When I was in Burkesville the weekend before last, trying to do some super sneaky research for my barn quilt square, I asked Papa if there were any old cast iron skillets that I could have.  He had mentioned that there might be some in the basement that had come from my great grandparents’ house.  We went down to the basement to investigate.

Well, find a cast iron skillet we did not.  But, we did unearth a bunch of really old stuff.

This is an old hand plane that must have been my great grandfather Daddy Barnie’s.   Papa mentioned that my Dad would probably really like to have this since he is into woodworking.

I’m not really sure how old this is, but I think it’s hilarious.  I need to find out the scoop on this “antique.”

Some of my dad’s old trophies.

8-Track tapes.  This form of technology was phased out before I existed.

This here was Papa’s pointer when he was in the army, training soldiers at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas.   Apparently, if you were in charge, you had a pointer, but not just any pointer.  The body of this pointer is made from a hackberry branch that had been overtaken by a vine, thus leaving it grooved in a spiral shape.  The ends are a bullet and a casing from a 50 caliber machine gun.  I would take that pointer pretty seriously if I were you.

This little contraption is a butter churn.  Mama Bersie, Papa’s mother, made all of her own butter.  Often, it was Papa’s duty to churn the butter, a job he says he did not much care for.

Papa’s report card from a few years back.  Looks like he was a good student.

Papa pulled out Mama Bersie’s trunk and showed me some really neat and REALLY old treasures.

Mama Bersie’s first watch.  This must be at least 75 years old.

Letters that Papa wrote to Mama Bersie and Daddy Barnie while he was in college at the University of Kentucky.  I will have to read these someday.

Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum that Daddy Barnie gave to Mama Bersie when they were “courting.”  This stuff is older than Papa.  I wonder if it still has any flavor…

Papa’s housing fee at UK for the semester: $51.00.  I’m not sure that would cover one night of housing in a dorm these days.

Tuition certainly has gone up over the past 61 years.  There are very few textbooks these days that cost as little as $61.50

This is what Papa really wanted to show me.  It’s Mama Bersie’s blue silk wedding dress from over 80 years ago, ordered from the Sears catalog.  Papa requested that if/when each of us granddaughters gets married that we sew a little piece of Mama Bersie’s dress into ours.  Not only would that be a great treasure on such a special day, but it would be something old, something borrowed, and something blue.   I suppose if we were to sew it into our dresses in a functional way, such as a pocket, it could also be something new, too.

This book belonged to Papa’s uncle Nile, who I believe would have been my great great Uncle.

So I went home without a skillet, but Papa cooked up quite a family history lesson for me.

Y’all come back,

Sugarlump