Grandmother's Button Box

Dear Diary,

When I wrote about my grandfather's box of old keys, someone commented that they loved to look at their grandmother's button box and that got me thinking, and remembering. As children, we played with my grandmothers "common" buttons. Sorting them, using them as currency, stringing them into necklaces. I went looking for my grandmother's old box of buttons to photograph and include in this journal.

Actually, it was a tin, a glass jar and a box of buttons that I inherited from my grandmother. There were several generations of buttons! But the one I remember best is this old, hand-made wooden box that she kept by her favorite chair in the living room. She told me her father made it for her mother. I gathered all the special buttons for this photograph and it made quite a beautiful still life all nestled into the small wooden box.

They look like tiny pieces of gold and silver...a box of gems and precious coins. That's how I viewed these buttons 60 years ago...a treasure chest worthy of any pirate to bury.

Bits and pieces of past lives...that's what these buttons represent and, like the keys, every one has a story to tell. I had a friend who collected buttons, he had thousands of them. When he died, I helped his wife make shadow boxes with his picture and some of his collection to give to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. As "payment" for helping her, she allowed me to pick out a few buttons to have and I included one in this photograph. It really tickled me to be using buttons again as currency!

This journal, once I get it printed into a book at the end of the year, will be my "bits and pieces" to pass on. It will hold all the moments I collected over the year and, like the keys and the buttons, each has a story. And, thankfully, it won't just be a box of photographs...people will be able to read the stories as well!