What We Pass Down

After my Grandmother had passed away, now comes the morbid and confusing part.  What do we do with all her possessions.  When my Grandmother was alive she told me to take anything I wanted.  She even kept trying to give me a few things.  I don't really have the room to take anything. 

Grandma had a lot of vintage and depression glass, but I'm not a glass collector.  In fact, I bought her a piece of Fenton glass for her birthday a few years back.  I even wrote a blog about it back then.  Here it is:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/08/adrian-always-has-place-at-grandmas.html

Even though I don't collect glass I thought that Grandma would want me to have that little Fenton vase that I gave to her five years ago.  Everyone was in agreement, so it came home with me.

That was pretty much all I wanted.  I was helping Dad find his possessions from his Air Force days when I came across a knife.  Grandpa loved collecting knives.  In fact, when he passed away in 2006, I inherited a few of his knives.  However, this knife was different in that, it was a bayonet type knife.

I had my computer with me, and looked it up on the internet by it's markings.  It seems it's an USM4 bayonet that fits on the end of an M1 rifle.  I looked at the different makes, and it seems that this is the second generation of the knife.  This means it was issued for use in the Korean War and the early part of the Vietnam conflict. 

This website helped me out tremendously.

http://worldbayonets.com/Bayonet_Identification_Guide/United_States__Post-War_/us_post_war_2.html

Go down to where it says, "M4, Second Generation." 

This website confirmed that it was in the correct time period due to it being made by Camillus out of Camillus, N.Y. 

http://www.quanonline.com/military/military_reference/fighting_knives/m4history.php

Dad had a theory that this knife might have belonged to my Uncle "Bug," who is my Grandmother's brother.  He served in Korea.  However, Grandpa was into trading knives, and might have traded or bought it from a veteran he knew. 

This model of knife was made from 1954 to the late 1960's so there are a lot of them out there.  So with both Grandma and Grandpa passed away I have no idea how this knife ended up in their possession.  All I know is that Grandpa had a lot of knives he collected.  90% of them were the nice little folding pocketknives that only had a single or double blade. 

There was one giveaway that my Grandfather had handled this knife.  It was still in good condition, and it was dangerously sharp.  Grandpa liked to sharpen his knives until you could shave with them.  I could also see on this knife where the blade had been "dinged," and someone (my Grandfather) had sharpened and smoothed out the ding. 

So I will keep it with my possessions.  I will take care of it.  And it will make a nice little memory.  It seems that twice now my Grandfather has left a knife for me. 

Here's a nice picture of my Grandfather.  Small animals and children loved him.

Adrian Always Has A Place At Grandma's House

I am glad to get some time off from the road.  In what I consider one of the better decisions of my life, I have taken my time off at my Grandmother Betty's house.  I have had fun with Grandma just taking care of things.  Namely, eating lots of great food.  I am so tired of eating fast food.  I was so glad just to eat regular green beans and potatoes.

I could tell you more about what's been going on, but without pictures what's the point?  So here's some great photos with commentary.

Let's be honest.  I am a pretty darn good cook.  But I am known in the house for making great iced tea.  This is rasberry tea with real cherries and nectarines added in for real fruit flavor.  Grandma really liked this.  The good part?  No sugar.  Only Splenda for Grandma and me.  Gotta watch that sugar.

This is the vase that I got Grandma for her birthday.  It is made by Fenton (a West Virginia company.)  The color starts as a rose at the top, and light blue at the bottom.  Grandma's favor color is purple so she was really happy with this.

I bought this clothing/ sewing material for Michelle, a really good friend of mine in California.  It's very Ren Faire, something that she would like.  The shop is called WV Quilt in Barboursville, W.V.  They are really nice there.  I also got a "Whoppie!" card.  Once you spend $200 in the shop you get a 20% discount on your next purchase.  They keep track of the amount you spend on your "Whoopie!" card.

Everyone who has talked to me for more than 20 seconds knows I have lost a bit of weight in the last year.  So I kind of needed a new belt.  Seriously, I was cutting new holes in my old belt.  Well, I got this great belt in New Mexico, but my belt buckle didn't fit it.  So I stopped at one of the leather shops at the flea market and got a new belt buckle for a whole dollar.  Wow. 

This is the view of the Guyandotte River from the back of Grandma's property.  This is the clearest I have ever seen the river.  It's usually really muddy.  And it's quite a bit lower than I've ever seen it.  Which is funny because it was the highest I had ever seen it just a few months ago.  I liked this picture so much that I used it for the main picture on this blog.  I think it shows up a little better than the old picture.

Here is some video of the river I took with my camera.