Monday Meandering - 7.15.2019

Today's post came together from several directions - and surprised me in the process. I'll explain.

I have posted recently about Barb and I giving some effort to clearing out some of the accumulated stuff that fills our closets and shelves. The most visible result of that effort has been a marked and noticeable clearing of bookshelves. Barb has dedicated herself to that task and weekly hauls sacks of books (that have been gathering dust for years) to Half Price. Family pictures have taken their place and I must say it is a nice improvement.

I have been less industrious with the clutter of stuff in my computer room/office/sound studio, but I am making some progress. Most of my detritus just gets tossed in the trash or recycling. There's still some "family heirloom" type stuff to deal with - like, for instance, my father's glass Easter Egg.

 

It is a milk-glass, hand-blown, decorated Easter egg, about 6 inches long. The naval anchor is embossed and gilded. The word "Easter" is painted on the egg, but is almost entirely rubbed off at this point. You can find similar eggs that look very much like this on E-Bay, listed from $12 to $100, depending on condition,

The story behind the egg is that it was a gift - the earliest gift my father remembered - from a neighbor lady. And what to do with it has been weighing on me for some time. I have some other "heirloom" items that I will dispose of with little or no emotional baggage, but the egg was a conundrum.

Barb mentioned the egg at her weekly ladies brunch, and one of our friends spoke up and said, "I collect eggs of all types, I would love to have it." Problem solved. She asked me to provide the background - what I knew about the egg, and here's what I told her.

"Joyce,

My father, Jessie Leon Anderson, was born July 15, 1907 in Johnson County, Texas, one and a half miles east of Cleburne on the old Grandview Road. He lived much of his early life at that location, in a two-room house situated on 15 acres of a sandy loam fruit and vegetable garden that provided the family income.

He described the egg as the earliest gift he recalled, given to him "a neighbor lady who taught first grade." He later said that near-by neighbors included "Mr and Mrs Homer Curtis - a Civil War veteran and his wife, who baked good cookies, and their spinster daughter, Miss Emma, who taught school in small country schools."

So the egg was probably a gift from Emma Curtis, likely his first grade teacher."

And the surprise? I'm writing this on Sunday, and when I went to schedule it to be posted on Monday morning, the posting date was July 15. My fathers date of birth, 112 years ago.