Recently I was dusting my antique bookcase when I noticed a small label stapled to the bottom drawer. It was dated June, 1898, showing was from the Eaton store in London and being shipped to my grandmother (on my father’s side) in Westmeath. Wow, that antique bookcase has been around in three centuries, making me remember Gordie Howe who played in the NHL in three decades.
This bookcase came in sections all of them darkly varnished. The base included a pull-out drawer. Then there were five individual sections to place on top of the drawer and each other. Their widths varied from 12 inches high to 14 inches and could be assembled in any order. Each section was fitted with a glass front door that that could be fully opened. The hinges themselves squeaked, a subtle reminder that the units were old and special. The curved top section gave it some personality.
My grandmother would be about 150 years if alive. She managed the post office and ran the telephone switchboard in Westmeath for years. When I was really young and we went there for holiday dinners she would bribe me with offers of coins to behave. Once though, it was a dollar bill which sent me into a crying fit – I didn’t understand it was currency too.
The bookcase was given to my father when she passed, then handed down to me. After assembling to my satisfaction, I filled it with books that had a special meaning for me (the ‘A’ books). The bookcase being in the family for so long, I feel privileged it is now mine.
Last week joey Trimm handed me a wooden doll to examine. It was outfitted in a blue uniform. This doll, about a foot tall, was able to be twisted in various positions at its every joint, such as an ankle, shoulder and neck etc. Joey said it had been in the family a long time and had a very interesting beginning.
It was around 1912 in Montreal when tuberculosis was raging and several hospitals were taking in the sick for a period of isolation. It also included isolation for diphtheria. At this time, Lillian Allen, five years of age and an older brother went into “the contagious hospital” as they called it to be isolated for of diphtheria.
Lillian, as you might imagine, was lonely and scared. A male patient with the same problem gave her this wooden doll that I’m holding. Complementing the doll, it was dressed in a sailor’s uniform either the British Navy or the new Canadian one? When released Lillian kept the doll with her even after marriage to Joe Trimm, Joey’s grandfather.
The couple had a son born in 1925 who was presented with the wooden doll a few years later to play with. Dick had a puppy dog that liked to lick the doll. The uniform was torn to shreds and the doll slightly damaged and somewhat discoloured. From that time on the wooden doll was kept out of the reach of children.
Joey’s father Dick took possession of the wooden doll when Dick’s father, Joey’s grandfather sold his house. His mother kept it tucked away in a trunk out of harm’s way. She passed the doll to her son Joey in the summer of 2015.
Joey felt it would be more personable if it had a uniform on. He finally found a woman in Cobden who fabricated a blue one to outfit the doll. The doll was then placed in a curio in a sitting position in its new and safe home.
I have a brass pocket watch that my dad Bill gave me. It belonged to his father, my grandfather, who passed away before I was born. The watch itself has a heavy unusual chain attached. There were no inscriptions to imply how old it was or who else might have owned it.
Bill on occasion would inquire about it. I was worried when it went missing for over a year. I finally found it in a shoe box that held my black leather dress shoes I don’t wear any more. I grabbed the watch and showed Bill, thanking him again for his thoughtfulness.
Keepsakes are anything kept, or given to be kept, as a token of friendship, affection or remembrance.
