture, and their piano and stuff.

Today I decided that, life being short and all, I would try to see if I could make this a part of my regular daily wardrobe:


It was my grandmother's, although my mother had it re-set somewhere in the seventies. (Or let us say that Shirl convinced her mother, who was still among the living at that time, to have it re-set. I don't think grandma particularly cared, though; she wasn't going to wear it anymore.) I've never been the kind of person who could get away with wearing a diamond ring every day, although lots and lots of people I know do that. My own engagement ring is an antique, not especially valuable but very pretty, but a bit too fragile for everyday wear, so I've never really gotten into the habit. Anyway, as long as I'm talking about old stuff, here's the story of grandma's ring.

When she and grandpa got married, which was New Year's Day, 1916, they were two immigrants who still lived with one relative or another, worked hard in the glove factories in upstate New York, and who, let me tell you, had no money for diamond rings, let alone anything else. They worked hard, had a baby a year later (Uncle Sol), moved to New York City (but never the Lower East Side, only the Bronx), had another baby (Shirl) and, what else? Worked hard. I've written before about Grandpa Sam's saintlike character and miserable business sense. He was never more than a worker, albeit a skilled one when the glove business was good (he was a cutter), but it wasn't always. Ida was an incredible household manager, and did a little of this, a little of that, to bring in extra money. Sometimes she took in foster children, not through the state or city, but to help out someone out who needed to park a kid someplace for a while and pay for his upkeep. When her own kids were grown, she would go work as what you might call a mother's helper, to stay at someone's home when they'd just had a baby and help out for a couple of weeks.

But once her children were grown and the Depression was over, she made the extra money to buy extra things, since Sam's work was stable, and one of the things she wanted was a diamond engagement ring. So she worked, and she saved the money, and she bought it for herself, I believe in 1946, for ... funny. She bought it for her 30th anniversary. I hadn't even made the connection until just this minute.

So I think I should wear it now. Feels right.

WATCHING THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #1541