Collectable...Delectables

I have a few things I've collected over the years. Santas are the ones my kiddos would probably say first if asked what their Mommo collects...but I also collect these little beauties..vintage tablecloths. I've picked a few up at yard sales, or antique shows, but I scored really big the last few years from a friend who's Mother-in-law started paring down her own collection. Estelle is almost 90 and I've been blessed to have her pick out a few of her favs for me to take home and cherish. By the way, if you met Estelle you'd never guess she's that age. She's tall, ram rod straight posture, beautiful, with lovely red hair that is perfectly coiffed by her hair dresser daughter. She's an artist too. Her paintings are amazing! I'm very thankful that she trusts me with her "babies"..Why do I collect these? Why do I love them? I guess I always wonder what was happening when these were on tables back in the 50's..times when families sat together for meals, when days were a bit slower. After the sadness, and darkness of WWII... brightness was needed. The homes of the 50's showed that brightness if you look back at photos or look at what was popular in furniture and appliances.
The colors are so vivid and the flowers so beautiful. They cheer up the dreary days and add more life to the sunny ones!
This tablecloth really isn't vintage..well, perhaps it is if you consider 1976 a vintage year. My Dad had passed away a week before Thanksgiving that year and Jack had just graduated from the Chiro college. We were packed right after Christmas and leaving Chicago for Ashland. I was excited to go on to this new adventure, but the timing was a bit off. This wasn't how it was suppose to go down. Dad was suppose to be here to help us move. Maybe Mom wouldn't be as torn up about her oldest daughter flying the coup with our year old baby if Dad was there to soften the blow. My family is Catholic and there's a Mass that is held 40 days after someone passes. After that Mass for Dad, the clan all gathered at my Mom's for dinner. This tablecloth dressed her table. After dinner everyone started writing little notes to us on it. Sweet sayings, cheerful wishes, sad "I'll miss yous", and many other send off good byes. My sister embroidered some of them before giving it to me and I've treasured it ever since. Many who took pen to cloth that night are no longer living. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, my Grandma...but I have their thoughts and all their love they shared with me all my life on that special linen. Many times I've taken it out just to sit and read what's there, remembering that dinner and as I read those notes in their own handwriting I swear I can hear the noise, the chatter, the laughter and the tears of a family gathered around a table, sharing much more than food.