OH VANITIES OF VANITIES

Old Trunks always is amazed at how thoughts string together and how one thing can trigger something else. Yesterday, MST brought home three boxes. A relative of his deceased wife went to assisted living in 1993 and her house was packed up by her son. At least we assume it was 1993 because that is the newspaper date in which the items were wrapped. It was time, Bill said, to get rid of the stuff. He had been in to have his glasses adjusted and he and Tom were talking about it. Tom remembered a lamp which belonged to Pat that she let Lee use. When Pat wanted it back, Lee had claimed it. That was the lamp Tom wanted. Instead he got a lovely hurricane lamp and two vanity lamps. The thought process is about vanities. As you can see, the picture on this blog is of a vanity with a lamp on either side of the drop down. This is only a photo found on line, it is not the vanity we had at our house. Mother went to the San in 1949; my grand parents came to live with us. The oak furnishings in the master bedroom were moved to my brother's room. Greg and Daddy shared the master bedroom in twin beds and my grandparent's slept in Greg's room in the Oak double bed. I actually think my parent's had twin beds before this because I remember a lamp melting a spot in the plastic head board but for the sake of the story we leave that alone. So in my brother's room was an oak bed, a chest of drawers, and the vanity. And since my grand parent's never left the room without being dressed, I am guessing grand mother sat on that bench and combed her hair and made ready for the day. Most likely there was a brush and mirror on the step down all nicely placed on a doily she may have made. I don't know what she would have kept in the drawers. Most likely those metal curlers and extra hair nets. But I do think grandma sat at the vanity more than anyone else ever did. In the early fifties, we were living in a house on Kneale Avenue. My grand parent's came to visit. Most likely the idea of the vanity came up and Mother made the decision to give it to them. Greg would have been a teenager and most likely it was thought he didn't need a vanity anymore. Greg came home just about the time they were taking it through the living room and took it back. After all, it was his furniture. He was not smiling. The interesting thing about it is, that vanity disappeared and by the time we got to the farm, it was gone and it was not at my grand parent's house. But mother still put two lamps on a dresser unit with a mirror on the new furniture. I remember the lamps well, they were shaped like a little pitcher with a bowl and had a shade with ruffles out of lace. What I remember most about them was the parakeet liked to sit on the shade and if you ever had a parakeet, you know they crap everywhere. Greg and I were not allowed to crap on the shades, just encase you wondered. Not only did she put two lamps on her dresser but mine as well. At the farm, in town when we moved back in 1960 and lived next door to the Johnson's but also in her house on Kendall where she lived until she deceased. The lamps, by the way offered poor lighting. Just as the ones Tom brought home which as deep rose colored glass with lots of bangles to reflect the light. I have not put a bulb in them yet nor have I washed them and put the bangles on them. They look like 1940. They may be newer. Yet beyond the lamps themselves, they offer a reflection into the past of Grandparents, Greg, rounded oak furniture, hair brushes never used, mirrors with names engraved, powder in drawers, hair in drawers, bobby pins, metal curlers, and hair pins as well as little worthless lamps, and parakeet droppings. What does it signal for you? e