Sunday, February 26, 2012

Schiller heirlooms.

I haven't been getting my mail for a couple weeks now. The first couple of weeks I was here I got my bills, some junk mail and a lot of mail for the people who used to live in my apartment. Then it just stopped all of a sudden. No bills, no junk, no nothing.

Last week, I got a knock at my door. Turns out my neighbor had been getting all of my mail. Apparently his girlfriend and I have the same last name. Strange coincidence! He brought over a box addressed to me and this beauty was inside:



My Uncle Terry sent this carving to me. Sidenote: I call him Uncle even though he says he's not my uncle, which is technically true. But second-cousin Terry doesn't sound as good. Plus there are too many people in my family; everyone's an aunt or uncle to me. He and Nancy sent this to me as a house-warming gift. It was a carving that my Granddad gave to his sister, Theresa. Theresa is Uncle Terry's mom, and a pretty awesome lady at that. *I'll be sure to do a pretty extensive post on the Schiller family in July- family reunion time!

After Aunt Theresa passed away, Terry inherited it from his dad. And upon moving to Austin, I inherited it from Uncle Terry! How special is that?!

My Granddad was a wood carver. Not just a wood carver, he was more of an artist. Everyone in my family has dozens upon dozens of his carvings. We have so many that we could probably make a museum. What's really neat about his carvings is that everyone kind of feels like they have a special attachment to at least one of them. They're all pretty special because they all have a story behind them. I have a adorable little raccoon at home in California that I have a special affinity for.

I remember my grandparents visiting us in California (they're Canadian, so trips to California were rare) when I was pretty young- maybe 8 years old? We had an ungodly amount of outdoor cats when I was little. Probably as many as 20 at one point. Every night, we'd feed the cats in our backyard. Their food bowls were right up against a large, floor-to-ceiling window so we'd lay down on the floor inside and watch them through the window, eating their food. Every now and then a giant raccoon braved its way out of the bushes to the food bowls and would scoop out the cat food with its little hands. This was the best. My sisters and I loved when the raccoons would come to the window. While my grandparents were visiting, sure enough a big, ol' raccoon came to the window and we had a fantastic time being nose-to-nose with the big guy.

I finally mustered up enough courage (I was a really shy one when I was little. Adults scared me!) and wrote my Granddad a note, asking him if he'd carve a raccoon for me. I passed it to him and he said he would make me one.

A couple weeks later, I got a pretty raccoon wood carving in the mail. That's my carving.

Now I have another special carving, all to myself. I look forward to the day that I get to pass on my wood carvings to someone special enough to receive them.


8 comments:

  1. I love this post :) I have two little bunnies that Grand-dad carved for me! :) and about the enough carvings to make a museum -- One year, (probably 10 years ago) we had a museum of grand-dad's carvings to show them off to the public! and also, grand-mother started a woodcarving museum in windsor's library (I believe :)) for all the local wood-carvers!

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    1. I've never seen those bunnies! I thought there had been a museum but I wasn't entirely sure! Thanks for letting me know! :)

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  2. I really love this post too! I'll never forget those huge raccoons eating all the cat food :)

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    1. They were hilarious. There's probably some raccoons in the backyard again!

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  3. It's nice to get surprises in the mail, and this one's extra special.

    Raccoons are pretty sweet, I remember when I was living in the freshmen dorms there were a couple that rummaged through our trash cans, and there's a few that eat the citrus in our back yard at home. I never get to get too close to them though since neither of those places have giant windows :)

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    1. So true, will. I love getting stuff in the mail! :)

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  4. I have one of your granddads carvings as well. And cherish it as well. He must have been carving quite a bit in his day!! Loved this blog!

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    1. Seriously! Where did he find the time?! He was a doctor and a husband and a father of 11!!!!

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