Crazy off topic but I have to share this!

[Tiny]

I'm voting the burial was for a pet....     As long as what they found wasn't human remains I wouldn't be creeped out.   Human remains would make me sadder/more introspective than the animal remains.    The fact that they wrapped what they interred seems to indicate some solemnity/respect when it was buried.     

My family home had a dog and a cat buried at the foot of tree near the alley.   I remember doing burials  for a parakeet, a cockatiel, dozens of gold fish, and then whatever other dead thing I happened to find in the yard (birds, squirrels, bunnies)  in the same area.   Sometimes the 'remains' were wrapped in an old "cleaning cloth" or in a cardboard box.  The "wild" animals usually just got buried in a grass or leave lined grave.   It was important to give them a nice "funeral" with kind words and hope of a nice afterlife.    

[happyhoix]

Oct 14, 2021 14:18:26 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

Oct 14, 2021 8:39:45 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

This reminds me of my mom when she was downsizing to move into a townhome. She was only willing to part with something if her kids would take it - everything was too valuable (even her cool whip containers she used for storing leftovers.) She obsessed over the 1960 encyclopedia set and the 1950s A line grey wool skirt that none of us wanted - she kept asking us over and over who would take them. She finally offered the encyclopedias to her library and was furious when they didn’t want them either. It was such a painful process, and she ended up cramming her townhouse with boxes of stuff she couldn’t bear to donate or throw out. One positive outcome is it’s made it much easier for me to donate and toss stuff I don’t use anymore. I don’t want my stuff to own me.

  yeah, libraries don't want umpteen sets of outdated encyclopedias, no matter how well preserved they look.  "And no, I don't know who else might be interested in curating accepting your old books, sorry."  <-- end of every phone call asking if the  library will accept donations of books, because they are cleaning out Grandma's house.

My mom was convinced old books = rare and valuable. Nancy Drew mysteries from the 1950s are neither rare or valuable and the library doesn’t want them either.

[Tiny]

Oct 13, 2021 11:04:29 GMT -5 hurley1980 said:

Mom is slowly going through her apartment and getting rid of stuff.  Its been a struggle, she's not a hoarder but she can't understand why no one wants to buy her "nice" things....like her Noritaki (sp?) china, or her San Francisco music box collection.  Lol those things were loved by the boomers, but no one wants them now.  Reminds me of beany babies. 

Do you have a pattern name for the Noritaki? I (and some friends) have a fondness for old Noritaki china....

Are the SF music boxes themed (like gone with the wind or something else)? I think a friend is missing one or two of the Gone With Wind boxes/pieces.

[seriousthistime]

My local Friends of the Library group is very specific.  Only books published recently; will accept going back to 2010 I think.  No further than that. 

Anyone who has done any research online understands that those old World Book encyclopedias are good for nothing except filling a bookshelf and historical interest only -- "hey look, this is how they used to research stuff before the Internet!"

I hate to say that.  I can see the benefit to both book research and online research.  When I taught at the college level 20 years ago, my research-based assignments required sources to be from the last two years. Students could not understand that going online that day does not make the source current as of that day. We had to talk about how it was not necessarily any more current than walking into the library and pulling a 1960s World Book off the shelf that day. For one assignment I expected the students to actually walk into a library (of which there were many on campus) and find current sources off the shelf.  You should have heard the moans and groans. I was asked if they got a research librarian to print out an article from the Internet, whether that would be considered the same as finding something on the shelf because it would be a "hard copy." 

I imagine the Friends of the Library are used as a dumping ground for everyone's used books regardless of age, condition, or usefulness. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Oct 14, 2021 15:28:31 GMT -5 seriousthistime said:

My local Friends of the Library group is very specific.  Only books published recently; will accept going back to 2010 I think.  No further than that. 

Anyone who has done any research online understands that those old World Book encyclopedias are good for nothing except filling a bookshelf and historical interest only -- "hey look, this is how they used to research stuff before the Internet!"

I hate to say that.  I can see the benefit to both book research and online research.  When I taught at the college level 20 years ago, my research-based assignments required sources to be from the last two years. Students could not understand that going online that day does not make the source current as of that day. We had to talk about how it was not necessarily any more current than walking into the library and pulling a 1960s World Book off the shelf that day. For one assignment I expected the students to actually walk into a library (of which there were many on campus) and find current sources off the shelf.  You should have heard the moans and groans. I was asked if they got a research librarian to print out an article from the Internet, whether that would be considered the same as finding something on the shelf because it would be a "hard copy." 

I imagine the Friends of the Library are used as a dumping ground for everyone's used books regardless of age, condition, or usefulness. 

My grandmother got me started on one of those encylopedia subscriptions back in the day.  I found them in the basement when I was cleaning.  Gwen asked what they were and DH said this is what passed for Google when we were kids.

[hurley1980]

Oct 14, 2021 15:23:04 GMT -5 Tiny said:

Oct 13, 2021 11:04:29 GMT -5 hurley1980 said:

Mom is slowly going through her apartment and getting rid of stuff.  Its been a struggle, she's not a hoarder but she can't understand why no one wants to buy her "nice" things....like her Noritaki (sp?) china, or her San Francisco music box collection.  Lol those things were loved by the boomers, but no one wants them now.  Reminds me of beany babies. 

Do you have a pattern name for the Noritaki? I (and some friends) have a fondness for old Noritaki china....

Are the SF music boxes themed (like gone with the wind or something else)? I think a friend is missing one or two of the Gone With Wind boxes/pieces.

The china is gone, it was given to some neighbors, who are enjoying it.  My mother thought she should get hundreds of dollars for it though, and I had to explain that although it meant something to her (I don't know why...it was a wedding gift from her first marriage that lasted 6 months), that doesn't mean its worth any money. 

I don't think the music boxes are themed.  I told my mom we would keep a few of her favorites, and the rest were going to goodwill. Some of them aren't even SF boxes, some a just precious moments and other knock offs.  She's just very sentimental about her stuff, and doesn't understand why younger generations don't want all their parents/grandparents stuff. 

Its not like there is anyone else to take it anyway.  The family bloodline dies with me. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

My grandmother always insisted that this massive self portrait of her that my great aunt did when she was 17 would be wanted by the Joslyn.  My mom had to constantly explain that no the Joslyn does not want it.

We had a hell of a time debating what to do with it after she died because I didn't want to hang it up and neither did she but we both felt too guilty to get rid of it.  It's been in my basement all this time.

My other grandma suggested I store the portrait under my bed.  Umm . . no that is where I sleep and do other stuff!  I don't need my grandma's eyes burning a hole through my mattress!

[raeoflyte]

This thread makes me want to get rid of everything I own. Lol.

My parents struggle with stuff. Cleaning out their home (hopefully far into the future) will be tough with my sister who has a stuff problem, and lots of cats.

Dgm always felt like she was leaving my mom a gift by leaving her all their stuff to go through after they died. My mom thankfully doesn't feel that way, but its so hard for her to get rid of stuff I expect to have a lot.

[Tennesseer]

Oct 14, 2021 15:42:17 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

My grandmother always insisted that this massive self portrait of her that my great aunt did when she was 17 would be wanted by the Joslyn.  My mom had to constantly explain that no the Joslyn does not want it.

We had a hell of a time debating what to do with it after she died because I didn't want to hang it up and neither did she but we both felt too guilty to get rid of it.  It's been in my basement all this time.

My other grandma suggested I store the portrait under my bed.  Umm . . no that is where I sleep and do other stuff!  I don't need my grandma's eyes burning a hole through my mattress!

My great-great uncle was an art school student in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. In 1904 he did a study of one of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting hanging in the Louvre museum. The painting has been handed down through the family and I am currently in posession of it.

I have seen the original in the Louvre several times and I must say I have a tough time seeing its flaws from the original. (A picture of the painting hanging in the Louvre below.)

I would like to pass it on to one of my nieces or nephews to keep it in the family. But I just don't see any of them appreciating it. Not that they don't necessarily like art but because the subject is like 450 years old?
I will though start with the oldest niece/nephew first and then if I have to go down the list until it finally finds a home.

La Belle Ferronnière

[teen persuasion]

Oct 14, 2021 15:28:31 GMT -5 seriousthistime said:

I imagine the Friends of the Library are used as a dumping ground for everyone's used books regardless of age, condition, or usefulness. 

I'm frequently finding orphan boxes left on the library steps. 

People can't bear to *gasp* throw out perfectly good books - I know, the library must need more books, right? 

NO!  We will recycle/toss books mercilessly, but we have limited space in our recycle bins - fill your own.


We've been gearing up for our first book sale since Covid hit, this weekend.  So we've been madly weeding to make room on the crammed full shelves, hoping to clear out the weeded books (and orphans).  All week it's been "look, I weeded 197 books from FFIC (there's a tiny bit of breathing room in those stacks, now)"  "I weeded 2 years of magazines from over a dozen titles", etc.  We put it off until last minute, ironically, because we had nowhere to put the culls, of course. No, Mrs Random Patron, we do not want your grandfather's lovely collection of National Geographic, TYVM.  Please come to the book sale!

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I regularly filled the Little free library at the hospital before COVID.

I donated a bit of everything. I was surprised at how fast my grandma's novels went. Kid and tween books disappeared quickly too.

Our library doesn't want books they have more than they could ever sell.

[stillmovingforward]

I rod a lot of mine in the recycle bin. Horrified gramma but no body wants of books.

[raeoflyte]

I love some of the crafts with old books and always mean to do them. I made paper flowers from book pages for our Alice in wonderland party, but there are some amazing things out there.

[hurley1980]

Speaking of books....thats the one thing I gladly took from my moms house.  She has almost every Stephen King book ever written, even the Richard Bachman ones.  I took those as soon as she let me!  I've only read about half of what he's written, and I love his books, so I'm very excited.  Mom says thats my inheritance, lol.

I wish you all could give me you old unwanted books!  I love all books and will read anything once.  I have shelves of them on my office, and will always make room for more.  A kindle just doesn't feel the same to me, I still like actual paper books!

[Tiny]

I have 2 paintings that are from a Sister in Law's parent's estate. The paintings had sat in the back of my brother and SILs basement for a couple of decades. My SIL passed unexpectedly about 5 years ago. My brother was systematically going thru stuff in their home - to give to their adult children who were settling into their own houses. No one wanted the two dingy gray paintings of "depressing winter scenes". I rather liked the Winter Scenes (I'm weird) so I asked if I could have them. Once I got them home I realized they were really "dirty" and weren't worth hanging up.

And then Covid19 hit - and was home and thinking about things to do with the $$ I wasn't spending going to work and looking at my "dingy" paintings ... and decided to have the paintings cleaned. One is a painting from the 1960's by a local known artist. His spring/summer/fall paintings command higher prices (like over 3k) while his less colorful winter paintings fall in the under 1K range. I like winter. And I like the "is it just before dawn? or just after dusk?" town winter/snow painting. that time pre dawn or dusk are my favorite times of the day. The other painting is sunset, forest, river, and snow - and two little bunnies. I like the surprise of discovering the 2 bunnies in an otherwise 'typical' landscape type painting. it's not by a known artist.

The paintings turned out to be quite nice - after the layers of grime and nicotine were removed from them. It was expensive to have the paintings cleaned - probably what the paintings are worth - so it was a "wash" for me... and I have two paintings I like, that now look amazing! I don't think I destroyed a "masterpeice" by having them cleaned... If anything I gave them a "new life".

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

We have a ton of very large paintings my great aunt did.  My grandmother bought the house she lived in when I was little specifically just to be able to display them.  My house does not have a sweeping staircase or second floor to showcase them in.  My parents house doesn't have anywhere to hang them.

My brother keeps insisting he wants them but then he doesn't have his own place for more than five minutes.

I don't want to just throw them away either but they just sit there in the basement gathering dust.  I have my two favorites hanging in the bedroom but that's it.  My mom took the two she wanted and my great grandmother's sketch book.

Not sure what to do with the giant paintings.  I suppose I should talk to my mom about it again.  They don't hurt anything sitting in the basement but something has to be done eventually.  Suppose we'll kick it down the road and make it Gwen's problem.

[stillmovingforward]

Tiny - how did you find a painting cleaner? I have a wonderful old painting that I'm sure needs cleaned but I never thought of having it professionally done. Which is the very best idea.