the PA experience

okay......so here is the story of our travels to Pennsylvania....

what beautiful scenery as we traveled through the Appalachian states....and we got to see freshly fallen snow.....a beautiful site to me, who misses the site of snow since i am from iowa.....tho my husband really doesn't miss it one little teeny weeny bit...

so..........we made it from GA to PA in 11 hrs.....good timing......we had many things to accomplish while there, among one of them was the quite overwhelming task of cleaning out cupboards, closets, trunks, spaces and more spaces... boxes and more boxes... of a wonderful life in Larry's childhood home
Larry's mother is now in a nursing home, and his brother and wife...Lee and Julie......have recently decided to move into the house with Larry's dad, because he, too, now needs some assistance and looking after......


but of course, that means the removal of the old to replace with the new belongings.......and let's just say.......THEY THREW NOTHING AWAY........and i do mean NOTHING!..........thus a huge burn pile accumulated in the basement during this process!!!

we DID, however, have to really be careful of anything that went into the burn pile......because..........every once in a blue moon minute.......MONEY was found in the most unusual places!!!

we even found a check Larry had written his mom in the 80's, which she had never cashed!!! we contemplated trying to cash it......then thought that might be scandalous or something so decided against it! ;-)

so amongst the heaps of goodies, as in the picture below:

we found many, many, many interesting, albeit surprising, suffice it to say SHOCKING things........all the following pictures are from the bedroom!





can you believe how cool these items are in the above pics???.....they are very very old........unfortunately, due to a stroke, Larry's mother cannot tell us the history or from whence they came........so we can only imagine and guess.....but i would guess them to be constructed in the late 1800's or early 1900's........we have considered giving them to a museum......i am sure they were quite prestigious attire in days of old!

so after going thru all the dressers and the closet and the....well...i would say at least 25 pair of shoes, still in the original shoe boxes on the closet shelf.......(incidentally...cash was found in a shoebox!)......we found some really really cool vintage shoes and matching pocketbooks.....i am wishing we had kept a sample or two from the "collection".......but, we didn't.......boo hoo.......

we then went on to explore the BLANKET CHEST.........Julie said there were quilts in there......i had never looked inside, tho i guess i could have a zillion times because the chest used to always be in the room we stayed in previously........and when she said QUILTS my eyes LIT UP! i have always wanted a "real" quilt.......one that had been quilted and sewed upon on the old time quilting stands, or whatever they are called......many years ago i would watch a group of quilters do their exquisite stitches as they worked together in Larry's grandmother's house to finish a quilt......

well....i have never had THAT kind of a quilt......except for ONE.......my great grandmother made me a beautiful one that i used as my childhood blanket....and i have it still to this day.......but it literally is in SHREDS.....


so excitedly we throw open the massive, well built cedar chest and here are some things we see:



is this not the sweetest little thing ever? it is a baby robe.....obviously a girl's robe.....in almost perfect condition....it was made out of a kind of heavy feltish type material.... very soft.......again, we don't know it's history.........i am guessing it was probably Larry's mother's baby robe.....and obviously not used too much......

we then eyed the above beauty! it was a very very old apron.......older than vintage.....obviously it was long enough to accomodate the long skirts of days past.......with obviously homemade crochet work on it......it was stunning!

THEN!!!!

we proceeded to the next layer....where there were the wonderful quilts! i do not have pics of them.....except for this little vintage quilt that probably was on either Larry or Lee's baby bed......altho....i do wonder about the pink in it! ha........it just doesn't look old enough for it to be his mother's baby quilt......

as we were lifting quilt after quilt.........the following scene unfolded!

i looked down into the chest, as we were nearing the bottom.....and i SCREAMED!.....and i SCREAMED again.......but somewhere in the midst of the last scream.....my mind told me the "varmint" was NOT alive.......and i had a mental picture of what it was......but it all happened so fast....as i fell down at the side of the chest, screaming, laughing, and choking pretty much all at the same time.......Julie quickly came to see what was causing my hysterical behaviour........and OBVIOUSLY she had NO mental picture of WHAT it was.......and she threw her hands in the air......she practically LEAPED over the bed and RAN down the hall....SCREAMING....no.....SHRIEKING at the TOP of her lungs..... which sent me deeper into hysterical screaming turned to laughter!!!!!!

and here is what we saw:

do you know what it is?????....it is a MINK stole!!!!... yup.........someone wore that horrid thing around their NECK!!!...and i bet they wore it quite proudly too! i am guessing it belonged to Larry's grandmother......in fact, i almost think i recall seeing it in a picture......will have to research that one out!!

......PEOPLE! the eyeballs are still there!!!.......in all my livin days...i cannot imagine wearing a thing like that....no matter HOW prestigious!!!!

needless to say........we had many a good laugh after that experience...and after we got our heartbeat's back to normal!

i will leave you with the last photo of the night.......let's just call it....

"Granny's Panty's"

.....or more than likely....

"Great Granny's Panty's"