Copyright Rochelle Wisoff Fields
A big happy birthday for Rochelle this week. Hope you have a lovely day, and thanks as always for hosting our activities each week.
I may not get round to as many sites as usual this week due to internet restrictions. But I’ll do my best. 🙂
“All this will be yours when I’m gone, you know.”
She waved a wrinkled hand at the cluttered surfaces.
I sighed, reflecting on my minimalist-style apartment. All plain white walls and unadorned colonial style furniture – an innate reaction to a childhood festooned with bric-a-brac.
What could I say?
“They’re your memories, mother, not mine.” A euphemism for “They’re meaningless to me.”
Not euphemistic enough… her lip began to wobble.
Years later, my delighted daughter hauled the packing-case from the basement.
“Really? For me? You know I’ve always wanted a home full of stuff like this.”
I bit my lip.
castelsarrasin 
Love this! It’s exactly what happens. That means my daughter will have a cluttered house (especially if her bedroom is anything to go by), just like her grandmother. Really nicely written too!
Claire
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Thanks Claire. 🙂 Yes I’m a bit of a minimalist myself.
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Dear Sandra,
This story has me laughing with delight. One woman’s treasure is another’s trash and so the story goes full circle. Well-crafted and multi-layered. Applause!
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Maybe this is the history of antiques – one generation uses, another stores them, and so on… 🙂 Thanks for commenting Rochelle, hope you had a lovely day.
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Dear Sandra,
This was the perfect story to explain the generations and the gaps between them. Sweet and well told.
Aloha,
Doug
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Thank you Doug. Still laughing at yours. 🙂
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We hardly move on…Life happens to us all, repeatedly too. We better leave our choices plain. Who says fashion and choices get stale? This story would make us think again. I love it’s ending.
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Thank you Charles, great to see you here this week.
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lovely and a little sad 🙂
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Thanks Helen!
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I used to love trawling through my grandmother’s house and finding all the old toys and various bits in my aunts’ and uncles’ old rooms.
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Thanks for reading – yes there’s a wealth of history in most attics.
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very nice. very ironic and touching.
This is how the world goes round.
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It certainly does, thanks for dropping by.
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Hi Sandra,
Great generational story and so true. Rebellion against anything parental is such a truism. And it was very clever to have the story go full circle. Ron
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I think the same thing is true of certain traits – as a friend said recently – “Every time I open my mouth my mother comes out” Thanks for commenting.
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I love the cycle of life portrayed in such a short story. 🙂
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Thanks camgal. Have a nice weekend.
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Lovely story.. your stories always touch readers to the core 🙂
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Thank you kz, and for dropping by. 🙂
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A lovely thought, with the daughter passing along memories to the granddaughter. I love that she didn’t throw the boxes out, but saved them just in case.
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Yes, I think it might be hard just to dispense with the hand-me-downs just because they weren’t in your taste. Thanks for dropping by.
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Ha Ha. I can see this. Just the opposite for me. We (my husband and I) have a lot of antiques and collectibles that our oldest girl has no interest in and wonders how they will get rid of it all when we are gone. But, our youngest girl wants some of it, but will probably inherit all of it unless they find other pack-rats or collectors who want it all. 🙂
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There was a lot of tension between me and my mother over this issue Joyce. She was an inveterate knick-knack collector and I was quite the opposite. My brother now is the custodian of the extensive Toby Jug collection… 😉
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My mother-in-law was like that too. She would go to every garage sale there was with her daughter and pick up things, cheap, ugly or otherwise to add to her collection. When she passed away we had to sort through and get rid of a lot of ‘stuff’ that way. My grown girls want to avoid that at all costs (or better, no cost – by giving it all away, 🙂 ) with me, so I’ve promised to clean out things I don’t use, decorate with or otherwise. I promised them I would not give them any reason to call me a ‘pack rat’. 🙂
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It seems their is a kinship for this stuff that skips a generation. Hand me downs can sometimes be a blessing or sometimes a curse.
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I think you’re right Joe. Thanks for commenting.
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My grandmother always said “One man’s treasure is another man’s trash” and your story illustrates that point wonderfully. Also, bonus points for use of the word “festooned”. That’s got to be a triple word score, darling.
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Hi Helena – my best ever triple worder was ‘travesty’, spanning two triple word squares. 🙂 Thanks for commenting.
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Just wonderful on so many levels as is your usual writing style, Sandra.
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Thank you Linda, glad you iked it.
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Liked it, I mean. Of course, you may have just iked it.,,
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I love this… so true, with every second generation… but at least it was never dumped.
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It would be a hard decision to dump, I think. Thanks Bjorn.
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This is so true! My wife always says how our daughter would have been perfect for her mother to have had. Lovely story Sandra. 🙂
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Thank you! I think this is an alternating generation thing. 🙂
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Karma’s a b***h.
Scott
Mine: http://kindredspirit23.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/friday-fictioneers-962013-bits-of-life-rated-pg13-genre-horror/
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Thanks Scott.
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Yup! That’s me, the little girl with the packing case full of old furniture, knick knacks and books. I loved all that stuff and my house is a museum.
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Funny how different we can be – possessions worry me a little. Glad you could identify with the piece Linda.
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Fabulous! Loved the multi-generational take, heart warming that the daughter kept her mother’s trash in the basement all those years though!
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Yes, it would take a hard daughter to throw it away. 😉
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I would love to have so much *less* in this house – alas, my husband hoards and collects, and, for many reasons, I compromise!
I like that the balance of ownership and attachment ebbs and flows through the three generations. 🙂 Lovely piece, Sandra. 🙂
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My husband ‘collects’ too. We’ve a bookcase full of ancient books on chemical engineering. Why, I’ve no idea. And they’re so old they smell. 😦 Thanks for commenting Joanna.
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Ah, great story! And exactly what happened in my family. My mother was going to toss out or give away my grandmother’s bric-a-brac, but I packed them up and kept them for nearly 40 years until I moved into a house with room for a curio cabinet. However, I suspect my daughter will have a great yard sale after I’m gone. 😉
Here’s mine: http://unexpectedpaths.com/friday-fictioneers/memory-lane/
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I don’t suppose we can expect successive generations to feel the same way, but I think it’s interesting how hoarding seems to skip a generation. Thanks for commenting Maggie.
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Clutter is a controversial issue as is the changing choice of generations – beautifully dealt with both of them. 🙂
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We’re all different, thankfully! Thanks for commenting.
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My pleasure.
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My wife is a collector of antiques and keepsakes. Neither of our children share their mother’s appreciation for such items. I can really relate to this tale. Great story, Sandra.
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It was a big bone of contention between me and my mother, Russell, so I hope you find a satisfactory resolution to this. On the positive side, she was very easy to buy presents for! 🙂
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It does seem to skip a generation.
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Thanks for reading.
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Excellent Sandra. The circle of life so to speak.
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Thanks for reading. 🙂
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Little Debbie,
Week after week you drip sweet words onto the paper. You are a rare talent.
Tom
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It’s the multiple personalities that do the trick, really. 😉
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Loved this Sandra. I think you and I had similar ideas from the prompt this week. This is so true on so many levels, well done
Dee
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Glad you liked it Dee; great minds think alike. 🙂
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We reject what our parents had and then it is craved by those who follow. Funny how that works. You know, it’s been a few weeks since you offed anyone. Are you feeling OK? 🙂
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🙂 🙂 I shall remedy that soon Erin. My thirst is getting bloody…. Thanks for reading.
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Sandra, I almost went this exact direction. I liked how you showed three different generations. That’s probably how a lot of things are kept in the family, by biting your lip. Well done!
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This could be called “The Rebel Daughter.”
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I guess hoarding skips a generation. 🙂
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Lucky when a family member wants the “family treasures”–none of the guilt when they end up in the trash.
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What a nice story. Makes us realize that even though my kids not appreciate my grandmother’s stuff, their kids might. Great job and something to consider.
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Loved it! Sometimes it takes several generations of trees before the apple can fall near it, eh?
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Arthritis is supposed to skip the generations too. Strange how we desire what our grandparents had while rejecting all we grew up with.
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Lovely story. It forgot to skip a generation in my family.
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Thanks for stopping by my blog.
DJ
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