My Letter Opener

 This is my letter opener.  It used to belong to my grandfather.  He was the head of the Hog Cholera Research Station which was on East 13th Street here in Ames (picture below).  I used to go there when I was younger and this was on his desk.



                                                                                    I do not know if he and my grandmother went to the Pan American Exposition or not (I doubt it) but my grandmother was an antique collector and later had an antique shop in her home. She probably acquired the letter opener and gave it to him to use.
Over the years it has become somewhat   misshapen but that does not matter to me.

 I love the buffalo head and used to use it to pound on the pipes that ran the length of the Research Station.  When I hit the pipe with the head of the buffalo it made a really nice sound.


Poor thing.

The Pan American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York.  It was from May 1 - November 2, 1901.  It is notable as the place where President William McKinley was assassinate by anarchist, Leon Czoigosz at the Temple of Music on September 6, 1901, he died 8 days later.,  

I was reading the book The Fifth Assassin when I read about the McKinley Assassination. That got me to thinking about the letter opener.  I read until 3 AM and so things are a bit "off" right now.  I imagine I shall nap today.

 My grandfather's office was on the right hand end of the building.  The left side was where they performed autopsies on the dead hogs.  I can still call up memories of him opening up an animal to study it.  The work that was done at the station developed Crystal Violet Vaccine which eradicated the disease in the United States.

Hog Cholera was eradicated in the United States thanks in part to the work done here.  My grandfather - Dr. C. G. Cole is mentioned in this article

Department scientists realized that a control method involving use of the live virus offered no hope for eradicating hog cholera. So they began work toward a protective vaccine made with killed virus. Research of Drs. Dorset and McBryde, and C.G. Cole at Ames culminated in the development of the crystal violet killed vaccine in 1935. An initial problem of contaminants in the vaccine was overcome when F.W. Tilley patented a procedure 10 years later for preparing a consistently sterile crystal violet vaccine.

I remember Dr. Tilly.  These guys put up with me. There was also Clarence Cameron who worked there. He went by Cameron - He and my grandfather both had the same first name and neither of them liked it. My grandfather was called "Doc" or "Dig" - They called each other P. T.   Since my grandfather was the head of the station he got to live in the farm house on the property.  It was a great place to live and play as a kid as it was surrounded by woods.  but I digress.  Have a great day ARTYAL.

The Lamp

When I was just out of High School in October of 1959 my grandmother died.  It was a devastating loss to the family.  She was the glue that held us all together.

My grandfather was the one most affected. The light went out of his life.  He was distraught.  My grandmother had an antique shop.  She had started out collecting them and over the years got so many of them that she opened a shop in order to have room in the house.  I grew up in their home.  My mother and later my mother and my sister and I lived with them.  Single mom's in the late 40's and 50's did not make a living wage and so her parents provided us rooms to live in.
Because I grew up in the shop I developed a great appreciation for antiques.  When my grandmother died the antiques had to go.  No one in the family could take over the shop and so things began to disappear.  One of the things that got sold was this lamp.  I can't remember the name of the woman who bought it but it was sold.

Sometime after it was sold my grandfather told his daughters that he was sorry he had sold it.  Because it was a tie to my grandmother and because it is a beautiful piece he regretted letting it go. He missed it.  They got in touch with the woman who had bought it and she sold it back. This was an incredibly kind thing to do. The only condition she put on it was that if he ever did decide to sell it she would get first chance to repurchase it.  It was agreed and The Lamp came home.

After my grandfather died my mother put all of the remaining antiques on tables and invited her sisters to come down and take their pick of the things that remained. (Not all of the antiques had been sold for many were family pieces.)  Through this process the lamp remained with us but the silver bowl sitting beside it went to my Aunt Ellen. (I was sorry to see that go for it was my favorite piece) -  So the lamp has been in my home since before 1959.  I love it and worry about it every time I have to change a light bulb. It lights both top and bottom.

The silver bowl came back when my mother was given the same opportunity to pick from my Aunt Ellen's things that she gave to her sisters.  She knew that I loved it and so she got it back for me.  It means more since it left and came back.  The black marble top table which they sit upon belongs to my sister.

Things Around the House.

 Quite some time ago we visited friends in Minnesota.  They had what they called a "bam bam" clock which sat on their mantle piece and chimed the hours.  I always wanted one.  A friend of mine had one and when her husband died she gave her chiming clock to his family because it had originally come from them.  She wanted to replace it so I took her down to Des Moines to the Amana Shop where they sold products made in the Amanas.  She chose to get an Eli Terry Clock 

Eli Terry, was an American clock maker in the early 1800s, popularized this design. Three top finials and turned posts are trademarks of this clock.  This is also one of the first clock designs ever produced in the Amana Furniture Shop.

**This design has been RETIRED from their shop.  Only available stock will be sold...no special orders will be taken.

- Solid wood bench-made construction

When my friend hesitated at getting the clock, even though I knew she wanted it I encouraged her to go ahead and get it.  I told her she was better off to get something she liked of quality than to get something she would not wind up enjoying as much as she would this one.  I also told her she should spend her money on herself.  So she did and she was happy about it.  When she passed several years later I acquired the clock because I liked it and because it reminded me of her.  

It has a chime that goes off on the quarter hour and at midnight it rings 12 times.  When my sister lived with me I had to shut the chime off as it bothered her.  I love listening to it and at night I sleep right through the chimes.  The sleep of innocence or something like that.  Anyway enjoy listening to the Chimes at Midnight. 

The shelf above the clock is full of what my great Aunts used to call 

knick knacks.  They had a shelf they kept knick knacks on and it was full of little figurines.  I think my Bronze Cocker Spaniel may have come from there.  They were endlessly fascinating to look at...but don't touch.  

The shelf used to contain my mother's small cup and saucer collection but I had to put them away because Miss Cassie likes to knock valuable things over.  Never the knick knacks but when she broke one of mother's cups I put them away.

All this reminds me of a perfectly terrible joke so stop here if you wish.

A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her name plate that the teller's name is Patricia Whack.

So, he says, "Mrs. Whack, I'd like to get a loan to buy a boat and go on a long vacation." Patti looks at the frog in disbelief and asks how much he wants to borrow.

The frog says "$30,000." The teller asks his name and the frog says that his name is Kermit Jagger, his dad is Mick Jagger, and that it is OK, he knows the bank manager.

Patti explains that $30,000 is a substantial amount of money and that he will need to secure some collateral against the loan. She asks if he has anything he can use as collateral.

The frog says, "Sure. I have this," and produces a tiny pink porcelain pig, about half an inch tall. Bright pink and perfectly formed.

Very confused, Patti explains that she'll have to consult with the manager and disappears into a back office.

She finds the manager and says: "There is a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000. And he wants to use this as collateral."

She holds up the tiny pink pig.
"I mean, what the heck is this?"

 (are you ready?)
 (are you sure?)
 (here it comes!!!)

The bank manager looks back at her and says,
"It's a knick knack, Patti Whack.
Give the frog a loan.
His old man's a Rolling Stone."

Happy Tuesday!