Pearl Necklaces
Dec. 25th, 2009 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wwcitizenOne of my father's hobbies is to buy yard sales. I guess you could call him a "Serial Yard Sale Buyer". He goes around neighborhoods late in the morning looking for open yard sales and few customers. He parks nearby and asks the yard sellers how much they want for "the rest of what they've got". If $50 looks reasonable to my father for the plethora of the other folks' junk, he'll buy it. Once home, the stuff gets sorted, tagged, listed out, and taken to the "thrift shop" for a charitable donation and a tax write-off. It's a good system, as long as you get rid of the stuff. My dad likes to share that stuff with us and 2 times out of 10 we'll indulge him.
Yesterday my father brought out two or three boxes of jewelry for us to peruse and take if we wanted. We figured this stuff was from some yard sale, but turns out there were some pieces from our grandparents' and mother's stashes. Two thirds of the stuff was what my father collected from yard sales. Most all of it was costume jewelry and not worth much other than nostalgia and family history, except for the yard sale items.
Throughout the course of the perusal, I was excited to find my grandfather's cuff links to add to my collection, semi-precious stones ready for hanging on a chain, charms, and buttons. My sisters decided they didn't want any of the pearlesque necklaces or bracelets. Since I make jewelry, it seemed fitting for me to take them and do something with them - even for Christmas or birthday gifts next year. My father had had other plans for those necklaces and they didn't include his youngest son.
He inquired through piercing squinty eyes, "Are you gonna wear those pearl necklaces? Why do you want 'em?"
All I could picture was a scary vision of me in drag when I exclaimed, "No! I'm not gonna wear those; don't be silly!! I'm going to make stuff with them and sell them on eBay. You know I do that! A couple of strands of these plastic pearls I envision using as Christmas tree garland."
That was yesterday. Ever since then my dad wants to go through the things I found "useful" and see what I took - even though no one else wanted the stuff. I found out this morning he wants to kind of sell my sisters on the pearls so that they'd take them instead of letting me have them. I think he's scared that I will end up wearing them.
As if all I wanted for Christmas was a pearl necklace.
Yesterday my father brought out two or three boxes of jewelry for us to peruse and take if we wanted. We figured this stuff was from some yard sale, but turns out there were some pieces from our grandparents' and mother's stashes. Two thirds of the stuff was what my father collected from yard sales. Most all of it was costume jewelry and not worth much other than nostalgia and family history, except for the yard sale items.
Throughout the course of the perusal, I was excited to find my grandfather's cuff links to add to my collection, semi-precious stones ready for hanging on a chain, charms, and buttons. My sisters decided they didn't want any of the pearlesque necklaces or bracelets. Since I make jewelry, it seemed fitting for me to take them and do something with them - even for Christmas or birthday gifts next year. My father had had other plans for those necklaces and they didn't include his youngest son.
He inquired through piercing squinty eyes, "Are you gonna wear those pearl necklaces? Why do you want 'em?"
All I could picture was a scary vision of me in drag when I exclaimed, "No! I'm not gonna wear those; don't be silly!! I'm going to make stuff with them and sell them on eBay. You know I do that! A couple of strands of these plastic pearls I envision using as Christmas tree garland."
That was yesterday. Ever since then my dad wants to go through the things I found "useful" and see what I took - even though no one else wanted the stuff. I found out this morning he wants to kind of sell my sisters on the pearls so that they'd take them instead of letting me have them. I think he's scared that I will end up wearing them.
As if all I wanted for Christmas was a pearl necklace.
