Grandma and the Drawers

At one house I was considered a snoop; at Grandma's house, I was simply curious. And thinking about it now, I'd like to take a lesson from her today in growing a child's curiosity. Grandma let me (and my siblings, I'm sure) go through nearly every drawer in her house and look. Look but not touch! And look, I did.

Playing with my neighborhood friends got boring sometimes, so there was always exploring at Grandma's to pass the time. The living room furniture drawers were full of little books and random photo slides that my Grandfather took and left in there to look at periodically. Curled black & white photos were in those drawers, too, mostly of my Grandfather's relatives who were long gone by the time I started my snooping in earnest. The dining room was the least engaging to me--no hidden meanings there. The drawers were full of all the items taken out for various holidays--napkins, little Pilgrim, Christmas items, Easter items.

The basement furniture and cabinets were full of more of these photos, as well as some hidden chests down there with clothes, more photos, and objects that simply accumulated during their lifetime. My grandmother's bedroom top drawers--the clothes were of no interest to me--were full of costume jewelry, photos of my mother as a baby and toddler (she was an only child until she came to have step brothers), my mother's baby book, and photos of Grandma's mother (my great-grandmother). The spare bedroom on the main floor housed everything of my great-grandmother's--clothes, jewelry, card games, and her photo albums. That was great fun to go through. 

Upstairs was unused in their older years--so it was a treasure to explore. In the hall was the one piece of furniture brought to the house by my grandfather. It had belonged to his first wife who died at 33, leaving him a widower with a 9-year-old son and a 5-month-old son. This secretary housed a stamp collection, a coin collection (both thought of as boring to me at that time), many photos of this grandmother I never knew, photos of my his sons as children, and various magazines that for some reason were chosen not to be discarded. Another bedroom upstairs had drawers that housed letters written by my uncle to my grandmother and grandfather while he was in the Navy. Now that was insight into the early 1960s! Another room, my favorite bedroom housed books and more books, many of which I have in my house today as well as that antique bedroom set. The last small bedroom had an old manual typewriter in it--I spent countless hours trying to teach myself to type. I'm still learning.

When my grandparents passed away within months of each other 24 years ago, there were a lot of questions from my parents about "where was this or where was that and where do you think they put this or that?" Guess who knew the answers?