While here in Mississippi for the Thanksgiving holiday, an unexpected design opportunity has presented itself. One which will certainly help as I formulate fresh concepts and plans.
The family of my fiancé, David, were Mississippi farm folk for four generations. I do admire farmers because if I were forced to raise or grow my own food, well, it would be a true starvation diet!
This farmland is only 150 or so acres but of variety, gentle hills and rolling pastures with patches of pines and hardwoods. I have toured it, including the gravel pit and collapsing barns…and one quaint little log shack.
“How about decorating this?” David said. Upon closer inspection, I was sure he was not serious.
It was the old family smokehouse; built sometime in the 1920s by his grandfather with the then-new house. As the title implies, hams and bacon and other meats were hung there to cure over slow smoke. Gaps between the logs are several inches wide now from age and weather, with a small tear in the corrugated roof as a memento of Hurricane Katrina’s passing. If walls could talk…
This nostalgic structure in the shade of an ancient pecan tree, now used only for storing old fence posts and other abandoned junk, is a favorite place for family photos. So, why not take our own new family’s “Save the Date” picture here?
This experience got me thinking about our heritage and our surroundings. To be sure few folk still have access to a Great-Great Grandfather’s homestead, or have standing symbols of the work by lives long-past. But do not doubt, we all have a history worth remembering.
So then, what about doing a little research of family history? Or gathering some long-ago and even mysterious mementoes from your own past?
Yes, some of us feel that there is nothing left to learn or anything good to discover about our ancestors. Perhaps we don’t want to join ancestry.com and spend hours on-line studying to find out things we would really rather not know?!
But how about this? Mothers typically hand down some jewelry. If not worn, display it discreetly. If someone in your heritage was, say, a photographer, hunt down an old or even antique camera for the bookshelf.
Buy an Irish flag, or a picture of one, and display it proudly. Purchase an old dish from Etsy or Ebay with the word “Mangia” on it for your kitchen to honor Italian Great Grandmother Liz and Aunt Rosie. Find a small folding-fan in finely faded colors, or aged ivory item, to remind of those ancestors who crossed the Pacific to work on American railroads a century ago.
Our own family once had a friend that was instrumental in opening a famous museum in Washington, D.C. When I asked why she did what she did, I was told the past is worth remembering…both for better or for worse.
So you don’t have a battered old smokehouse on the family farm? Not to worry. Go antique shopping, find something you admire, and make your modern home a more interesting and personal place.