The old hope chest is new again

In 2010, I did a blog entry about the walnut hope chest my grandfather, who died before I was born, made for my mom when she was young.  My mom passed it on to me.  It wasn't in great shape at the time, but while in my possession, it went from bad to worse: First of all, I used it to store all my 33 1/3 record albums.  These albums were too tall to let me close the lid, so I left it open.  Eventually the lid warped.  At some point I thought I would strip it of the old, dark varnish.  The stripper stuff I used hardly penetrated the thick coat of varnish and I gave up.  I would have thrown it away, but I was sort of sentimental about my grandfather making it, so we stuck it in the barn.  When we first moved to the trailer house, it ended up in the garage.  

When I did that blog entry about the chest, I received an email from my cousin, Pauline, our family historian.  She said that if nobody else wanted it, she would take it.  This made me immensely happy, because it would remain in the family where it belonged.  

Not so long ago, we went to Iowa to the 50th anniversary celebration of my cousin and her husband.  

The chest has found a new lease on life there!

I took some things off it so I could take a picture.  

I thought this was a nice touch.  It's on the underneath side of the lid.  

Pauline and Marvin have LOTS of kids, so I imagine somebody will be glad to keep it in the family.  

File this entry under the heading "Things that make me happy".