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October 22, 2010

Collections

It is getting colder now.  And I will spend more time indoors.  So I am turning my focus to the inside of my house, looking at my collections anew, figuring out if I want to change anything, or move it.

Somehow I collected a whole lot of the Westerwald pottery, which I've loved since I was small.  There was one of the potteries in our area, not the Westerwald, but across the Rhine river in the Hunsrueck. (Don't worry, even few Germans have heard of the Hunsrueck, unless they watched the TV series 'Heimat').

Anyway, the collection is a little bit of home.  And since somehow I got two carpets from my parents house, it's even more home.
Here is a view of my pottery:

 I found this 'bottle' at a flea market in Germany.  It came together with a crock, and I was only interested in the bottle.  My brother nudged me, and told me not to be silly, to get the crock as well.  Of course now I'm happy I did.  I think this crock is probably one of the oldest in my collection.
 These are all pitchers.  The collection fills the space above the glass-sliding doors to the deck, and fills the space across from one wall to the other.  How I collected that many, I have no idea.  Some I brought back in a suitcase, some were found here.
 That's in my kitchen, and a lot - I mean lot - of them are from my cousin.  Either lugged in luggage, or given to me when I visited Germany.

This pitcher has special meaning.  My brother saw it in some barn in Germany, asked for it for me, and it still had some very solid linseed oil in it from years ago.  We tried our best to get it out.  It then was carefully wrapped in clothes, put in the middle of the suitcase, and off I went.  9/11 happened on that trip home, and the plane turned back to Germany.  
I had to stay several more days, tried getting on a flight, all the time dragging the suitcase with the crock with me to the airport.  I finally made it on a flight to Washington, DC, while the suitcase went to Newark.  Long story in between, and I finally was re-united with the suitcase. 
The crock was still intact, but all that travelling had shaken loose whatever leftovers of linseed oil were still stuck in it, and I had linseed oil all over my clothes.  
To tell the truth, after that catastrophe and absolute horror of 911, I really didn't care about the clothes, and wasn't  even worried about getting the suitcase back.  
I did, and the crock survived it all, and every time I look at it, it's my reminder of that day and period.

2 comments:

  1. cool! tolle geschichten wie immer! das wäre was für holger ;-) viele grüsse ausm hunsrück!

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  2. Oh yes, "Heimat" was wonderful to look at.
    I've been sometimes in Klotten an der Mosel, near Cochem for hollidays.
    You've got so many bottels, nice memories...
    But that oil-bottle, oh oh. All clothes in oil...
    so they will live longer, if there was not that horrible date.

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