Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for March 05, 2021

Well, that’s just depressing.

Free to a good home! 8^ (

Write CHINA on the box and maybe someone will send it there.

Put it all in an Amazon box on your porch and wait for porch thieves to take it.

I’d gift wrap it and put the box in the back seat of my car, but with my luck, the thief would leave the box and steal my car!

A couple days ago I found this thread from 2018and so I knew this was coming. I’ve thought about it a lot already. Everything about it, her absolute need to share her grandmother’s story, her struggle to haul out the boxes, her forelorn expression, just everything makes you wish you could do something for her. Can JJ make a story or what.

It’s Janis’ pain alone. At least she doesn’t have to tell anyone that it was sent to a nice farm upstate.

The taker of the box made the story into a book, it became a bestseller. Sadly the taker had been screwed over by the publisher that talked him into publishing anonymously and got nothing but a few author’s copies. He is ever since on the roam, searching for new stories on the curb of suburban dwellings always muttering to himself that the next find will have a prewritten story that’ll make him rich and famous.

Tricking someone into stealing the box, who doesn’t know what’s in it, just means they’ll be the ones to throw it away.

Might as well put it in the trash yourself.

But Janis is always online on her phone…

why not just list in on Craigslist, Freecycle or a similar local site and give it to someone who’ll pick it up on purpose?

One person saying you can’t give it away doesn’t make it true…

but if it DOES turn out that way, you can offer it to a homeless shelter, a women’s shelter or a thrift shop…

at least you’re giving it a shot at a new home.

If it’s old, unless it’s really ugly, I think someone will take it.

There is another option is to sell them to a company that specializes in this sort of stuff. Its a company in NC called Replacements Limited. There are others I’m sure but better that than having them destroyed.

Including the Provenance..

When my grandmother died many, many years ago, I went through her attic and found an old photo album. That, along with a handwritten genealogy, were the only two items I took. I scanned them all recently and have sent family members the photos via email, along with PDFs of the genealogy. What, if anything, family does with it is their business.

Is there a Greek restaurant in town?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_smashing

Or a trap and skeet club?

Soon someone will pick those boxes up have the china appraised and find out the stuff is rare and worth mega-bucks.

She’s leaving by the curb. Hope its not trash day.

I used to live in Chattanooga

Gift wrap it!

Thrift stores will take it.

Instant ancestors.

Considering how much a set of china costs, whoever picks up the curbside freebee, is getting an expensive gift.

They must have a “walk-up” mailman. Ours wouldn’t be able to reach that mailbox from the street!

Why doesn’t she just use the china and enjoy the memories of her grandmother?

She should write her genealogy

Evidently, Janis doesn’t have www.freecycle.org in her area.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/a-rare-chinese-porcelain-bowl-found-at-a-yard-sale-could-fetch-24500000-at-auction/ar-BB1ecBAY

We have several things we’ve collected over the years. Paid somewhat good money ($5 for beanies), some quite of bit of money ( up to $100 each for figurines). We can’t hardly give them away.

Had to donate my mom’s china to a thrift shop. Nobody would buy it. Not even the local auction house nor my sister & I wanted it. And I’m from Chattanooga! I wonder if JJ had a specific ‘small town near Chattanooga’ in mind when he wrote this? Would love to know if he did.

);

Sad part is, all the good china, and her letter, will wind up at the landfill.

Keep the memories and donate the ‘stuff’ to people in need.

the generations have gradually (and now, SUDDENLY) gotten to where they don’t CARE about their lineage, their ancestry, their heritage…where they COME from. The current generation just seems to care about THEMSELVES, what’s happening NOW, what everybody on social media THINKS about them, and instant gratification! (yes, I’m sure there ARE exceptions, but they are few.) There doesn’t even seem to be a core family, anymore. Sadly…even the PARENTS bury their faces in a phone…they TEXT each other, from a different room!

I was given a very ornate coffee table by the son of an old friend. It was in terrible shape, and I’m an amateur restorer. On the bottom I found an envelope with a letter much like Janis wrote, telling the origin of the table several generations back. I reattached it when I was done with the restoration.

Adulting hurts…

if this comic touches you try watching The Repair Shop on Netflix. All sweetness and feel good and fixing of things that have more sentiment than monetary value.

It hurts because so many of us who are Janis’ age can relate, sigh

My Dad had been a ham radio operator for seventy years. When he passed, I had no idea what to do with is 30 year old equipment. I happened to run across a site that was looking for used ham equipment. It was a ministry that distributed the equipment to missionaries in remote places. I’m sure Dad is pleased.

even Goodwill doesn’t want some china. We went to drop off donations at the back of our store , and there was an employee gleefully throwing china into the dumpster, one at a time, smashing them to bits.

My mom had a set of “good” china, which was only trotted out at Thanksgiving when company came for dinner. The daily dishes were Harlequin ware, gradually replaced by Melmac until my former sister-in-law broke the last dish when I was about eight years old. When Mom died, nobody in the family wanted the “good” stuff so it went to a family friend who was happy to scavenge. I never asked, but I wondered if my siblings rejected it for the same reason I did—it hurt my feelings that we only deserved to eat from depressing, scratched up plastic dishes unless outsiders were involved. I do, however, still have the two remaining Harlequin cups, which I rescued long before Mom died for fear that she would throw them in the trash.

I’m wondering, “Why the hell is she throwing that china out? If she wants her kid to have it, then eventually he’ll get it when she dies. In the mean time, it appears to be precious to her.”

If you need someone professional to help you clear out an estate check out the profile of Alice Pace on LinkedIn. She’s expert.

Chattanooga, Oklahoma or Tennessee?

So why does she have to get rid of it in the first place? If it was me I’d just leave it in the attic and forget about it! If I got rid of it like Janis is doing, I would probably feel so guilty about it that it would bother me for the rest of my life! I know, I’d just be making it someone else’s problem if I kept it, but then at least I wouldn’t be around to feel bad (very selfish, I know)!

Sad story, and all too common. I hope that she at least took photos of the china and saved a digital copy of her grandmother’s story. Gene will one day appreciate reading and seeing that.

My parents were given a set of dishes for a wedding present. 30 years later it was time for a new set. She was so attached to the old ones that she couldn’t bare to toss the remnants. She took the platter to a jeweler and he turned it into a clock which she hung in the kitchen. Another 30 years go by and now it is hanging in my kitchen. A family treasure I am so glad to have.

Wait – Trash?

She needs to do her genealogy and put that information in the memories section of FamilySearch.org.

My grandmother was born in 1885 in Sloan, Iowa and in 1893 moved to Geary, OK.

Thrift shop, church sale, charity shop. There are other less depressing solutions.

I hope she included a good glue because the receiver will need it. That comes along with her good intentions. Instead, give to an antique shop. No one will buy it but will oggle over it for years. Then maybe the 3rd generation from now will offer $10. but you will be long gone to care. Sad story but common. I have same situation now.

Where I live, you put a “FREE” sign on it, and it’s certain to be gone within 1/2 hour.

This story and the comments remind me of something Erma Bombeck wrote before she died. Among other “If I Had My Life To Do Over” comments", she said “I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage”.

Use them for every day dishes and you will remember her every day.

Oh, the amount of Royal Albert “Old Country Roses” bone china (pattern has gold leaf, so no microwave) I have around….