Recently, my mother decided to go through some of her things.
I was at my sister's house when she said she would be putting some of it in my car.
She was outside for quite some time and when I went out to check on her,
I saw that the backseat of my car was full.
"That's a lot of stuff!" I protested. "Why didn't you put it in the trunk?"
"Because I filled your trunk with other stuff," she said.
"I don't need any crap!" I groaned, looking at my backseat.
"What am I going to do with all of this?"
She claimed not to care, was just glad to get it out of her storage.
I opened my trunk to see...yes, it was full!
"It's family stuff," she said, "I can't very well take it to the second hand store."
I groaned and complained, but later, when I looked in the boxes, I was amazed.
These were filled with some very cool, vintage things.
My great, great, aunt's mother was a milliner (hat maker) in the roaring 20's.
One of the things my mom gave me was a large hat box filled with these
wonderful hats...almost 100 years old and in pristine condition.
Here are some fans, little powder
holders for a vanity, as well as some old bottles
of lotion and perfumed powder.
The round metal holder plays, "On the Street
Where You Live" when the cover is off.
These were from my great, great aunt as well
as some other long-ago female relatives.

Apparently, novelty cocktail
napkins were once the rage.
These have little plastic
miniatures such as a spoon, a
key, a horseshoe, etc. glued on.
These were made in San
Francisco in 1954.
I should mention that my aunt was a "Rosie the Riveter."
Having spent a lifetime developing amazing skills such as dress making, quilt making,
baking, knitting, and crocheting, she left home during World War II and went to work
building ships. She was very proud of this, and kept all of her pay stubs.
Unfortunately, I was not interested in such things when I knew her.
I was a teenager when she died, and during these years, I didn't appreciate that she was a
living history book. She could have told me stories from World War I and World War II.
Twenty years later, I have an assortment of her things, her brother's letters,
and while these tell stories from the past, they are just glimpses of what I missed.

I look at these treasures and wish that instead holding them,
I could instead hold the person who cherished and saved them.
My Great, Great Aunt Genevieve Boyer Hanshaw...
My aunt grew up in an era where women made their own dresses
and stitched quilts in their spare time. She saved every bit of
correspondence she had ever received, each bundle is neatly
tied and organized by the date.

This is the aunt who saved all of her brother,
Herbert Boyer's letters and news clippings from World War I,
some of which I have posted before.