It is a small three drawer piece, designed to be filled with all sorts of bits and bobs and widgets a geegaws that a handyman might use throughout his handy around the house kind of life. It is spattered in paint remnants of scores of painting projects.
At first I was going to try to sell it in the shop or take it to the antique market and let people pick through it for whatever they wanted like crows on carrion.
And then I started thinking. This piece of family history is more representative of family history than a pair of cufflinks or an old draft card.
This box of "stuff" represents a thousand little pieces of life, that were kept together "in case I might need one of these" some day.
Washers, latches, drill bits, brass plomb bob, hooks, screws, nuts and bolts, small corks, more screws, more widgets and more thingie-ma-bobs than I know what they were used for. Even some of those "Real Brass Do-Dads That Fit Into The Metal Strip That Allow You To Position A Shelf At Different Heights" (and never have the right number or the right size.) All of these bits started out someplace--as none of the items are new--Pieces from several houses over several generations.
It actually reminds me--on a small scale--of the drawers and drawers of hardware that real hardware stores used to have. The kind of drawers that the Helpful Hardware Man (sorry ladies, there were no employed hardware ladies then) could go to and in an instant pull out what you needed even if you did not know what to call it.
My Drawers of Treasure are now displayed on a table in our living room. Please don't hesitate to ask me if you need one of those clampie things that is really called a rolled barrel butt hinge--I have a couple of spares.
