My kids also have inherited some stuff from their dad, a random bag of Star Wars toys and other odd figurines, plus a huge bin of Legos.
They even have some stuff from when their Nini was little and when she was raising me and my sisters. They have some old sweaters made by Nini's neighbor back in Germany, and a doll that she had as a girl.
It is really fun to see my kids playing with the same doll that my mom played with. It is just as cool to see them wearing a sweater I used to wear, or play with toys that I or their father used to play with.
However, it was a long time getting to this point. Growing up, Nini taught me to be well organized and to periodically purge things that were broken or that I had outgrown. Consequently, I like to keep my stuff to a minimum and not feel weighed down.
I also moved several times as a young adult so that meant I had to carry all this stuff with me or into storage more than once. It wasn't always easy or enjoyable moving all that stuff. There were times that I pared down my stuff further, and times that I wished I could pare down even more ... but I had a sense of responsibility and nostalgia to hold onto things just a little longer.
I was surprised at what a relief it was when I could give my son and daughter some of those books and toys. FINALLY they were going to the people for whom I had been saving them for decades.
Recently, at one of Lil Sis's music classes, another mom commented what a nice sweater she had on.
"Did you make it yourself?" The mother asked.
"No," I answered. "It was mine when I was little."
The other mother was clearly impressed and she let our instructor know when there was a chance. "I could never said anything that long." Said the instructor.
I totally knew how the instructor felt.
Then again, in this "throw away" society we never have to hold on to anything for very long. We can always just go out and buy a new one. While it is convenient, it is wreaking havoc on our planet. What if more people did save more of their things for the future generations? It would probably be a healthier world, at least where garbage is concerned. Things would be made to last too.
I remember a conversation Lady Mary had in season two of Downtown Abbey. She was engaged to a nouveau-riche man who had just bought an old estate for them to live in. The couple went to tour the property and it was a huge but bare mansion. "How will we furnish it?" asked Lady Mary. Her betrothed answered something like, "We will just buy things from the factory." Lady Mary was obviously not comfortable with that answer, and replied "In my family we don't buy, we inherit."
Not that we can or should all behave like the old ruling classes, just have more reverence for what we purchase and throw away.
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