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Monday, October 24, 2005

Shakers

Never knowing my Grandmother and being named after her, I decided to trace through a set of salt and peppers shakers to learn about her past.  She collected shakers from all over the world.  She recieved her very first set of shakers from my Grandfather in 1946 shortly after they were wedded.  Since he worked for the railroad he journeyed all over the world and he always brought her back a set of shakers as sourvenirs.  All of her family and friends contributed to her collection and over the years it grew to over 500.  No two sets look the same or come from the same location.  My mother, Marsha, on every weekend would dust the 500 shakers to be beatifully displayed.  She never considered this a burden because my mother loves to rearrange things and make things shine. 

When my Grandmother died in 1989 my Grandfather still kept the shakers displayed and Marsha would drive five hours from Chester to Deer Lodge to clean the shakers.  After thirteen years my Grandfather died in 2002.  This lead to the cleaning and seperating of my Grandparents’ valuables.  Each Grandchild was allowed to take a set of shakers to remember their Grandparents.  As everything was getting serperated into the auction and valuables were being claimed my mother found two boxes in the garage that had her name on it.  As she peered in eyes into the deep containers she revealed over 200 salt and pepper shakers that she had not seen in years.  These shakers had been handed down to her. 

She now proudly displays these shakers and cleans them every weekend just as she did when she was younger.  These shakers I know will be in our family for a very long time.  They will be past down from generation to generation.  My mother and I have already sat down and talked about how these mean something to our family and that one day my two sisters and I will get the chance to display them too.  I don’t know if I will have as much will-power to dust them every weekend but I will always remember by Grandmother, my mother, and my whole family when we were all together. 

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