Heirlooms

     Heirlooms are very important not only to me, but to my family as well. Most times, heirlooms can be a very great thing. These items or memories/stories that are passed down from generation to generation give us an insight as to what has happened in the past. Some of the stories that are passed down might tell us why we are the way we are today or maybe even why our family is the way it is. Stories aren't the only things that are considered an heirloom. Most heirlooms are physical items that you are able to touch. To me, these types of heirlooms are most important because I am a very hands-on type of person. So being able to see and touch and maybe even read about my family and how my ancestors lived their lives would interest me more. I feel like I give the saying "Curiosity killed the cat" a whole new meaning. I say this because I am very curious about everything I hear about or see. I love to get to know more about a certain topic, especially the way that my ancestors chose to live before me.

     One of the heirlooms that has been passed down from my 5 times great grandfather is a bible. This bible is worn and tattered all around the edges. The way that the heirloom is passed down is the youngest in the family is the one that gets to keep this heirloom until it is time to pass it down again. My mom currently has the bible sitting on top of our fire place mantle. Once it is time for my mom to pass the heirloom, I will get the honors of keeping it and giving it to my youngest child. In this bible, every family member that has got to keep it signs the very first page and puts their birthdate and the date it was passed on. The second heirloom that is passed throughout my family is a wooden chest that my 3 times great grandfather and grandmother built themselves, by hand, in Germany. This set of grandparent were both good working with their hands. That grandfather is the one who actually taught my granddad how to work with his hands and kind of live off of the land. Another heirloom is my granddad. I'm not saying that he gets passed from generation to generation, but he is a great source for story telling. I look up to my granddad in so many different ways. Usually girls lean more toward the grandma, but not me. My granddad would always put me to bed with one of his stories. I always thought that these stories were just made up, but as I got older I realized that he was just telling me about our family history, little by little.

     My great grandma Maggie was another grandparent that I was very close with. She loved to collect anything that had to do with angels. I always loved going to her house to play with all of her figurines and trinkets. Though the one thing that I loved to play with most was a snow globe that had an angel in a praying position on the inside. This particular snow globe also played music. My Great grandma Maggie got so tired of me coming over and asking for it every day that she just gave it to me to keep. To this day, I still fall asleep to the lullaby that plays out of that snow globe. This is one of the heirlooms that I would like to be passed down to my children, then their children, and so on. I feel like this snow globe allows me to keep in contact with her even though she passed away a few years ago. I hope that my kids and future generations will care about heirlooms and legacies as much as I do. Those future generations will be the one to really see that changes in the world.