I was just talking with a co-worker about tradition in the South... all things that reference my Southern Studies degree and the things I learned in those seminar classes and what I noticed from my experience growing up in Mississippi. The handing down of furniture from one generation to the next; it may not be until Grandma passes away before her daughter or grandchild gets the old dresser, dining table, sideboard table, etc... But it is handed down nonetheless. The furniture has connections, soul, memories. Southerners have tended to be physically connected to certain items, like grandfather clocks and wardrobes.
In my mom's house there's a grandfather clock I want one day and I hope to have it repaired so that it works again. I love the pendulum. That clock is in my childhood memories at home. There's a table that was my grandmother's which was also her mother's... It is now in my mom's house and will likely be in either mine or my sister's house one day. I have my grandmother's sewing machine which was her grandmother's sewing machine. I still use it sometimes. There's a table for it still in my mom's house with rod-iron legs.
Why are Southerners connected to the past physically through furniture? Were Southerners concerned about handing down these items before the Civil War? Was it the war and its economic threat that made many Southerners hold on to these tables, dressers, clocks, wardrobes, sets of china and silverware, etc.? Or was it before the war? I think that is an important piece of the puzzle.
I feel an attachment to these things because of history, family, story, connection, spirit, identity. History because it grounds a family or person into the history book depiction of a devastating war on a country. Family because it connects me with the persons further up the family tree, the ones I may or may not have agreed with but their lives and stories live on. Story is just that: the knick in the wood, the stain, the paint, the broken leg or missing bolt in the furniture tells stories of how family lives affected ("left its mark on") the furniture. Connection because as independent and "me" as I want to be, I am still connected to the stories and lives of those who preceded me in my family. Spirit gives a sense of respect or maybe admiration for the individuals of the past who left their mark on that furniture and therefore, when I touch that old grandfather clock I am also in touch with the spirit of my grandmother's grandmother, etc. And identity.... Identity is all of this. Identity is knowing who you are, where you come from, who you come from and why you're a part of that story and how it affects your story now, your life now.
For instance, my grandmother told a story once of when she was in her early twenties and digging around in her grandmother's attic. She came across a trunk and opened it up to find a white robe and hood. She was surprised to see this and was shocked at this being in the family. This was at the old house in Bowling Green, KY. For a long time my grandmother had that trunk, and I think that is the one which is now on the back porch at my mom's house. The robe and hood is long gone; probably thrown away long before I was born. In contrast to that story and a perfect example of how a family line can have multiple stances on an issue, I have old family photographs (ambrotypes and tintypes) of a gentleman dressed in a Union uniform with his son. He is most likely Colonel John H. Grider of the Union Army, 52nd Kentucky infantry, I found after doing some researching of the family tree. (You can view that here. And that website I created for family is here: Collectively Speaking.
Anyway... I am rambling as usual. I like thinking about family, tradition, hand-me-downs, "artifacts" of that kind.... the how and why those things are kept and what do they mean not only as a physical item but as a sentimental item. I have a lot of things I keep sentimentally, both in paper form and in physical form. I have tiny Russian dolls for when I had a penpal from Kazakhstan. I have rocks and stones which are reminders to me of particular memories. Books and journals, obviously. Jewelry both given to me and handed-down to me. I don't have any of the furniture yet, but one day I may.
I have been wondering how this translates into Appalachian culture... Southerners from Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia did that kind of furniture hand-me-down sort of thing for reasons that may or may not have existed in the Appalachian region. And if things were handed down, what kind of things? Quilts is one I am sure, but what else and to what extent?
I guess I better get on to other things now. Coordinating for these student sessions for the Summit this year... I wish I didn't have to do this because I would much rather go to the Celebration of Traditional Music and/or the Clear Creek Healing Arts Festival, both the same weekend of the Summit. *grumble grumble*
No comments:
Post a Comment