Donna's Franciscan Ivy

    She wanted a magic wand to make it go away!   She had to settle for me, and my ability to sort, rearrange, and  pack with lightning fast speed! 

    I spent a week with my sister in California,  once again going through her lifetime collections of china and our generations of family pictures.  The pictures were fun and easy.  We spent a cozy evening at home sorting and labeling a a box of treasures, including pics of long lost Uncle Sircey.  We look forward to many more evenings with the other boxes.

    The china was a different matter.  The Franciscan Ivy reflects what Donna collected a decade ago.  Her tastes have changed.  When we were in Bisbee last year for my birthday and our long postponed trip to old Arizona, she lusted after a copy of ATOMIC KITCHEN.  We found it in a kitschy book/gift store, and Donna's whole face lit up with joy when I bought it for her.   Now she enjoys George Jetson type motifs, and 50s turquoise is her favorite color. 

    If you know me, you know that I would rather be locked in a sealed chamber with violent rap music playing 24/7 than have anything even remotely resembling spaceships or chrome and formica dining sets in my house.  But when I see these things through Donna's eyes, my view softens, and I always learn something new from her.

     When we checked with her husband, he was in favor of sending the Franciscan Ivy to Fidel Castro, so he was not going to object to it going bye-bye.  I sat in the guest room the night before my departure, and in a twinkling of an eye, to coin a hackneyed phrase, the   creamer and sugar and the two divided vegetable dishes were packed, just in time to go up on eBay for the holidays.

      One woman's tired old stuff is another woman's or man's treasure.  As I went off to sleep that night, I thought about the journey these pieces would take to a new home, where they would once again become newly acquired treasures.

      I love this job.