HERITAGE: Weekly Photo Challenge

Heritage

Ben H at WordPress says “This week, share a photo of something that says “heritage” to you. It can be from your own family or culture — a library, a work of public art, a place of worship, an object passed down to you from previous generations.”

Mary Alta Kerr Hendricks my paternal grandmother. Farmersville, Illinois. She taught me to knit when I was four years old.

She knit the Afghan and made the quilt. She. Luke tat snd crochet, too. I held the quilt to the window so the light could show how beautifully it is pieced snd stitched.

My father Roy J. Hendricks is the boy standing on the left. Uncle Alan Hendricks is the baby on my grandmother’s lap. My grandfather is standing, Floyd Merle Hendricks.

Maura in the Mirror

Mirror is the Weekly Photo Challenge so I’m interrupting the Northwest Vacation Series to post my favorite mirror photo.  Maura is going to be eight come November- her baby photo  makes me smile. Time passes at a rapid rate which is what old people always said to me but now I am understanding what they were advising me when I was young.  The baby blanket belonged to her mother Erika when she was a baby.  I always like the heirlooms passed on to another generation.

 

Maura in the Mirror

Wedding China Curves

Anyone who knows me, knows I like dishes.  Different patterns for different occasions. I used to want twelve different patterns, a place setting of each, for a mix and match dinner party.

These  two photos were taken the weekend of April 8, 2016, Anna and Aric’s Austin, Texas wedding.

(You might remember Champ the ring bearer)

This week’s photo challenge from Cheri Lucas Rowlands is CURVE

My friend Joanne,  mother of the bride, was showing me the fine China she brought to the wedding.  Wrapped up carefully and boxed in the back of her car. She had moved it from Omaha to Florida.

Here is the story of the plates-  The pink and gold Lenox fine China plates were from Carolin, a dear friend and neighbor where they used to live in Omaha.  She has since passed but years ago,  Carolin was moving, she gave Joanne the plates to save for her daughter, Anna. Anna had worked for her in high school.

“Antoinette Pink pattern #M356/262, introduced in 1937 and discontinued in 1974”

 

The smaller plate is made by Rosenthal  but we don’t have the name of the pattern.  Joanne bought those at an estate sale in Nebraska.

When I got married (42 years ago) people still selected a China pattern, service for twelve, I already had my grandmother’s silver flatware but I think people were selecting silver patterns, too. Nowadays it is mostly stainless steel flatware.

 

curved fine china platter 2

 

 

curved fine china plate

Just this week, my sister sent me an article Oh, for keepsakes! What to do with Grandma’s China by Carolyn Hax of the Washington Post about how children of today’s world don’t care to inherit Grandmother’s dishes.

My own daughter houses my grandmother’s delicate Haviland china.  I doubt she’s used them.  I love to set a table with pretty china and yes, we know that the gold can’t go into a microwave. In fact,  fine china can’t go into a microwave either but there’s something lovely about a pretty plate set on a tablecloth that makes the meal a celebration. I even like washing and handling china, thinking of the good time everyone had at a special dinner.  Clearly I am old fashioned. Clearly old.

Joanne served an ice cream dessert in a China tea cup to a young visitor. The little girl was delighted.  Joanne’s mother said I never would have thought to use it for anything except a cup of tea. Joanne said a first course of soup in a cup and saucer with a side of cheesestraws is lovely, too.

 

Handmade Lace and Toile du Juoy

Thursday afternoon, my friend Barbara showed me a pretty pillow she had made at Alterations Express.  She used fabric from her mother. her grandmother’s handmade lace and her special pillow.

When I saw the fabric I said,”Oh, my friend Joanne gave me a knitting bag made of something similar and it’s French and has pastoral scenes.” but I couldn’t remember the term and had to look it up-

  Toile du Jouy

(and here is a link to a blogpost about the history of toile)

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Barbara went and got a box with beautiful pieces of lace, created by her grandmother, Josephine Cinquegranni DiGalbo (b. 1890) Notice the blue edge on the lace.

I looked at the lace with admiration. Such expert craftsmanship and beauty. I asked Barbara is she had a photograph of her grandmother.

IMG_5774Barbara’s Grandparents, Angelo and Josephine, on their wedding day.

Her grandmother’s town of origin was Castlebuono, Sicily. The photograph was  taken on Butler Street in Lawrenceville, a Pittsburgh neighborhood.

And here is a photo of their daughter, Mary Ann, Barbara’s mother. I had the pleasure of knowing her and remember her for her kindness to my children.

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And here are some of the lace specimens, her grandmother’s pattern books and crochet hook were in the box, too.

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A note in Barbara’s mother’s hand about the lace.

After a Day of Football Watching

My son-in-law James and Penny the Golden Doodle, exhausted!  James was happy with the results of two games (Ohio State and Auburn winning)  and said he didn’t care much about the last one- USC and UCLA.  He gave me permission to blog the two of them resting on the couch.  Laura had already headed to bed.

I went down the street to photograph a crazy Christmasy house lit up full force but they’d flipped the  off switch early and gone to bed. Thought that would have been good for the Let There Be Light challenge part two.

The pink afghan covering James has a label in it from my father’s mother Mary Alta Hendricks, who knit it in 1976 at age 84.

Born in 1892.  That was a long time ago.

I’d been knitting all evening while the games were on. Earlier in the day,  my granddaughter Anna and my daughter Laura had been knitting as we all sat on the same couch.  Passed down four generations. There’s another afghan my grandmother knit from Bobbie, she sent it to Laura and James.

Tonight I am in the guest room at Laura and James’ sleeping under a quilt my grandmother stitched.

Thinking of family as the holiday weekend comes to a close.  Grateful for all the love passed down.

Thinking of those nearby and those no longer with us on earth, just in our hearts.

Penny and James

James and Penny are exhausted

QuiltQuilt stitched by my grandmother Mary Alta Hendricks