We Found Some Treasures In My Mom & Dad's Basement

Today my sis, my kids and I helped my folks get rid of some stuff from their basement. They have been getting rid of stuff for several years, but there were some things in their basement that had been there for years and were harder for my dad to get rid of. My mom spearheaded the event and we showed up at 10:00 this mornin' to get the job done.

First off is a picture of my mom's dad when he first went into the Navy. We estimate he was about age fifteen to seventeen and it was the early 1900's.

He lied about his age to go in the Navy. I don't know what the big rush was. Maybe he was really wanting to serve his country. He didn't talk about it much, but he had the tattoos to show for it.

At the top of the picture is a medal with a ship's name on it which I thought was cool. Somewhere I have a pendant from a ship he was on. Neat stuff. The picture stayed right where it was.

This is a potters wheel my dad made for my sister back in the seventies. She had taken pottery in college and showed an interest so dad set out to make her a wheel. When she tried it, it was so hard for her to kick the wheel and keep it going.

My sis had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when she was seventeen so kicking the wheel was too hard. What a disappointment for all. We couldn't part with it and no one would take it for free so it stayed in the basement for thirty some odd years now.

It was too heavy to carry out as it was so we gave
my son the job of dismantling it.

It took about two hours I think to get it apart. It took two people to roll the wheel up to the front yard to the curb where all the stuff will be taken away on Tuesday (we hope they take it all).

Here I am with my gramma's rug beater. Isn't it cool? It came home with me. The story is that the old guy next door to my grandparents, Herb, made the rug beater. Is there a different name for the rug beater?besides child persuader Just kidding.

Here's my sis looking at a blanket that was in a box with the camping bedding. I believe she took it home.

Just look what I'm holding! Does anyone collect these? It was my gramma's. It is Fiesta ware. My gramma had plates, cups and saucers, this tea pot (she never drank tea) and some other pieces.

I found this teapot and some cups and saucers in a very dark corner, in a box under some of my sis' stuff she had stored at mom and dad's. I thought my cousin had taken all of the Fiesta ware. I'm happy now to be the one who inherited this from my gran folks.

Here's my mom. She wasn't supposed to be helping...she's having back surgery in August. I guess if it's already messed up and you're gonna have surgery what can a little helping here and there hurt? She and dad shouldn't have been helping at all, but they are worker bees and couldn't be convinced to let us do it all.

God bless 'em. They are so kind and sweet. They hate to ask for help, but we love helping them. Actually, dad stayed up in the living room for the morning. He said it was overwhelming and a little difficult to see everything being carted to the curb.

I think most of us can understand the sentimental feelings that go with a time like this. As for mom, doesn't bother her much.


This is my dad's shop area in the basement. He likes to "putter around" down there. My mom calls it that. Cute! We pulled pieces of wood out of this area for two hours.

He had wood tucked away in all kinds of places. He told me he was going to build bird houses when he retired. He never did. I don't know why. He was healthy and had all the tools and time to do it.

I guess we lose our motivation and sometimes we never get it back. The wood had to go. My dad won't use it and some of it was extremely old. There was evidence that rodents were hanging out down there. Time to clean it all out.

Here's dad putting away a socket that we used to take apart the pottery wheel. Neither of us could find where it should go. He only had three socket sets. Bless his heart. He kept trying different spots, but to no avail. We stuck it on a hook!

Dad will be 88 years old in a couple weeks. His brother is 94 0r 95 and his sis will be 90 tomorrow. We've got some longevity on our side. Hope I can live up to it, ha!

JB was using the shop vac to clean the whole basement after he got tired of sweeping. Apparently he was very tired as he was using my grampa's wheelchair from like 1980. Still works. The kids play with it in the basement all the time just as my 24 year old nephew did when he was a kid.

Look what else we found...my gramma's washboard and a huge wash tub. I don't know if the wash tub was hers. I looked at the washboard closely and I could see where it had been made.

It was made right here where I live. My folks live about 30 miles south of me. Didn't know my town had made washboards in the 40's or 50's, whenever gramma got this one.

Dad had a bar of Felz Naphtha soap to add to the picture. I guess they still make and sell that. Some things never die. Mom probably uses it to scrub stubborn stains or dirt or something.

Here's my girl, H, stirring kitty litter into some oooolllld paint. The kitty litter is suppose to help dry it out so it can be thrown away. There was a lot of paint cans of old paint to be soaked up.

Dad painted a lot. He also wallpapered a lot. We found several rolls of wallpaper dating back to the kitchen wallpaper of the 70's. My dad has wallpapered almost every room of that house at least 3 times each if not more. He's good at it.

Here's dad showing me a plant in his garden. Look how much it has grown since Father's Day. We had lettuce on our sandwiches from the garden today. Mom gave us some beet greens and chard to steam up for lunch tomorrow.

Can you guess what this? Well it does say Shoe Shine on it. I used this when I was a kid to shine dad's and my brothers Sunday shoes. They paid me fifty cents I think or a quarter. Dad shined shoes real good so I learned from the best. Too bad it didn't work for me in boot camp. Another story.


This is it...the pile we took out to the curb. A neighbor came over and took some of it, Yay! I took some stuff, ugh! It doesn't look like much.

The most time consuming was the wood we took to the edge of the yard by the alley in hopes people will take it to burn or whatever. If not, guess what we'll be doing next week?

Well this was kind of a walk down memory lane, but a little too long for that. Does it motivate you to get rid of stuff or help your folks get rid of stuff? Hope so.