Monday, May 29, 2006

Why Cedar Chest of Dreams?

There's a story that has followed me through my life. It concerns a grandfather I never knew and a grandmother who did what she could to make one of his dreams come true.
My grandparents fell in love and married somewhere in the 1930's. Somehow they scraped up enough money to buy a small farm. On the property they planted, first of all, cedar trees. My grandfather told my grandmother that with one of those trees he'd make for his first granddaughter a cedar chest.
As they built their lives and had children, my mother being the firstborn, hard times fell upon them. Drought distroyed most of the crops year after year and nothing much did live on that farm except those cedar trees. Depression took over my grandfather's life and feeling very defeated, he began to drink quite heavily. Before long they lost the farm. My grandmother took a low paying job in town to help the family survive and my grandfather, after being struck by lightening and surviving, became a bitter man who drank even more heavily and finally bought some moonshine from somebody and died of alcohol poisoning.
My grandmother finished raising her children and when I was born, the first grandchild, she still had memories of the day she and my grandfather planted those cedar trees. My grandmother struggled her whole life with low paying jobs and hard times. When I graduated from highschool she presented me with a brand new cedar chest. It wasn't from my grandfather's trees but she'd scrimped and saved for years to be able to buy it for me. She told me it was his dream for me and that it was from him and her. Tears flowed for sure, and now, thirty years later that cedar chest is my most prized possession.
And that is why this is the Cedar Chest of Dreams.
Later!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Robbin,

My name is Remie and I just read your Ceader Chest of Dreams and enjoyed the visual / emotional, that went with your well written words. I look back on the times of our Grandparents and see how they struggled to make ends meet. I look at the present and see the same struggles with a society whose direction has been lost. I hope the stories of these new generations of today, will be the stories of memories to guarded commitments and new directions, that reshape where we are and where, they will go.
Peace & Kindest Regards,
Remie Danielson
Baltimore, MD.

Robbin said...

Thank you for your comments, Remi. I hope the same.
Robbin

Kelly said...

Robbin,

This is such a touching story. What a beautiful way to commemorate your grandparents.

Ms G said...

I am touched by your story. Thanks for sharing.

Meg Kelso said...

Robbin,

That was a lovely story and it makes us all think back to our own grandparents and the times that they went through. How wonderful that through all of their problems, your grandmother still loved and remembered the man that she married. She must have been a wonderful woman. My grandmother was as well, I miss her more than anything in this world...I try to honor her by being the best Grandma that I can be. I'm sure that you honor yours and make her proud everyday.

Meg

Robbin said...

Thank you Meg, yep she was really special to me and I miss her bunches!
Thanks for coming by!

Anonymous said...

I love stories such as these. I only like reading non-fiction as an adult. There is nothing more interesting to me than someone's life story and how they got to where they did. Wonderful!

Linda S. Socha said...

Robbin
I have just read your cedar chest story and I love it and can relate personally to it. My grandfather, paternal, lived in Tennessee on a farm that abounded with cedar trees.

He had a special chest made for each of his children including the boys one of which was my father. These chests are still in our family. I have a special blanket chest from his farm trees also.. Now that farm is no longer in our family but the chests and the memories remain. Thank you for sharing this story
Linda

Polly & Steve said...

Dear Robbin, I loved your Cedar Chest Story, I have one that my Mother gave me in 1968 when I married my husband, Steve had a Cedar Bedroom suite that he saved his money and bought when he was 16. Our Son (age 37) sleeps in this bed with his wife Katie and promised that he would never get rid of it. We slept in it for 30 years. You brought back a lot of memories.
Hugs
Polly and Steve

Anonymous said...

It was certainly interesting for me to read the article. Thanx for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to them. I would like to read a bit more on that blog soon.

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