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[cblj_backup]

I am still going through this box of random stuff my Nan apparently set aside for me. Tonight's prize is actually quite interesting, objectively. It's a set of silverware, and according to the note it belonged to the same Distant Ancestor James to whom the Masonic certificates belong; he brought it over from Scotland in the early 1900s.

I mentioned to Mum that I was going through this box and she immediately told me DON'T THROW ANYTHING OUT. So I assured her I hadn't thrown anything valuable away. Well, it's true, for a given meaning of "truth".

I've kept the important stuff, the silverware and the Masonic documents and some photos. I'll have to share these photos after I scan them in -- they're mostly of my Nan, I think, and there's quite a few of tractors for some reason, but at the top of the pile is a man in a Scots regimental uniform, likely from WWI -- khakis and a kilt, oh lads -- labeled "Douglas". I think he must have been Masonic James's brother; his resemblance to me is a little startling.

The face, not the kilt. Don't go getting ideas.

Anyway, I asked Mum if she wanted the silverware and she said no, keep it there, use it if you want. Which is lovely and all, but that makes four sets of silverware I now own. Mind you, only one of them's real silver, but still. I'm drowning in salad forks.

Comments

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Do you have enough coffee spoons to measure out your life yet?

Old photos are awesome. Awesome.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I HAVE SO MANY COFFEE SPOONS. And for extra long days, iced tea spoons!

[dramaturgca.livejournal.com]

When you say "sets" how many place settings at a time are you discussing?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Well.

There's the set I bought when I got my first apartment, it's been falling apart for a while now but I probably have four simple place settings left. (The handles are plastic, they tend to snap.)

There's the set Mum got me as a housewarming gift in graduate school, that's four place settings. This is the one I use on a daily basis.

There's the set we used when I was little, Mum gave me those when she got a new set a few years ago, that's eight settings plus iced tea spoons and a cheese knife.

And then there's this set, which looks like eight settings if all the pieces are there. So, in total, I'd say about twenty-four settings.

I own eight plates.

[dramaturgca.livejournal.com]

Maybe your mother is trying to tell you that you should host large dinner parties. Like the gastronomic society in Nero Wolfe.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL. I HAVE NO TABLE.

[dramaturgca.livejournal.com]

Gastronomic society picnics.

[fiveforsilver]

My parents tell great stories about hosting dinner parties with no furniture except, like, milk crates or something. Of course, that was the 70s. I'm not sure people would appreciate it these days.

[pghbekka.livejournal.com]

You could build one out of the extra tea spoons!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

"This is my table. It's made of spoons! Entirely of spoons! Mwahahahaha!"

[calliope-jones.livejournal.com]

It has recently been decided in my family that I'll be the next 'history keeper'. My eldest aunt is the current one, and it's fantastic, but she's a hoarder so when it's my turn I'll have SCADS of these mystery boxes to sort. I know for a fact that there is a box containing my graddad's passport from Ireland, his best friend's, and my great-great aunt's. I'm currently in possession of a set of silver that my great-great aunt' acquired' from the rich family she worked for (maid). It's supposedly from their yacht, the M. Rose. Which is cool because my middle name is very close to that, and the silver is engraved with an M.

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

You're drowning in salad forks now. Give it time. Our house, over the course of twenty plus years, has eaten its way through our silverware and cups. My mom had to break down and buy a new set..now our silverware runneth over.

[durayan.livejournal.com]

I am secretly living for the day that my kids are old enough to stop accidentally throwing out salad forks when they clear their plates, so I can buy new flatware.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL. My brother used to do that but Mum always caught him at it :D

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

I think I will always imagine you in a kilt throwing salad forks around now for fun.

Aye, I'll raise a glass of Scotch to that. Which clans are you?

[pghbekka.livejournal.com]

Well great, now I need to watch Mystery men again.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL. It's the salad forks that make the image.

My Nan is the only real Scots blood in the family as far as I know, so we've just the Davidson clan. I quite like their motto though -- Sapienter Si Sincere, "Wisely if Truthfully" :D

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Not quite "As my whimsy takes me" but good! I'm Fraser and MacDonald. "Per marre per terras" is the MacDonald motto. Huh. By sea by land... O_o And the Fraser motto is "All my hope is in God" Good lord.

[valancy-joy.livejournal.com]

YAY old photos. I am currently scanning in a raft of old family photo negatives and have lots of pictures of kids in front of trees (with as my Dad puts it "optional dog") and young men in uniform, or with their feet up on car running boards (or both).

And more useless than lots of salad forks... lot of fish forks. Service for twelve. Now I just need to find 11 other people who like shrimp cocktail...

:D

[strangesequitur]

I don't own any plates that I can eat off of. I do, however, own half each of two sets of prewar fine china and eight place settings of solid sterling silver flatware.

I'm not prepared for any aspect of adult life, unless it involves entertaining the queen.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

But if the queen shows up, by god you are ready!

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

We had to clear my maternal grandparents house out nearly two years ago, just before I moved out myself. I inherited all sorts of awesome stuff, like a typewriter, a full china dinner service (they had three, but I was only allowed to keep one, because my aunt wanted the one that was a wedding gift to them, and my mum thought that two china dinner services was excessive for a 19 year-old), more cutlery than I knew what to do with, including cake forks and a spoon for leaf tea (but my mum 'stole' the pickle fork), a dining table and chairs, an oak desk (which mum has borrowed back, but will be mine one day) and a Welsh dresser.

But what they didn't have was a full set of silverwear. I can barely even match knives to forks.

Mum has already decided that Rick will get my granny's pocket watch, and I, being the eldest child of the eldest child, will get a writing box that belonged to my great, great, great grandfather.

[bluejeans07.livejournal.com]

Steampunk themed dinner party at Sam's place! *packs goggles and booze*

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

HELL YEAH. Gear plates for all!

Goggles And Booze would make a great webcomic.

[taragreen89.livejournal.com]

eerm- I realize your mom wants you to keep everything but if you're desperate to find a good home for some of that stuff, there might be a historical society, or archive in the area that would be interested in some of the masonic stuff etc. (maybe even the silverware depending on when/where its from).

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

The masonic stuff I'd actually like to have mounted and keep, the certificates are quite pretty -- but yeah, I may get rid of some of the silverware. I don't think there's anything ancient enough to count as historical per se, but some collector would probably appreciate it more.

[metallumai.livejournal.com]

here's the way things happen: I read your post about silverware; I say, "AHA, Sam collects silverware; I will give him the lovely old set of Indonesian brass dinnerware that's been lying about here for ages-- HE'LL like it." This will happen oh, say, thirty times or so (you have lots of friends, some of them owners of too much silverware)and before you know it you WILL collect silverware. It happened to me with cream jugs; it happened to my friend Mickey with elephants....

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL. Me and my GIANT SILVERWARE COLLECTION. :D "Forks! Forks everywhere!"

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Put the salad forks in the tote bags and it'll all be okay.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I could build a HOUSE of of them if I did that!

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I bet the Big Bad Wolf wouldn't be able to blow it down, either!

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

Well, you keep the good silver for special dinner guests and supernatural incursions, that's obvious.

I'd love to see the pictures. I've got to scan all the pictures I inherited from my grandmother. So much stuff to go through still. But all of mine is in one mystery box. And it's all photos and papers. I have her last passport too and the letter from the Nuns in Scotland that got my grandfather home when he passed away over there. That's a pretty nifty letter.

:)
Jaydeyn