Reflections: Grandma's Button Tin
I never knew where the many buttons came from. Grandma, to my knowledge, was not a seamstress; although, she did do a lot of knitting. There were new sweaters every year, and perhaps the extra buttons found their way into the button tin.
Now that I think of it, the tin was fairly old, and I wonder if it had belonged to her mother before her. I do know that the button tin eventually came to reside at our house. I don't know what became of it and that makes me sad.
There were a few other things in the button tin besides buttons. There were buckles, an army lapel, and several scraps of faded fabric - all telling a story of a family's life.
Over the years, my mother, my sister, and I all added to the collection. Whenever there was clothing designated for the rag bag, all buttons and buckles were removed and into the tin they would go. Likewise, whenever a garment needed a button, out would come the tin and the fun of trying to match one to the others would begin. Then I entered high school and began learning to sew and the button tin took on new meaning for me. There was history in that tin - family history.
As it has a habit of doing, life marched on, and the button tin became lost in the task of moving forward. We became a disposable society and removing buttons and buckles literally became a thing of the past. I do remember wishing that I had that button tin on occasion when trying to keep my eight children in buttons and buckles!
Now that I have been working on my "creative rebirth" and I am sewing, knitting, crocheting, and doing other crafty things, I find that I am getting quite the button collection myself. What I notice myself doing when I buy buttons for a project, I make sure to buy a couple extra buttons than needed and I can't help but wonder if, unconsciously, I am yearning for the comfort of Grandma's button tin.
A few days ago, I cleaned out my sewing cupboard and found bags of buttons I had forgotten I had. Then I found a canning jar shoved to the back, half full of an assortment of buttons. There were little bags of buttons that I had picked up at thrift stores. I put them all on a table, and as stood there looking at them, lost in a memory of a long lost button tin, I had an epiphany of sorts. On top of my kitchen cupboard, tucked away in a corner, there was a vintage tin that I have had for years. My son got it down for me and I wiped it off. I poured all the buttons into it and mixed them all together. I have started my own button tin!
I hope that by the time I am ready to pass my button tin along, there will be memories and history to be found in it.
Comments
Post a Comment