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52’s great-grandfather, Otto, after immigrating to the United States from Holland, founded a clock/jewelry shop on the square in Spencer, West Virginia. (Spencer is the seat of the county in which our farm is located.) He also operated as an itinerant clock/watch repairman throughout West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. Over the past 200 years, no doubt my family and 52’s family ran across one another. Who knows, his great-grandfather may have at one time repaired my great-grandfather’s clock. Otto’s son and grandson (52’s father) continued to operate the shop on the square. 52 grew up in Spencer, his father running the jewelry shop, his mother a math teacher. I like to think I may have passed him sometime, 52 riding his bicycle around Spencer’s lazy small town streets, me riding in my parents’ car on the way to the Robey for our treat during summers when my father took us to West Virginia.
This ring 52 gave me for Christmas is significant on several levels. It’s a ring leftover from the stock of his father’s store. It represents the past–which is, at least in our imaginations, shared. My birthday is in April, and the ram is the astrological sign for Aries. So it represents me–as well as him since it comes from his father. And one of my dreams for the coming year is to start a flock of sheep here on our farm, so it represents the future. (And, well, like my license plate…. How coincidental is all of that?)
His parents died in a tragic automobile accident 26 years ago, ending three shop-keeping generations on the Spencer square. This vintage ring has waited a long time to be slipped on someone’s finger, showing–yet again–that the best gifts not only don’t have to cost anything, they don’t even have to be new.
(And no, it’s not an engagement ring! Get your minds out of the chapel, LOL.)
Thank you, 52.
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on December 27, 2008
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We can hope for the chapel, you can’t stop us! :P
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By the way, what a lovely, thoughtful gift! I told my fiance that you had such a GREAT boyfriend, and he said “like me!”…. well, yeah I guess! I love the thoughtful types though. You guys make a great couple. What did you get 52 for Christmas?
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Beautiful ring for a beautiful relationship.
I wish you many years of happiness.
Way to go 52!!
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Enjoy it and we all are going to keep that chapel around…just hoping it happens.
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A very Merry Christmas indeed.
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My favorite gift this year was time. We spent time together-no electronics. Hurricane Ike (Setember 13 2008-Galveston Island Texas)taught us that so much of what we feel is necessary is just stuff. People are what really matter at the end of the day. 2009 will find us repairing the damage. Even though the physical structure of our house was weakened, what makes this dwelling a home has never been stronger.
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What was Morgan so anxious to get at that she couldn’t be bothered with scissors?
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CONGRATULATIONS; IT’S PURE KARMA!
Liz in PA
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Signed, Jodie Z one of your loyal fans from Texas… and a hopeful romantic. I found my man when I was 40 and he was 48. We’re now married 7 years and I’m 48 and he’s 56. He’s the journalist that will never stop writing. Heart attacks be damned. http://chuckbloom.blogspot.com
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9:44
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beautiful gesture, 52.
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