Going to my parents' house is not, in fact, going home. It's maybe like going home, but only because my parents are there. They retired to Utah six years ago, leaving behind a very long stint of Southern California living. But don't get me wrong - my parents' place is beautiful and lush, and the perfect place for them. Visiting there is like a nice vacation, even with that stupid bark.
My intention when I took the pictures to play What is THAT was to capture some of the fantastic things that I grew up with - things like THE GIANT KEY, which graced our family room wall for my entire childhood. Sadly, the giant key is nowhere to be found at my parents' house because they left it at the old house.
Luckily, I did find some good stuff that was pretty tricky. So without much more delay, here are the answers:
Mystery Object 1: WOODEN PUSSY WILLOW SCULPTURE THING
I did grow up with this. It hung on the wall outside the pink bathroom. I don't know where it came from, but it's one of those iconic things that I just sort of took for granted. Because who doesn't have a wooden pussy willow and mirror combo hanging in their house, right?
Mystery Object 2: No one got this right, exactly. And then I was stupid and didn't even take a picture of the objects being used in their proper context. D'oh! The silver cans were once upon a time large tall cans that held baby formula (for my 17-year-old niece, I believe). They are now used for baking bread. When mom bakes wheat bread, she bakes it in these cans, resulting in tall round loaves. It's adorable. And funny. And again: something I always took for granted. Do I even have a picture of the round bread? NO. Am stupid.
Mystery Object 3: Drawer pulls. Drawer pulls on this desk, which lives in the purple room. This is the desk that once upon a time lived at Jackie's house, our stand-in grandma who lived across the street. After she and her husband passed away, we received most of their things, including this desk. It will one day be mine. I love this desk. It held Jackie's letters and bills - and whenever I'd go to her house to play, she would reach into the deep confines of this desk to pull out a pad of paper and short little pencils for us to draw with. Bonus picture of THE MARVELOUS BACKPACK.
Mystery Object 4: A FRAMED CROSS-STITCH THAT HANGS IN THE PURPLE ROOM. Made by my fantastic sister-in-law, wife to the Little Brother. That's a square of the original purple carpet that once graced the floor of the purple room.
Mystery Object 5: Another one I really stumped you guys with. This little gem is a table AND a lamp AND a magazine holder! A wonderful little item that my dad made, once upon a time. It now lives in the red, white, and blue room, but throughout my childhood it lived in our family room. There is a stupid little wooden ball on top of the lamp that doesn't screw the lampshade in. According to my mother, it has NEVER screwed the lampshade in. Notice a bit of the unfinished quillo back there hanging on the wall? That would be some of my window-covering handywork.
Mystery Object 6: The infamous door-knocker like thing. Except it's NOT! It's a decoration on my mom's cedar chest. This houses old baby blankets and other heirloom-y items.
Mystery Object 7: HA! What seemed to be Santa Claus, is, in fact, UNCLE SAM! On a very colorful and decorative pillow that naturally lives in the red, white, and blue room.
Mystery Object 8: Perhaps what Chip would consider to be the most disturbing item in my folks' house, THE COW CLOCK. My favorite guess was a life preserver. So awesome. I was impressed that Amanda did actually guess that it belonged to a cow. My most favorite part of this thing? The swinging UDDER, which goes back and forth like a little pendulum.
Bonus Mystery Object: The bag of Mother's Circus Animal cookies I snacked on for two weeks. Mmmmm sprinkles!
I did grow up with this. It hung on the wall outside the pink bathroom. I don't know where it came from, but it's one of those iconic things that I just sort of took for granted. Because who doesn't have a wooden pussy willow and mirror combo hanging in their house, right?
Mystery Object 2: No one got this right, exactly. And then I was stupid and didn't even take a picture of the objects being used in their proper context. D'oh! The silver cans were once upon a time large tall cans that held baby formula (for my 17-year-old niece, I believe). They are now used for baking bread. When mom bakes wheat bread, she bakes it in these cans, resulting in tall round loaves. It's adorable. And funny. And again: something I always took for granted. Do I even have a picture of the round bread? NO. Am stupid.
Mystery Object 3: Drawer pulls. Drawer pulls on this desk, which lives in the purple room. This is the desk that once upon a time lived at Jackie's house, our stand-in grandma who lived across the street. After she and her husband passed away, we received most of their things, including this desk. It will one day be mine. I love this desk. It held Jackie's letters and bills - and whenever I'd go to her house to play, she would reach into the deep confines of this desk to pull out a pad of paper and short little pencils for us to draw with. Bonus picture of THE MARVELOUS BACKPACK.
Mystery Object 4: A FRAMED CROSS-STITCH THAT HANGS IN THE PURPLE ROOM. Made by my fantastic sister-in-law, wife to the Little Brother. That's a square of the original purple carpet that once graced the floor of the purple room.
Mystery Object 5: Another one I really stumped you guys with. This little gem is a table AND a lamp AND a magazine holder! A wonderful little item that my dad made, once upon a time. It now lives in the red, white, and blue room, but throughout my childhood it lived in our family room. There is a stupid little wooden ball on top of the lamp that doesn't screw the lampshade in. According to my mother, it has NEVER screwed the lampshade in. Notice a bit of the unfinished quillo back there hanging on the wall? That would be some of my window-covering handywork.
Mystery Object 6: The infamous door-knocker like thing. Except it's NOT! It's a decoration on my mom's cedar chest. This houses old baby blankets and other heirloom-y items.
Mystery Object 7: HA! What seemed to be Santa Claus, is, in fact, UNCLE SAM! On a very colorful and decorative pillow that naturally lives in the red, white, and blue room.
Mystery Object 8: Perhaps what Chip would consider to be the most disturbing item in my folks' house, THE COW CLOCK. My favorite guess was a life preserver. So awesome. I was impressed that Amanda did actually guess that it belonged to a cow. My most favorite part of this thing? The swinging UDDER, which goes back and forth like a little pendulum.
Bonus Mystery Object: The bag of Mother's Circus Animal cookies I snacked on for two weeks. Mmmmm sprinkles!
Which means that the winner is (and I'm not kidding): ELEANOR Q!!! The lovely EQ guessed five of the objects correctly, and received bonus points for actually identifying the bonus mystery object as not only cookies, but MOTHER'S cookies! Congrats, Eleanor Q!
Thanks to everyone for playing. I took some additional pictures of mystery items at my parents' place - so we might be playing again some time.
5 comments:
You mom still makes bread that way. So good. My mom used to when we were little but then she stopped. I remember grandma had a round funny toaster oven of sorts that we would take her round bread and melt cheese on for lunch.
This was so fun! I think this should be a recurring feature!
I won! I won! Whoohoo!
Side note: you're from SoCal? Really? Can we discuss this? It changes everything!
Also, Chip's comment about the cow clock had me laughing out loud.
Cookies here I come!
Okay, but WAIT. Those are not pussy willows. Those are cattails. Pussy willows are those little peanut-sized grey soft puffs all over a shrub. Cattails are the hot-dog-on-a-swaying-stick things.
Swistle is RIGHT and I am delusional. My parents (the tie-breakers) awarded a half point to EQ for the guessing that #1 grows around a lake, with the accidental identification of pussy willows. SO. That means that both Swistle AND EQ won. My bad.
Post a Comment