Home » Posts filed under Emerson family heirlooms
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Jumat, 20 Agustus 2010
In 1922 1920, this photo was taken of my grandfather William surrounded by his father, grandfather and great grandfather. Today would have been his 90th birthday.
I hate to get all broken record on you, but this man was something else. Someone incandescent with wisdom and compassion. I miss him more and more each year.
My great grandfather used to tell my Grandpa Bill to Remember the good name of the Emersons as he found his way in the world. I hope he'd be pleased to know that almost a 100 years later, his great granddaughter is doing her best to remember the good name as she stumbles and soars, too.
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Jumat, 04 Juni 2010
I miss Elmwood, even in light of my last visit turning into a bonafide fiasco. The family is now rumbling about what wallpaper to use in the lightly singed living room and I am so epically sick of conflict these days I can hardly function. I just want to be back there, alone, so I can relax, unwind and attempt to burn the house down again.
I joke.
I have a few more photos of the visit banging around to show you, but maybe for later.
I'm afraid the summer months on an apple a day contain not much more than atmospheric photos of this house and the occasional blurry photo of over ripe stone fruit. It has been near 90 degrees this week and I can honestly say, what the hell is the use of it being so hot if you can't even get a peach at the farmers market. Early summer, you are beyond cruel.
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Senin, 29 Maret 2010
A week ago tonight I was permanently affixed to the fireplace at my grandfather's house. I kept that sucker going all through the night and day (no paper or lighter fluid!) and only left it to snap a few photos in between miserable rain showers.
My grandfather's hiking pack, still full of gear, and my grandmother's sweater pretty much shifted my whole concept of clothes as a kid, from neon stirrup pants to wanting to wear exclusively barn coats and flannel. Here is where I first devoured a j. peterman catalogue.
Grandpa's car is basically the most beautiful vehicle ever made. I could just sit in the passenger seat in the garage all day long, pretending to be whoever would ride around in a jag in the late 60s. He really was a gentleman, the glove box even has his old driving hat and gloves with the holes on the knuckles.
PS- It just dawned on me a glove box is called a glove box because it's wear you stash your driving gloves. Am I right or am I right?!
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Kamis, 25 Maret 2010
I went to the mill for a night this weekend and found several albums of Emerson family photographs I hadn't seen before. The photos of my Aunt Betsy made my throat go lumpy. She died when she was 27 26 and my mom was 25, which is really hard for me to wrap my brain around what that means in reality.
She was my mom's best friend. Since now my mom is my best friend, do you think that it means Betsy and I would somehow mystically be best friends by association? I console myself by thinking thus.
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Selasa, 15 Desember 2009
Humor me while I interrupt the thought-provoking stream of inspiration and genius that is normally featured here on an apple a day to talk about my jacket. It's important that you understand about my jacket.
Rewind your clocks to 1993. I am 9 years old and in the hall of my grandfather's house. I spy this unassuming jacket hanging on a peg. I've recently been forced to wear laura ashley for picture day and hated every moment of it. I dream of what it would be like to have such a normal jacket. A jacket with a wool plaid lining from a sporting goods store. A jacket that boys would think was cool.
Fast forward to 1995. I am 11 and in the same hallway. The jacket is on the same peg. It's been abandoned by my older cousin Andy. Its zipper is broken. Victory is mine.
I've worn this coat, off and on, for 14 years. Its lining makes me quiver. The drawstring confirms in my mind the existence of god. It's from the early 1980s. Me too.
The kicker is that it says Crotched Mountain 5 on the back. It causes sideways glances from people not intimate with the geography of southern New Hampshire, but that's fine with me. When I lay in bed in my favorite room at Elmwood, I can see Crotched Mountain. When my mom was my age, she lived on top of Crotched Mountain. As a baby, my dad carried me up Crotched Mountain. My aunt's ashes are scattered on Crotched Mountain. I love Crotched Mountain, and this jacket.
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Jumat, 30 Oktober 2009
This week, it's been a year since my grandfather died. I'm still in a bizarre state of denial over it. I was there his last week, I saw him and I know he's gone, but for some reason I don't
feel like he's gone. Every time I see a manila envelope in the mailbox, my pulse sorta quickens.
My mom and I were recently remembering the consistent stream of letters he would write. I've been truly horrible at keeping up correspondence in the past few months and have been bent over the old typewriter as of late, trying to start up again. Make my grandpa proud.
I think this photo of the Emerson gang was taken in the late 1930s. 1939? Grandpa Bill is in the front next to his mother, Helen, who looks stunning.
My most cherished grandpa thing is his old pocket knife. It still has some antique crumbs of cheese from a long ago picnic inside. Sort of charming in a way, but I must resist the urge to become sentimental about other folk's dirt.
In classic Emerson fashion, he dremeled his address into the handle and carried it in his pocket as he trekked across the Sahara, went on archeological digs in Crete and hiked up our beloved Mt. Monadnock. It's so freakin dull I'm in constant danger of killing myself every time I try to use it. In the realm of knife fixing uping, I am a total novice. Any advice?
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Minggu, 04 Oktober 2009
So maybe it isn't as old as i had dreamed of or deliciously worn in as i had hoped for, but at least I finally found one.
If you've ever been to a thrift store with me, or a vintage store, or a flea market or, i don't know, talked to me for more than 20 minutes, you know that i have been searching high and low for a vintage emerson college sweatshirt since middle school. Who would have thought they'd be so hard to find?
Got my first edition this week, but my eternal love and gratitude will go to the the person who can find me one from the 60s or before. Plus a stupidly high amount of money.
I can't even say how much because my hippie mom reads my blog and i don't want her to know what a lost cause consumer i've grown up to be.
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Jumat, 28 Agustus 2009
This is my 200th post to An Apple a Day and I had big plans for it. I had a big unveil of sorts lined up, but my negotiations with Michael Jackson's people fell through so I'm back to square one. And the funny thing is, I'm not joking.
Instead I'll show you my favorite, most meaningful find in the whole world.
After spotting
these old Dartmouth photos, I've been itching to find some similar ones of the Emerson boys at Dartmouth. The stars aligned on ebay last week and I found a copy of Dartmouth's 1942 yearbook, my grandfather's graduation year. FOR $5!
I know I post a ton of old family photos on the blog, but this one is really special, no one in the family has ever seen it before. I raced through the pages to find grandpa bill and sure enough, there he was. Words fail. I just inexplicably wept.
He was truly the most thoughtful and brilliant man I've ever met. After he died, we found he kept detailed lists of people's interests and accomplishments, along with their birthdays etc... so he'd always be able to reference back to the things they'd mentioned in the past. He'd send me copies of the latest NYT style section, with post-it note comments because he knew I loved that sort of stuff. As humans go, he was evolved.
Also totally amazing are the photos of all the other boys at Dartmouth in his year. Like the smarmy jocks above.
Boys of the canoe club, I love you. If you let me borrow your flannel while you paddle me around, I'll wake up early to make you coffee every morning for the rest of your life. Promise.
I'm kinda taken with this guy's socks/shoes/pipe combination.
A post hockey game party. Is it just me or do some girls have all the luck?
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Sabtu, 15 Agustus 2009
I recently discovered that my great great great grandfather was a shopkeeper in Milford, New Hampshire. Sumner Emerson and his son, Charles, opened Emerson & Sons, general and furniture store, in the early 1890's. And photographic evidence still exists! What I wouldn't give to go back in time and stock up on carpets and crockery. Heck, I doubt I'd even need to use the family discount.
The quality of the photos is unfortunate, but the sign says "2 Miles To Emerson & Sons Furniture". Not sure who those little street urchins are, but I hope I'm related to them cause they're awfully cute.
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Selasa, 04 Agustus 2009
Wow, today has become an even bigger and more exciting day, if that's even possible.
I've been deemed a
Blog of Note by the mothership, that is to say, blogger.
The blogger, as in blogger.com. Blogger with a capital B. I am just really so shocked and touched that people other than my mom read my blog. Words just aren't enough.
If you're new to An Apple a Day and visiting from either blog of note or d*s...
Hi! Welcome! Can we be friends? I'll buy you an ice cream cone and we can roam the streets together. Pretty please?
Let's get to know each other a little better. For starters, i'm obsessed with old doodads. This amazing old seed catalogue envelope is from the attic of
Elmwood, my family's house in New Hampshire.
Inside my great great grandmother seems to have stashed all of her correspondence. One rainy day I'll go through them and spill the juicy details!
Just for fun, here's a photo I found mixed in with her papers. Arthur Webster, a great great great uncle, I think. If only the penny farthing bicycle was still in the attic, that would come home to brooklyn in a heartbeat!
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Kamis, 30 Juli 2009
Last Saturday when my mom was in town, we woke up early and poured over old family photographs in bed. Seriously, it was the best morning ever. This photo emerged as the clear favorite.
It's my great grandparents, Helen and Dean in maybe 1919? She must have come to keep him company as he chopped wood outside the barn at Elmwood. I mean, look at him looking at her! He's clearly so taken with her, it makes my heart race.
I've posted some of their
make you weep wedding photos on my newly minted flickr
photostream. Come prepared for a little slice of romantic heaven.
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Selasa, 28 Juli 2009
So it dawned on me that if i continue this slow reveal of New Hampshire photos, I'll still be posting them come next summer. So onward and upwards, friends.
Is this not the coolest camera ever?
Looking through these photos makes me want to drop everything and run back to New Hampshire as quick as I can. Darn adult obligations.
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Sabtu, 25 Juli 2009
Stashed in the attic at Elmwood are about 30 of my great great uncle Harold Robinson's drafting assignments from New Hampshire College ca. 1909.
The man himself, during his senior year.
There's nothing quite as satisfyingly simple as inked lines on paper and I love that they manage to be both utilitarian and sensitive. Plus I've been gravitating towards less feminine things for my house lately, gotta balance out the collection of antique teddy bears somehow!
They really should be framed (and hanging in my apartment!) instead of living in danger of attic mice snacking on them. That would be a tragedy with a capital T.
Diposting oleh
fawaid on Kamis, 09 Juli 2009
It's official, I can legally rent a car now.
I painlessly passed the 25 year mark and have been celebrating for a few days at Elmwood with pretty girls, pretty presents and pretty flowers.
I'm taking a mini break from rural isolation with a quick stop in Connecticut (isn't internet and cellphone service divine?) but tomorrow morn I'll be back in the land of pretty.
I've taken nearly a million photos so far and don't even know where to begin. It's just been the most delightful birthday week ever.
25 is shaping up to be
the jam, as
Ginny would say. Oh yes, I went there. My verbal skills are regressing a bit as I age. Keeps me young at heart.
