I have a little dish of old keys that have always fascinated me. Many of them came from a box that I found in a drawer when cleaning out my Granny & Grandad’s house just before it was sold. Grandad was long gone, Granny had moved into a care home; my Dad and his two brothers were cleaning out the contents and my Mother called me up and gave me an earful and, in no uncertain terms, said to me “You get up there and help, that group of men wouldn’t know a treasure if they tripped over it!”
What she meant was that my Granny had many odds and ends ranging from old and interesting dishes to random and unusual items that most normal people probably wouldn’t want…but that she knew I would appreciate.
She wasn’t wrong.
A vanity set consisting of a matching hand-mirror and hairbrush on a mirrored tray.
A teacup with the Empress of China embedded in the paper thin base, that you could only see when you reached the bottom of the teacup and held it towards the light.
A pink Depression glass sugar bowl.
A little box of keys.
I gave the keys to my Mom initially, since she had a particular love of old keys. When she died and we were cleaning out her house, I collected them from the dish she’d held them in, on a counter in her kitchen where she enjoyed looking at them every day.
And now, whenever my eyes fall on them, I always wonder what secrets they once kept behind the lock that they once fit.
Is that what Mom wondered too?
There will always be questions I wish I’d asked.
(87/365)
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