My love for old homes, antiques, and renovation has always been a no-brainer to me. I grew up in a house that was more than 100 years old, I spent my weekends in the antique shops up the street, and I had a mom who insisted on re-painting every piece of furniture we owned at least once a month. The smell of paint and polyurethane instantly reminds me of my childhood.But some things, of course, are my own personal interests. At least that's what I thought until I visited my 93-year-old grandma.
Grandma has a lot of stories to tell. One of my favorites is how my grandpa was a professional photographer. And then his son. And then his son.
I figured that my grandpa was just so passionate about photography that his son couldn't help but be passionate too. That's usually how things work. We can't help but love what our loved ones love. Right?
As I was looking through old photos at my grandma's house, I stumbled across two very interesting things.
The first one was a scherenschnitte! Remember how Pete and I fell in love with the scherenschnitte at the consignment store and then I quickly went home to make my own? Or, tried to make my own, anyway.
I grabbed this scherenschnitte and asked my grandma where it came from. Turns out my mom made it! Right around the time I was born.
I've never seen it before in my life, so it was so exciting - and sorta creepy - to see my mom was making scherenschnitte around the time I was born. The same way I was making scherenschnitte around the time Lucy was born! Coincidence?
Then, at the bottom of some old photos I found some newspaper clippings:
They had pictures of a man in front of a wall of clocks, reminding you that you need to turn back your clocks. Grandma then explained that it was my great grandfather. A clock repairman.
!!
This was shortly after I decided to take on the challenge of clock repair, which I actually succeeded at (see here). I had no idea that we had a clock repairman in our family.
Maybe all of this is one big coincidence, but it's got me thinking about my choices and makes me want to learn more about my family history.
