When I was a little girl growing up with two older brothers, going to my grandparents' house (my mom's parents) always brought a mixed reaction from me. My grandparents lived in Pocahontas, Arkansas (and my grandfather lives there still) and while my brothers were both "all boy" and found all sorts of trouble to get into when they weren't having loads of fun outside, I did not particularly care for the outdoors in Arkansas--grasshoppers, snakes, bees and mosquitoes were just not my thing. So while I did not enjoy that aspect of our annual visits, I did look forward to one thing with true delight: the opportunity to play with my grandmother's salt and pepper shaker collection.
It is clear to me now that my grandmother's collection continued to grow long after I outgrew my desire to play with them as a means of passing the time; and in fact after the collection changed hands it probably grew even further. When my grandmother passed away, the entire collection was transferred into my mother's possession, and while I don't recall if she had any great desire to have them for herself, her ultimate goal was to assure that I would one day inherit them because she knew all too well my passion for them as a little girl.
Now, as I say, this collection went from being able to be displayed on three very small shelves in my grandmother's built-in hutch to requiring its own curio cabinet to do justice to the various pieces. And since my mother was a collector herself (she amassed a HUGE number of decorative turtles from places far and near), I think she decided one collection on display was enough, so the salt and pepper shakers remained packed in their boxes. If I am not mistaken, those salt and pepper shakers went from Texas to New York to North Carolina, back to New York and on to Kansas and finally came to rest in Colorado where they resided when my mother passed away in 2004.
My dad was prepared to give the salt and pepper shakers to me before we left to come back to Ohio after my mom's funeral, but we flew with all the kids and it was too much trouble to try to lug two big, heavy (not to mention EXTREMELY fragile) boxes along with the other assorted paraphernalia that always seemed to accompany us wherever we went (remember, Sawyer was only four months old at the time so we were loaded down with baby stuff alone).
Finally, after what seemed like forever, last year when we went to Texas for my aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary celebration, my dad brought the boxes with him in the hopes that he could finally unload them and free up some of his basement space! Unfortunately, because we were taking an extended vacation for roughly twelve days, we were packed for twelve days and had no extra room to spare in the van--we even purchased one of those luggage holders that you put on the top of your vehicle in an effort to have just a little extra breathing room in the van. We certainly didn't have room for two huge cardboard boxes!
To make an extremely long story short (no, come to think of it, I still have quite a bit to tell), I can't remember exactly when but it seems like it was sometime in the winter that my sister-in-law, Jamie, finally shipped the salt and pepper shakers to us and was able to free up HER dining room, where the boxes had been sitting since our visit. Hooray! My salt and pepper shakers! I finally have my beloved salt and pepper shakers! That was a great day--I still remember how we dropped whatever it was we were supposed to be doing and we tore into those boxes, and the kids had a field day unwrapping the newspaper and revealing one after another of the cutest/prettiest/funniest/cleverest/quirkiest salt and pepper shakers you've ever seen! Now I am not the proud owner of a curio cabinet but I was determined that I was going to display my collection, so I immediately emptied the one cabinet I have in the kitchen with a glass front, and I carefully placed every last shaker on those shelves--and what a ridiculous waste of time that was because you couldn't see any but the ones right in front on each shelf--maybe ten sets in all.
And now we come to the point of this painfully long post . . . you realize what had to be done, right? After ALL this time, after ALL the waiting, after FINALLY being able to display my precious salt and pepper shakers that hold so many wonderful memories for me (and I don't have that many vivid memories left) . . . I had to pack them all back up. This is so not adequate but all I can say is, "UGH!!!!!" I started unloading the shelves a few days ago and Darcy was immediately all over that--she climbed up on the counter and cleared out everything while I transferred each piece to the dining room table. I then got her a stack of newspaper and she went to town, tearing and rolling and folding and packing. I wasn't watching the clock but I feel like she spent an hour or more working all by herself, and when she finally asked to take a break because her back was hurting, she'd filled half a box (GREAT!) but you couldn't even tell that she'd made a dent in the collection (not great). And yep, this was all right before we had to leave for the weekend--whoops!
This morning Darcy got up feeling achy all over--headache, stomachache--and I hated to leave her alone all morning, so I missed Bible class but left her sleeping in her bed long enough to go to worship. We were supposed to stay for a spaghetti supper fund-raiser and then head to a birthday party for the one-year-old son of our LIFE Group hosts and friends, so I left Randy and Tyler at the supper and took Peyton and Sawyer home with me. Then Randy and Tyler came and picked up Sawyer for the party, and by that time Darcy was feeling better. I decided I couldn't put off finishing the s & p task any longer--after all, we couldn't even have a family meal until the dining room table was cleared off--so I asked the girls if they wanted to help me finish up. Peyton, a.k.a. The Peacemaker, went around the table sorting the shakers and asking us our preferences: "Who would like to wrap the wagon wheel?" "Darcy, would you like to wrap this puppy?" "Okay, we've got milk bottles in a red basket and milk bottles in a blue basket; Mom, I'm giving you the red because it's your favorite color." Meanwhile, we listened to the High School Musical soundtrack twice and in no time, we were finished!
Here's a picture of the entire collection--it's not a very good picture because you can't really tell how packed together the shakers are, especially in the middle. This was no small task, I can assure you! And I think I can safely say that these suckers aren't coming back out of their boxes until I have a curio cabinet of my own!
P.S. To anyone who actually read this story all the way through, you deserve a medal! Thanks for sticking with me!
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