[1] Whenever I think of the Iowa Waltz, I remember that there were mornings when my sister and I would sleep in on the weekend and if we had things to do as a family, or just didn’t want to sleep, my dad would sing that song. Our bedrooms were up on the second floor and so he’d sing it from there and he’d keep singing it until we’d get up. And so I’d just sort of, whenever I hear…
Well first I couldn’t think of a treasured possession, but then I started thinking of a couple of things. One that sort of stuck with me was a music box that I had been given and that I still have. And it was given to me when I was ten years old, so that’s a really long time ago. I was ten years old and I had to have my tonsils out and I had to stay overnight in a place that…
[Mom:] Just talk about what’s important to you. Why are your plants important to you? [Kid:] Because they give us food. [Mom:] And you’ve had fun watching them grow over the summer? [Kid:] Yeah. [M:] You’ve been planting them and working hard and admiring them every day? [K:] Mm-hmm. [M:] And we’ve been enjoying the food that you’ve grown. [K:] Mm-hmm. [adult:] And it says on his sheet that he started from seeds. Very impressive. [K:] I have a whole…
I guess with my place in life right now my kids’s artwork and pictures with them are my most treasured possessions. I always tell my husband if something has to happen I want each one of their bins taken out and our computer with all our pictures on it because we don’t print our pictures anymore.
A lady gave me a picture frame, and on it was printed, “You are an amazing person.” I met her through an acting and improvisation class at the Senior Center here. I acted out improvisations, and I have it hanging on my wall. And I bet when people come in they say, “What’s that? Is she saying that she’s an amazing person?” But no, this lady gave it to me and she had it printed on there. But I’ll always…
Well, I have a collection of bottles that was my mother’s. And she acquired it during the thirties and the forties. And they’re bottles about this high and each of them is a beautiful colored glass, some of them decorated as well as being colored glass. She acquired most of them in small barber shops in small towns throughout the state of Iowa. And this was during the time I was growing up and I usually would go into the…
I have an oil lamp that was my grandmother’s when she was young, and she said her father would leave it on, lit for her, when she was out on dates with the man who became my grandfather. So she always could come home and find that lamp. And it just made me think about how much technology changed during her lifetime. Because by the end of her life she had this email printer thing that I could email her…
My prized possession is my apple peeler. I don’t really remember the moment of buying it, but I think I got it at Wilson’s Orchard about twenty years ago. But it’s almost identical to the one that my mom had growing up. And so we peeled a lot of apples and cut a lot of apples, and I still do.
When I was in kindergarten I was in Boston, Massachusetts. And I don’t have a lot of stuff from that time, but I do have a box that my best friend from kindergarten gave me when she went to India. It was a little marble box. It’s really pretty and I’ve never seen her since I was in kindergarten in Boston, so it’s nice because I can see that and remember all my Boston friends. [It’s a way to remember right? A…
Okay, continuing with the musical theme, my treasured possession is my first guitar. I’ve always loved music. I was about fourteen years old and I worked summers, and then after school as a bus boy in Davenport at a local hotel-restaurant. And I saved my tips, sometimes that was as little as twenty five cents a day and later I earned more when I was a room service waiter. But I saved tips in a big glass jar. So I,…