Family Treasure

My husband and I have both inherited family treasures too precious dispose of or sell. After my Grandmother died I had nightmares for months that I allowed something that had been valuable and important to her to slip though my fingers and end up at the Goodwill or worse, in the trash.
This is why I don't have a couch in my living room, instead, I have five nice chairs in a sitting arrangement around a coffee table and five endtables. (It's strange, I know, but kind friends and family tell me it works. I nod and pretend to believe them.) I wouldn't mind getting rid of one of those useless little end tables, but the rumor is that my Grandfather may have made one or two of them. I have every intention of passing as much of this on to my children as soon as they move out and are reasonably responsible adults. They are more than welcome to their share of Grandma's elephant collection, a stiff old chair, and an end table. And look at that: I have enough for everyone.
My husband brought some family heirlooms with him too. As his wife it has been my duty to slowly winnow away the necessary from the unnecessary. Thankfully he had no sentimental posters of Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Although, a red and yellow Iron Man poster is still waiting to be hung in a private corner of husband's future artist studio. Among my husband's collection is this two inch long Golden Chili Pepper. Who was the person who decided a chili pepper would make a great charm for a gold necklace? I would love to meet that person, wouldn't you?
My husbands generous brother gave him another family heirloom that is apparently worth a lot of money. Brother in law sujested we sell this to pay some of our bills. But it is a precious family heirloom. How could we dare? Made in Panama, it's folk art describing a strange fish caught in the local river. It was given to the family while stationed on the Panama canal. I can only admire the skill that went into making the piece. Yeah, that is what I admire.
So, this is the challenge. Do you have any strange family heirlooms? I dare you to post a picture. This is not a meme. It is a dare. A challenge. A quest to find the strangest thing in your house that you just can't part with. Now, go do it.

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13 comments

  1. I can't post a photo, but I will tell you about it.
    It is a nut cracker. A hand carved wooden one. In the shape of lady who wears no clothes. You can image I'm sure the legs. That is where you put the pecan and ... well I'm sure you get the picture. It is from WW2 Europe some where I think.
    It is put up.
    see no photo needed.

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  2. Paige, My Grandma has something like that, allthough I think she has clothes on, and it is also WW2 eara and made of wood. As a child it frightened me.

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  3. I have NO family heirlooms, and I'm a little jealous that you do. ;-)

    My mom is completely unsentimental about material things, plus when one set of my grandparents died one of my aunts (out of 6 kids) got everything, and it's doubtful anyone else will see any of it. My other grandmother is still living, and I'm very happy about that. So, all I have is junk. I could happily throw it all on a truck and send it away. :-)

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  4. I'll have to see if my wife has anything left of her mother's or sister's. We've done a lot of weeding out over the last year, so I'm not sure...

    It's good that the gold thing was a chili pepper. I initially thought it was a slug. In my defense, I know nothing about your birth families (well, except some about Trespasser William's). A gold slug would be among the least weird that has been passed on my mother's family side.

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  5. heirlooms are so so special..thanks for sharing hun and for droppin by at my site!

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  6. Anonymous7:47 PM

    yes but mine isn't weird or anything. It's just an old phone.

    so, at first I thought that was a golden slug?

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  7. So your all saying these are the strangest family treasures?? I can't believe it.
    Slugs, although common, are usually not so skinny.

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  8. Anonymous6:28 AM

    Was that a picture of a golden slug?

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  9. I have no heirlooms, sadly enough.

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  10. The only strange family heirloom we have is the land our house sits on. It belonged to The Man's mom and dad.

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  11. As his wife it has been my duty to slowly winnow away the necessary from the unnecessary.

    This is why the garage is sacred land.

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  12. I too thought it was a golden slug all stretched out on its way somewhere in a hurry. My grandmother also collected elephants, but near the end of her life she just wanted everyone to stop giving her elephants for every occasion! I never got an elephant. I have her silver (not 100% silver) a painting she did, a mandolin of my grandfather's and a stool he made. I have a pair of really ugly ceramic dogs my Dad gave me when I was a child, and I don't throw them away because of the memory attached of him giving it to me. I will try to find them both and take a picture one of these days.

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  13. I have a few things that belonged to my dad and a couple of things that belonged to his first wife (who died before he met my mom) like birth certificates for her children from a marriage before my dad. Why Daddy ended up with those, I have no idea. But he kept them in a certain "special" photo album, so we keep them.

    I wasn't thinking "slug" but I was really wondering what it was. I sure didn't think golden chili pepper.

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