Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Stuff, it may define us

We have stuff all over our house. Way too much stuff

But some of it is interesting… (at least its a good excuse…)

Each has a story

The “stuff” inventory includes….

A Daggett Basket
Tina’s great uncle was a California pioneer, a Lieutenant Governor, The head of the San Francisco Mint and a collector of Indian baskets. Most were donated to a museum at Stanford University… A few were not, we have one… Its not a great example. The edge is frayed. It is a tie to the past

A Snowball Brick
Its English. I found it while exploring an old sawmill site in the Santa Cruz Mountains… English brick were once common in California. In the 19th century We (California) shipped wheat to England for distribution throughout Europe…. The wheat ships needed a ballast load on the way back… bricks and coal were common ballast loads. Finding a piece of history is wonderful

A jar filled with ash from the Mt St Helens explosion.
Tina was living in Denver at the time. She filled an old glass spice jar with ash. It is a moment in time

A brake rotor from a Champ Car race car…
For three years they raced in the streets of San Jose. I went all three years. Steph volunteered for the last two years, I volunteered the last year. We picked it up as a souvenir the last year.

A paving block
Suzanne a friend gave it to me… they sell them at a local garden center.

A whale bone
From my Brother. He picked it up somewhere in the Aleutian Islands. He is a Bearing Sea fisherman…

A Brass candlestick
It’s a hand made copy of a second candle stick. Tina’s father was a junior engineer on Banana Boats before World War 2… He made it while on the ship

A strange rock… I think it’s a fragment of a meteor
I dug it up in the back yard. Its heavy. It has clearly been very hot. It isn’t magnetic.

A pair of opera glasses
Victorian, brass with mother of pearl. From Tina’s mother.

The Peruvian Shelf…
A small brass cathedral, a gourd bird with silver accents, a couple of brass llamas, a wonderful carved gourd… Some from Tina’s childhood in Peru, some from our trip there in 2007

A Royal Copenhagen mug
A wedding gift from Tina’s Danish aunts, uncles and cousins in Denmark.

A carved stone bear with an ivory fish in its mouth
We bought it in Ketchikan Alaska

A cheap plastic pig… complete with lipstick
It sits on top of my computer monitor

Each item starts to define who we are… where we and our ancestors have been… A history of us

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