Photo a day (11/366): Gray days and family heirlooms

I considered a long walk outside in the gray, misty weather in search of today’s photo (that have actually become multiple of photos). I walked as far as the end of my driveway. Wednesday is a day off from work and a day of group training for the marathon. I reasoned if I was to run six miles in this weather later I would sacrifice a photo now to stay indoors and watch television in my sweatpants. Before heading in though I did take this photo. It’s a reflection of a tree in a puddle that pooled atop a gray plastic trashcan. It didn’t turn out too bad but didn’t feel like I really had done anything to take it.

I went back inside and looked around, realizing the items in my house I took for granted. So many of them are small things I inherited from grandparents who passed away. I was given, or asked for them because the items had aesthetically appealing qualities, and sometimes memories attached.

There is a common theme. Either they are ornate, bronze or copper in color, or possibly remind me of an art deco style.

The item above is a rumidor. Not sure how common they were/are, but rumidors were basically humidor for dry leaf chewing tobacco. My one grandfather chewed it most of his life. Yes, a nasty habit no doubt, with cured, dried leaves no less, but when I undid the lid (how I honestly figured out what the item I was given by my parents was) there was still the faintest whiff of that tobacco smell. Instant longing, memories, and nostalgia for a man who passed when I was 11-years-old.

Of course pulling the rumidor out reminded me of this ring. My grandfather was of a generation of men who wore rings other than just wedding bands. I tried to wear the above piece a few times, but always feel too self aware doing so. I know very little about the ring. I imagine it represents some order my grandfather belonged to. He was a Mason, and belonged to a union. I just like everything about this ring, even though I have no particular memory of my grandfather ever wearing it.

Of course I also had to include this, the Burroughs Portable adding machine. I found it in my grandmother’s attic after she passed away a couple of years ago. It has a wood spindle hand crank, buttons that mostly work, and some yellowed paper with a carbon ribbon still in it. I love the repeating rows of numbers and have photographed this many times before because of the visual repetition.

Finally, there is one last item I took a picture of today. It is of a wood and glass cabinet for displaying all my fine dining wears. Again, it was my grandmother’s.

Someone once offered to buy the cabinet because they had the larger matching piece. I don’t think I’d ever part with it, no matter how much or little it may be worth.

The photo I took was a detail shot of the key to open the cabinet. What can I say? It is a nice key. I present the original shot, and the one I played with in post photo editing. Working under artificial light I wasn’t exactly happy with the way the photos of this turned out. Which do you like better?