One Time Treasures

by Gail Balentine

My husband and I recently stopped at Bootstraps* to donate some gently used clothing. After completing that, instead of leaving and heading onto our next errand as usual, we started to browse a bit and quickly became absorbed. I noticed that there were objects people had donated that were similar or identical to objects we own and use – glassware, serving dishes, a table, some jewelry.

That’s when I realized that this thrift shop and others like them must hold many once-prized possessions. My mind went on to wonder why these items were at the shop instead of still in the homes of the people who purchased or were given them. Was there a downsizing of living space and just no room for them anymore? Did some come from estates? Did someone go on a cleaning jag and, as the professional organizers recommend, eliminate things that hadn’t been used in the past year? Did someone just grow tired of them?

I saw a simple white stoneware pitcher with green trim sitting alone on a table. As soon as picked it up, my mind filled with images of a farm, with rolling green hills that sparkled in the sunshine, and a long wooden table filled with men, women and children, all talking at once, in front of a stone farmhouse. There were platters piled high with food and carafes of wine. The pitcher was there, too, used to pour thick, fresh milk. It was passed to the women preparing meals for their children. I could almost smell the grass, hear snippets of conversation in a lilting language, and, in the distance, see cows grazing. It was a wonderful, too-brief interlude.

I turned the pitcher over and on the bottom was a stamped crest, with the words Digoin Grespots France around it in a ring, and the artisan’s signature. A $4.00 price tag had been attached, for what I had come to regard as a once-loved item. We bought it and brought it home, where it sits on our dining room table, waiting to be filled with fresh summer flowers. The lovely pitcher has a new life and a new family to treasure it.

*From the Beverly Bootstraps website: Beverly Bootstraps provides critical resources to families and individuals so they may achieve self-sufficiency.  We offer emergency and long-term assistance including: access to food, housing stability, adult and youth education, counseling and advocacy.  We are community funded and supported.