Monday, December 7, 2020

Old Book Story

I inherited an old set of Encylopedias from my Mom.  I just love them.  They are leather bound and so fun to look through.  The story on how she got them is she worked at a bank in McMinnville, Oregon when we lived there for many years.  She heard that the bank manager was having a garage sale and she went there.  She liked these books but didn't feel she could spend the money, so he gave them to her.  She kept these through many moves and until she had to downsize to move into a retirement home.  I told her I'd take care of them for her as I had bookshelves in our house.  And here they stay to this day.  


They are beautifully made, the inside covers are hand made marbled paper and even the edges of the pages are marbled.


Our son Travis came to pick up Caleb who'd spent a few nights with us, we were visiting in the living room and were talking about google and I asked him to get one of these old books out to see how we researched information in "the olden days".  He found this in the book, someone obviously used it as a bookmark.  It's a little envelope used to keep gemstones, rings and such.


I love this page in hand-writing of the era.


We tried to explain to Caleb how difficult it use to be to find information, how you had to hand-write your entire report, if you made a mistake you had to start over.  :-)


Imagine this was just 129 years ago.  How much has changed from then to now.


There are several maps in these.  


This one is for my English readers!  Is your home on this map?


They covered 4 US states in this one.  I hope you enjoyed seeing one of my old books.


Chef Dayle made us a rather huge pot of beef stew.. we ate it for 3 days and we decided we couldn't eat another bowl of it.


I gave up on my new tree and Travis and Dayle put up the old one.  I have yet to decorate it but progress is being made.


New pillow cover, old blanket.. :-)




We went on a trek yesterday to adopt a few more pieces of jadeite that were no longer wanted.  :-)


My wonderful blog friend, Amanda, from "Crafty in the Med" blog is the only blogger who played along and printed up my card.  Thank you, Amanda!!  


I hope you are making the best of your holidays during this difficult time.  We are losing each day the same amount of lives lost in 9/11.  Please be safe and take care of yourself.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)  

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 *H*A*P*P*Y* * *H*O*L*I*D*A*Y*S*!*!*!*
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14 comments:

  1. Your tree and mantle look so pretty Teresa! And those old, old books!! Love the marbled paper and the handwriting. Just beautiful. Don't you love looking at old maps?

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  2. How lovely to see your old encyclopaedias. I particularly love the marbled paper. To think how long it used to take to look up a fact back in the day. The old handwriting is gorgeous too. B x

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  3. We're just staying home and going nowhere. That's okay with me right now. I just spent 2 hours ZOOMing with Alex, Tara, Jamie and the kids and Dennis. It's Alex's birthday and Tara arranged for all of us to be on ZOOM at noon today in our various time zones. Dennis was even able to join in from his office since it was lunchtime. He just hung up earlier than I did. :-)
    I loved seeing all of your encyclopedias. We had two different set's at home, Funk and Wagnall's and I don't remember the others. It was so much harder to write papers back then. If you were lucky you could type it but then if there was an error at the bottom of the page. Oops! Start over!
    I spy the Jim Shore sleigh on the mantle. Yay! It's taking shape isn't it? I'm sorry about your new tree, but the old one is still beautiful and you're lucky you kept it.
    Dayles stew looks delicious. Take care and stay safe and well.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  4. More lovely Jaidette for you 😀😀 I have not done a post minding kiddies lol
    Love the old books I have a couple kept safe. Google is amazing and I often tell my older grandies about encyclopedia and atlas and dictionary lol

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  5. Your Christmas decorations are so pretty. You are accumulating a nice collection of the jadeite, love seeing your new pieces. We were given a set of Britannica when our kids were in grade school, but they were nowhere near as pretty as the set you have.

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  6. Savoring the contents of old books is a joy to me, too. I especially like to look at old maps although I usually have a new atlas near my favorite reading chair now. It is lovely seeing your living room full of festive lights as you ready the tree for decorations. Enjoy! Did you freeze the tiresome stew for a quick future meal? :-) xx

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  7. That is a handsome set of old leather bound encyclopedias and I am glad you are taking care of them. It would be fascinating to read some of the articles and see the world from their perspective. I am a librarian and old books have a special place in my heart.

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  8. If my printer was working I would have definitely printed your card. Love the old encyclopedia. We had a small bookshelf with the ones we owned at the time that were much used during school days, but they weren't so lovely as the ones you have. Wonder what happened to the tree on order? Oh well, you still have a lovely one that you can still enjoy decorating. Lovely jadeite too, to add to your collection. Take care.

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  9. Always enjoy your blog but haven't commented before. What a surprise to see your encyclopedia open at a map of Warwickshire. I live in the heart of the county in Leamington Spa, a five minute walk from Wool Warehouse 😄. Unfortunately their wonderful showroom is currently closed to the public due to covid. Keep up your cheery blogs.

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  10. When my children were young, we bought a set of World Book Encyclopedias. They always used those when writing reports for school - until the computer was purchased! I kept them for years because they always loved looking through them. Gave them away once they were grown.

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  11. Oh Teresa, Your home is cheering to me! !I love the white lights. WE have not ;put the trees up yet. Your books would absolutely be enchanting to Allison My Librarian Nurse

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  12. Gosh, those books are works of art. You don't see that type of care taken with books these days. Glad you still have them and care about them.

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  13. What a treasure your encyclopedias are! My grandmother had a set of World Books that I loved as a child. I bet someone tossed them. The earth was embossed on the front and I thought they were wonderful. I used to take one to bed every night to read when I used to spend the night. Araignee

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  14. Dear Teresa, your home is so lovely and cosy! Your wreaths, your tree, your blancets! And I do love your old books!! I own a few old Bibles, although the copper parts did not survive the second W.W. The Christmas tree is in the room since yesterday, but not yet decorated. I bought it yesterday, and it always needs a night to fluff out. A good thing I didn't decorate, for I found it on the floor this morning. Today I was working on my DIY. christmascards as I do for half a century. :-) A little burlap angel, from Pinterest but with my own twist. My two sisters and me sat down for a nice coffee, the three of us. So gratefull we live close! Thank you for a lovely post, stay safe, love, Janneke, Netherlands.

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