[susannah59]

That's a marvelous Christmas present.

I have a very few old things from my family, not many. My mother used to have some old quilts her mother had made from feed sacks. I don't know what happened to them; I'd love to have them. I do have a quilt her oldest sister made for me and gave me when I got married, 31 years ago (I wrote letters to my aunt on a regular basis when I was a teenager).

I don't have daughters, only sons. I know which one I want to get certain things, because I know which one will appreciate the value of their being family things. I'm writing down where certain things came from, and what I remember about them, as well as telling him about them.

Merry Christmas!

[skr]

A good idea and with photos and family artwork, too. The history is something that is easily lost.

[Red Badger]

I am betting those quilts were made from flour sacks, not feed sacks. Feed sacks would have been made from burlap, much too coarse for a quilt. ...

[mamelukesabre]

I’ve got a huge old full length sheepskin coat that was my grandfather’s. It fits if I roll down the cuffs on the sleeves(the sleeves are a bit short). I wore it two winters in a row about 15 years ago. I have no idea what it would cost to buy a new one like it and I’m scared to ask.

My house is full of stuff like this.

[Viking2002]

Tonight, my 72-year-old mother fixed a ham in a covered metal roasting pan that her mother owned before my mother was born. It had so many years of baked on this-and-that coating the lid, I told her it would be a cultural crime if anyone ever tried to clean it. When the sad day comes that it changes hands, it will be mine, and it'll be used with all the reverence it's due.