Last week, I set out on a journey of closure. I traveled with my brother (and only remaining immediate family member) to Ely, Nevada, to watch my sister’s youngest graduate from high school (her mother died in 2000). I’ll post on that in the near future. The trip also included a visit to the WW1 Memorial in Eugene, OR, to look for my great uncle’s name so I could draw to an end the story of Dale D. Melrose (another future blog post). And for a more complete closure of the loss of my parents and my baby sister, my brother and I loaded up all the stuff I left in Reno five years ago and hauled it north to my home.
Today, I unloaded the three Dow Chemical crates full of the stuff my mother used to switch out in the china hutch. The crates are round, stand about 23″ tall, and have a radius of 15″. 
The contents of crate #1, packed in 1970 when we moved from Winnemucca to Ely.
Crate #2, also packed in 1970.
Crate #3, packed in 1973.
I am missing the box with the items that were inside the china hutch when Dad died. I may yet find it in the boxes I brought home, and I hope I do – Chrystal’s things were in that box.
It’s a lot of stuff, and the wonder of it all, is that I actually have room for most of it in my own storage places. Some of it, I may let go – but that is a bridge I do not have to cross today.
Pewter, silver, and tin.
I see myself researching this dish in the future. It’s some kind of serving dish, very ornate, with the pedestal welded on.
This is very cool!
A memento of travels (my lens cap is also in my hand).
1933 Chicago World’s Fair memento.
Hmmmm.
Love this vintage green crystal dish!
The swans are beads upon beads set into a styrofoam base. Beautiful!
Ceramic mantel clock.
Holy cow! A lead crystal dinner set for six. The leaf dishes don’t actually match the set, but are a newer pressed crystal. But the rest?? Oh, yeah. Beautiful and precious!
My mother’s entire collection of dogs.
Mom’s collection of tea cups. Sadly, some are chipped or cracked.
Mom’s salt and pepper shaker collection.
This one made me nostalgic. The kitten on the left is mine and I named her Diamond. My grandparents Melrose brought them to my sister and I, and I had first choice. Deni felt I took the cutest one and deliberately broke Diamond. Mom carefully glued her back together. Now I have both, but Deni’s kitten is missing her rhinestone eyes.
A china baby doll. She’s so tiny!
Milk china. I’m not really into milk china, so am debating keeping all of these.
Self explanatory whimsical creatures. Mom bought these in Mexico.
Centennial ash tray.
My grandmother liked to go to a ceramics place and glaze her own items. The wood ducks were one of her creations (the glaze, I mean, not the actual mold). They were wrapped in a 1970 newspaper which means they were packed away then and never retrieved for display afterward. Grandma signed them on the bottom (EM = Emma Melrose). I’ve always loved the wood ducks.
Tell me that isn’t the cutest darn giraffe!??
Awwww… Bunnies for my Easter decor!
This luster ware is amazing. I have my mother’s set of luster ware set aside for my oldest, and will add this to the set.
And then there was this.
I earned that in Sunday School in the 1960’s. I carried it around with me well into the 1980’s, when I decided my little sister needed it more than I did, and I mailed it to her. I have often missed it, but considered it a gift well given. And now it is home.
The frog was not inside the Dow Chemical crates. He was carefully wrapped inside his own box. Years ago, my father told me that he was going to be reincarnated as that frog. Dad left that frog to me. I’m happy to have Dad home with me, finally.
Postscript – I did not photograph every single item out of the Dow crates. And wait until I get to the books…
Jaci Dawn 
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