Button Box

Ian had to make patterns for "homework" tonight.

ok, so maybe I'm a little OCD

I got out my button box. I have been "collecting" buttons from my mom's button box for a while now. Mom's button box is an old tin that came from my dad's grandma Harriet. Harriet cut buttons off of everything - shirts, jackets, garters, pants. What did you need? It was probably in the box. She was a collector - maybe that's where I get it from? The Harriet collecting/keeping gene runs in our family. You never know when you might need something.

Every time I get out the box to survey my "goods", I wonder where that particular button came from. Some of the buttons are bone, and some are shell. There are porcelain, plastic, and brass ones, too. A time-line of buttons.

My button box connects me to a woman that lived through interesting and trying times - the depression, a husband with a roving eye (and a bit more), the deaths of 3 of 4 of her children and ultimately cancer AND tons more. She was a strong woman. She babysat me when I was really little, but I don't remember her except from pictures, family stories, old letters, and collected stuff.

When I think of my fore grandmothers and what they went through, I wonder about my life... could I survive what they did? Could they survive what I have been through?

Here are a few of my favorites.

p.s. Ok, I know this is greedy, but I really want the rest of the buttons in my Mom's button box.