Every family has them. Items that are seemingly insignifigant, that could be replaced, but because of everyday use over time become our friends. An example: I started using a clear plastic measuring cup to rinse my contact lenses. I was 16. It went to college with me, and along on any trip I ever took for lots of years. I don't wear the lenses anymore, and the cup has a crack so it can't hold liquids. It still sits on the shelf with the dishes. I can't throw it away.
Another: There's one fork that I like to eat with that makes everything just taste better. It's history began before my wedding. These were the days you could do your weekly grocery shopping and pick a reward according to how much you spent - like a dish or a piece of silverware. When I got married my Dad gave me a full set of silverware that he had been saving for me. Over the years, bit by bit, pieces got lost. Several disappeared after a Drop Inn Center Pot Luck. One got lost under a bed for a long time. A spoon got run over and flattened by my car. (That happened the afternoon I let SIE eat a bowl of Cheerios while sitting on the hood of the jeep. Later that day as I drove down the road I saw the bowl riding on the hood and wondered how far I could get with it remaining on the hood. My fault! I forgot about the spoon! It fell out at the first stop sign and was as flat as the gravel of the road when I found it) One lonely fork remains. My favorite.
Another companion is "The French Glass". This is a glass our family found under the cushion of our new used car one summer day between 1977 and 1984. You know how most glasses have a life expectancy and break after a couple years? This one has never broken. It is the best glass for Coke or vanilla milkshakes or ice water. When this glass finally breaks it will be a significant omen.
My last example is the reason I'm writing this blog entry. One day long ago, I was walking with a baby in a stroller. I think it was kaliedoscope girl. We used to do a lot of strolling and "window shopping" when she was little in OTR. On this day I saw a tiny sterling silver rosary in a pawn shop window. The next day we went in and asked how much it cost. Ten dollars, a lot for me to spend. A couple days later we went back and bought it and everyday since then I've kept it in my pocket. At night I usually pop it on my next day clothes or on the sink. It's gone through the washer and lost beads. I've repaired the links many times. This week the rosary slipped as I was putting it on the sink and it went down the drain. I was torn - too tired to fish it out of the drain, but fearing this would be the demise of a dear companion.time. I couldn't deal with it. I rattled the drain plug to see if it had gotten hooked. Then thinking it might stay in the drain loop under the sink if I didn't run the water, I went to bed hoping I wouldn't forget. Such drama. The next day the plumbing operation was successful. The rosary has returned to my pocket. Phew!
I want to know - what objects are companions for you?
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I have a little wooden box filled with pins that Mom wore. Each seems so distinctly her: worn with scarves, on the lapels of blue blazers, flashing as she walked the hospital floors to visit patients. I've never been a pin person, but I can't give them away.
ReplyDeleteI have a few companion paintings that make each place I've lived since college feel like 'home'. In Baltimore, I painted one wall in my 'office' cobalt blue, just to highlight my copy of a Picasso painting.
So many companions.
ReplyDeleteSo much of my jewelry was given to me by other people. I have your old black earrings that are like the entire galaxy. I have your mothers watch. I have a small heart necklace that dad gave me when I was six. I like to wear that necklace on one chain and then at the same time wear a strand that has a joan of arc medal that liv got me and a st Anthony that I got in padua, which always makes me think of Andrew but is not really quite right. I like to wear different pieces when I am doing different things so that I can bring the different people in my life with me. I usually wear the black earrings when I am doing something art related that I’m dressing up for, so that you can come along. And I like to wear grandma’s watch when I’m doing something really ritzy, because even though I didn’t really know her, I feel like she’d get a kick out of these different places. I also have a jacket that has stars from granddad as well as a small mary from you. I can’t believe I haven’t lost any of them yet, and I will be so sad if I ever do. I also have different jewelry boxes for all of the different things and each one reminds me of a different time in my life. Including one that is only a small round tupperware that I took to the beach once, and has since become a permanent part of the collection.
My coffee cups are kind of like my jewelry. I have tons of them and hardly any of them match, but I like to use them in different moods and to remind me of different people. There is always one that is my current favorite, but it changes depending on how I’m making my coffee I guess. I have a tiny cup that lisa made me and my lip fits perfectly on the rim, so it is often my favorite, but it doesn’t hold much coffee, so if I’m not feeling patient, I have to use something bigger. I have the old buffalo china cups, and for awhile I was collecting those, so I have several of those. But those don’t hold much either. And I have your old white cup, or it might just be a lookalike, but when I drink out of that one it reminds me of the first time I had coffee it was in that cup and I thought it was coke because there was ice in it. SO disgusting.
I have a photo/mirror that belonged to granddad that has a picture of your mother and you and uncle rob in it. The original photo also had him in it, but he cut himself out. The other side is a mirror, and whether or not it’s true, you told me that he took it to war with him and it was his shaving mirror. I have always kept it on my dresser. I'm sort of shocked this hasn't broken in all of my moves, but it is more shocking that it didn't break if it really did get used as a shaving mirror.
I have a little framed picture of wonder woman as well as a framed picture of myself dressed up as a princess when I was a kid that liv gave me for encouragement maybe in college and I always put those up in my house. And I have a picture of liv, jodessa and I as kids that I always put up in my bedroom.
I have an orange strainer that I bought on ebay when I got my first apartment on my own in NY, and I love it so much. My fiend hope asked if she could use it while I was in graduate school, and I felt like I was being unreasonable, but I had to say no because I was afraid I wouldn’t get it back. I also have a glass teapot that I also bought when I first moved to NY, but it is too small to fit on our stove burners (which are extra large it seems to me) and so I can’t use it again until we move. When we were in paris this summer I bought a small blue glass bowl that I love because it reminds me of the French glass, I guess just because it is also French, but is also from the same era.
I have your old utility knife and I don’t know how I could function without it. It doesn’t retract and anyone that ever uses it thinks that it is the worst knife because of that, but it is absolutely the best. It is heavy but still the perfect weight. And I have a pair of little bird scissors that you gave me that I always use when I sew, and I think of them as an heirloom because you had ones like them (that maybe belonged to your mother?).
I have a little tiny jewelry box that for years has had nothing in it but a sojourner truth button and a “perfect time to support the arts” button from the mapplethorp scandel. I think it has just enough room for an obama button, and I spent a lot of time during the campaign picking out which one it would be.
I have a little hologram that was on a matchbook at andrew’s house that I have kept in my wallet since we lived there. There is a man playing the bongos and a woman dancing. Someone told me it wasn’t politically correct once, and I guess I can see that, but I still love it, and I pull it out ever now and then and it makes me smile.
I'm so excited to get such wonderful comments! Thank you guys!
ReplyDeleteI wondereed what happened to those black earrings! I think that because we had no money, objects became very important to me. Most of my art thesis was about how we put so much importance into objects. A lot of ourselves because of the memories they hold. I, of course save everything, and each object has it's own story. One of my favs is a small metal box from Granddad. Jewelry is cooll too, but most of the special stuff I hang on a wwall, just to look at!
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