Does getting older always mean looking to the past? I don’t. I look to the future but now have and have given antique items.
I will never be the gal with doilies over the sofa, forget even talking about sitting on plastic to protect something one has never enjoyed for forty years.
Several months ago we bought my husband’s mother a 1957 Italian Necche Supernova sewing machine, gorgeous, first zig zag in the world. Now its’ former owner, in pre-spring cleaning, has found more pieces to the puzzle, as if what she gave wasn’t enough.
Live long enough and be good to people and things might come around. Last week I received a gift from my husband, a humidifier. Our few year-old plastic one flaked and started leaking from the electrical outlet, a hazard.
This is a glass bottle (sans stand) with a bakelite top, no screw or base to handle, and it gets hot. I would never hazard it with kids, although my parents had one when I was a kid, not this type or model. It is a danger to children and pets. Our dog Zoe went up to it and immediately decided it was not of interest, so that’s good.
Sometimes all the plastic we manufacture with technonogical upgrades, don’t really make the grade. Spending an hour cleaning a Venta with Q-Tips and hydrogen peroxide is not a good time.
The 1957 sewing machine works for its new owner, M, and now has extra parts and information. The new 1950’s vaporizer works well as I learn the tricks to use it. Kudos to my husband for finding us vintage items that work.
We have some antiques, a few crafted by family. New is not necessarily better. We have newer and ancient quilts, art created by an artist who started at age 80 (my father), and two numbered lithos of Tuscany that I spent $150 to frame and it was worth it, from a consignment store ten years ago. It was $4 for the pair of lithos.
I’ve been married a long while and always invite singles because I was one and was dismissed. People get married and want sets of furniture and everything. If you’re smart, young people, take what your parents give you from theirs and their parents and make good use of it. Even the pictures will give you years of joy, comfort and solace. It’s called being eclectic. Perhaps eccentric if you push the boundaries.
My husband says many homes and sites must be torn down. I am more of the restore category of home improvement. No plans for demo and reconstruction of any new property now. We’re going day to day and hope that everything works out. We’re older, too, and think we’re designed to be elegant, useful and live somewhere together, of course. Dee
Cooking with Dee 