Parental Craparoo
July 27, 2010 6:11 AM   Subscribe

Crap at My Parent's House: Homage to all of the weird crap that everyone's parents have. Via
posted by Secret Life of Gravy (80 comments total) 25 users marked this as a favorite
 
I like the pale white bearded Christ playing soccer with the even whiter tykes.
posted by blucevalo at 6:14 AM on July 27, 2010


I'll be honest, I was kind of going to thread crap when I opened this. Until, that is, I scrolled far enough down the page to see Jesus playing soccer. That won me over.

I still don't get the point of these dysphemistic blog titles, though - crap at my parents' house, shit my dad says, etc.
posted by resiny at 6:15 AM on July 27, 2010


The one that convinced me to post this was the "I'm Freaking out" poodle; the kind of stuff that my mom and her friends have lying around, cluttering up the surfaces of their furniture for no apparent reason. The sort of thing that when your eye falls on the object, your fingers twitch involuntarily in a move to pick it up and throw it away
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:20 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Because, resiny, these aren't your parents' blogs. Um...wait a second...
posted by phunniemee at 6:20 AM on July 27, 2010


Go ahead, make fun of your parents....that attitude is gonna come back and bit you in the butt some day, your kids WILL grow up!
posted by HuronBob at 6:20 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I liked the crazy kitchen apples.
posted by phunniemee at 6:25 AM on July 27, 2010




I pray my children don't discover this site.
posted by tommasz at 6:31 AM on July 27, 2010 [2 favorites]




HuronBob I am prepared for the mockery of my children. Similar to Achilles knowing he will die if he suits up for battle, I know that my children will post photos/images/3-D of my Iditarod trading cards, Star Trek Next Generation sticker book, the hand made Elvis at Stonehenge snow globe. I know that they will plot to get my estate when the Alzheimers kicks in but you know, I don't care. Because old age and cunning will always triumph over youth and brilliance. I plan to win. I plan to laugh at their chagrin and embarrassed looks. I plan to have grave goods after my not so heroic death. Suck it up kids, mom rules.
posted by jadepearl at 6:31 AM on July 27, 2010 [12 favorites]


When I first saw this post I thought it was stuff that people left behind at their parents house. The stuff that's not important enough to bring to your own house, but too good to throw out. So you just leave it at your parent's house when you move out and hope they don't throw it away.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 6:32 AM on July 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


One of the things I like best about my Mom is her hatred of kitsch.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:33 AM on July 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


the hand made Elvis at Stonehenge snow globe

PICS PLEASE
posted by saladin at 6:34 AM on July 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


18 posts tagged with 'crap'!? Hallelujah.
posted by mannequito at 6:41 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Parents talk back: the kids are the real crap we have at our house. Move out and move on.
posted by Postroad at 6:42 AM on July 27, 2010


Next time I'm at my mom's place I should take pictures to submit to this site. See, her (rather small) place is divided into densely packed, individual stylistic zones. There's the chicken zone, the generally Asian zone (which contains the cabinet of Royal Doulton pirate cups and assorted vintage liquor bottles from the 30s and 40s), the Southwestern zone (with its own little American Indian subzone), the family zone, the lurking nightmare garage maze zone and her bedroom, which is, no exaggeration, the Twilight Zone. It's super creepy and it makes me a little sad. But it's still funny. But still sad.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:43 AM on July 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


I'll be honest, I was kind of going to thread crap when I opened this. Until, that is, I scrolled far enough down the page to see Jesus playing soccer.

I have one of these in my house. Then again, I do have a daughter, so I guess that's OK.
posted by rhymer at 6:45 AM on July 27, 2010


I like the pale white bearded Christ playing soccer with the even whiter tykes.

Hand of God.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:45 AM on July 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I have never turned this light switch off because i am convinced that if i do, the clown will come to life and murder me.

That's pretty much how I feel about 60% of the posts on this blog. All of this crap is just one flipped switch away from coming to life and murdering the entire household.

Except the owl made of shells. "Bruce" would never do that.
posted by gladly at 6:45 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


My Stepdad brings home a lot of stuff from local auctions, the stuff on this blog is the tip of the iceberg, stuffwise. I think the thing that tops it is the original photo of Hitler we have, which was fitting considering the multiple Regan-era BMWs we had parked in the front lawn.

I mean, what do you do with an original photo of Hitler?
posted by hellojed at 6:47 AM on July 27, 2010


Jesus playing soccer just made my day. Thanks for this.
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:51 AM on July 27, 2010


I re-blogged, liked, digged, tweeted and re-tweeted this!
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:51 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I mean, what do you do with an original photo of Hitler?

I think the answer is obvious.
posted by phunniemee at 6:53 AM on July 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


This is the best website I've seen in weeks. God, all the kitch!
posted by anniecat at 6:56 AM on July 27, 2010


Metafilter: It's Digestible
posted by setanor at 6:56 AM on July 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Wow. That SMKR site... some of it is hilarious but so much of it is so predictable. Let's just put it this way: I know my 14 month old has ninja-fast hands, so I make sure that the stuff that is really really important to me (sentimental value, etc) is NOT out on display, and sure as hell not out on display on a shelf low enough that he can reach it. Sure, some day he will destroy something. But not anything I can't replace. My phone? If he breaks it, so be it. I will live. The stained glass candle box that my mother made in college? It's down in the basement, wrapped in bubble wrap, in a storage box.

And this site? I could make this site on my own, just by taking pictures of my mother-in-law's place. If anyone wants a metric shit-ton of crap with beagles on it, let me know 'cause I found the mother(-in-law) lode.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:59 AM on July 27, 2010


I should take photos of step mother-in-law's place and send them in. She's apparently partially Irish as everything in her entire house ever so subtly reveals. It's like a leprechaun had dysentery.
posted by ob at 6:59 AM on July 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


A friend's parents had a similar lawn ornament--holding a fishing pole, though--on the deck next to their above-ground pool. They got rid of the pool and the deck, but by golly, they found another place for the little fella to fish.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:02 AM on July 27, 2010


Looking around my house my crap falls into 3 catagories:

1) Stuff my kid made me. You would have to have a heart of stone to throw this stuff out, so I have (among other things) piles of comics that she drew featuring me, "Garden Wondermom."

2) Stuff that I bought for my husband's Christmas stocking. Yeah I wish I could afford gold cuff links and tickets to the symphony but I usually stuff his stocking with "Homies," wind-ups, and Day of the Dead collectibles so I only have myself to blame for the accumulated junk on top of the computer desk.

3) Stuff my mom has passed along from her parents. I don't know what I am supposed to do with my grandfather's high school diploma or my grandmother's muslin apron from the 40's embroidered with all her friends' autographs. I can't throw it away. Maybe my kid can throw it away.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:05 AM on July 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


My dad has this stuffed animal duck that wears overalls that he is really attached to for some reason. It's not from his childhood or anything he got it when he was in his late 50s. It wasn't a present. He bought it for himself. If you squeeze it's hand it will play Old Macdonald as quacks. If you bop its head it will play a single note of Old MacDonald and you can tap it's head repeatedly to get it to quack out the song.

As the toy grew older it would periodically quack on it's own. Just randomly every now and then. Time also distorted it's voice, it's been off pitch and sort of demonically garbled. My mom hates this duck and they sort of fight over it. They're both pretty good sports about the other's respective collections of clutter. And there is a lot of it for both of them. Books and trinkets and collections and aborted collections. Old magazines and figurines and guns and knives and tools and little flea market finds. They seem to really like their stuff. The duck though was an exception I think because it didn't fit any of the existing categories. It was just a stuffed animal. A new at the time store bought stuffed animal. It was clearly not for grown ups.

It might be gone now. My mom might have one this war of attrition or maybe it was like one of those scenes in the movie where their exploring a mad scientist's lab. They behold one of his failed creations. In this awful agony the creature all but belches out "kill me". Maybe the duck sounded too much like that.
posted by I Foody at 7:15 AM on July 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


The Jesus playing soccer reminds me of an old friend's t-shirt that had Jesus in front of a soccer net deflecting a goal, with the caption "Jesus Saves!".
posted by mysterpigg at 7:20 AM on July 27, 2010


I have no kids and I give or throw stuff away. That said, I Laughed Aloud.

If my cats ever start blogging about my foibles, I have deeper problems than those foibles.
posted by everichon at 7:20 AM on July 27, 2010


I was expecting amusing. I wasn't expecting how creepy much of the stuff is.
posted by 6550 at 7:29 AM on July 27, 2010


3) Stuff my mom has passed along from her parents. I don't know what I am supposed to do with my grandfather's high school diploma or my grandmother's muslin apron from the 40's embroidered with all her friends' autographs. I can't throw it away. Maybe my kid can throw it away.

This. I already had a houseful of fascinating crap - the alien in the snow globe! The moominhouse architectural blueprint mousepad! And etc! - when my mother died and her houseful of fascinating crap came to me. What am I supposed to do with my great grandfather's perfect attendance record in 1880 at the Cathedral School? My grandmother's Irish lace tablecloths? My dad's WWII souvenirs? The boxes upon boxes of photos and my mom's sketchbooks and the plaque that attests to my father's participation in the 1962 Newport Bermuda race? Not to mention the glass fruit, trunk of wrapping paper, and sterling silver cigarette boxes. I wanted to buy a new lamp the other day but alas, this can never be: I inherited an entire garageful of ugly lamps. My kids are doomed.
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:32 AM on July 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


This site gets really amusing if you think of all the stuff as having come from the same house.

But you know, it's really cherry picking. Pretty much everyone has something sitting around that's kind of tacky for sentimental reasons or because you've just gotten so used to seeing it around that you've stopped really looking at it and don't realize how dated and odd-looking it's grown. I still have the Kermit the Frog mug my brother gave me for Christmas 1981.

My mother has generally good taste and weeds out her stuff regularly but she definitely had a few pieces that would qualify for this website because they were gifts from someone or other whom she cared about. I remember a ceramic salt and pepper set that was a pair of black turkeys, one in a top hat and bow tie and the other in a bonnet with a purse under her wing. Or there was the purple dappled cow creamer. Or the orange plastic fruit basket with scary psychedelic fruit depicted on the bottom. Though I haven't seen any of these items for years and she may not have them anymore.

She had a coin bank that was shaped like a crown and commemorated Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee. I knew it wasn't the kind of thing she'd like, so I asked her if I could have it to give to a friend of mine who collects British Royalty memorabilia. Mother looked aghast and said, "I have such a thing?" I assured her that I remembered it very clearly and described how she used to keep in the built-in china cabinet at our old house. She said, "If you can find it, TAKE IT." But I couldn't find it.
posted by orange swan at 7:36 AM on July 27, 2010


Oh, the stuff at my parents' house. The no-go zone of the basement, where boxes that haven't been unpacked since my family moved in to the house 20 years ago mingle with the boxes and garbage bags of unknown stuff that none of my siblings have touched since they dumped them there after college. (I have my own boxes of stuff, but seriously, it's stuff my mother objected to me throwing out. I didn't want to fight about it as long as she was willing to house it.)

And then my mother (who complained about her own mother's late-in-life "whee! I have disposable income!" habit of buying expensive tchotchkes) got a job at a charity that had a thrift store attached, and developed her own late-in-life "whee! It only costs 25 cents!" tchotchke-purchasing habit.

I'm looking forward to the day my parents finally downsize to their retirement home. The purge will be glorious.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:37 AM on July 27, 2010


They should include a Hoarder's Anonymous link on that blog, because you know there's gonna be somebody who qualifies.

I still have a lot of cowboy stuff--old saddle tree, napkin holder, Christmas ornaments--from my mom's Western decor phase, right before she died.

Phases prior to that included country/ducks, grapevines/green and purple, a sort of faux-naive-art phase (ie, knicknacks that looked like folk art but were made in China) and Everything's Sponge Painted phase.

For her, I think constantly redecorating was a form of artistic expression, the way some people go crazy when doing Christmas lights.
posted by emjaybee at 7:38 AM on July 27, 2010


Wait, wait -- this is all stuff that parents are supposed to have?

THEN HOW DO I EXPLAIN MY HOUSE?


(Although, to be honest, the reason I have crap like this is because I grew up with crap like this.)
posted by Katemonkey at 7:41 AM on July 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


What about when your parents feature kitschy shit ironically? Do you go ahead and warn them that 90% of visitors will think the pink flamingoes are displayed in earnest?
posted by Pomo at 7:42 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


My mother used to collect elephants. Ceramic, blown glass, metal and wood elephants. She hasn't collected them for a while though, because she is tired of them. She has way too many. But people forget and so give her more. She's too nice to tell them to stop. Recently my stepson came back from a cruise and he brought her a large hand carved wooden elephant.

Her sigh was filled with an eloquence that only I heard.

She will display it with all of the rest.

I have to get pictures of them.
posted by Splunge at 7:45 AM on July 27, 2010


I would die to have this signed photo of Liberace. Check out that amazing sketch of a piano with a candelabra on top! I need to incorporate that into my own signature!
posted by giraffe at 7:46 AM on July 27, 2010


My mother used to collect elephants. Ceramic, blown glass, metal and wood elephants. She hasn't collected them for a while though, because she is tired of them. She has way too many. But people forget and so give her more.

Snicker. I collect swan stuff, and a friend of mine advised me not to tell anyone I do because most swan stuff is tacky and people will start giving me all kinds of swan crap. Best advice I ever got. My collection is still very small and restrained because I hardly ever find a swan anything I really like.
posted by orange swan at 7:54 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


"the hand made Elvis at Stonehenge snow globe"? Dude. Dude. Turn it into a black velvet painting and the U.S. Mint will drop off your official $100 bill printing press tomorrow.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:58 AM on July 27, 2010


My parents' house has a full-sized, completely-wearable suit of armor that I'm so totally getting one day.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:59 AM on July 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


As for this stuff in general: heck, I'm old enough to be at least at the younger range of the parents in this blog. Unfortunately, I don't really have a lot of stuff even from my young adulthood, let alone my childhood, so I wouldn't be able to post stuff on behalf of my notional children. Some of the old Star Trek tie-in books would probably be amusing; the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual, in particular, is a charming mixture of amateurish production values and interesting speculation about the anatomy of various extraterrestrial races and critters. Mostly, though, the stuff seems to be the sort of tacky tchotchkes that get swapped around during family reunion white elephant exchanges.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:14 AM on July 27, 2010


One thing I really appreciate about my grandmother is that she's absolutely ruthless when it comes to throwing stuff out. When my great aunt and uncle moved into a nursing home, she donated all of their old "treasures" to the local museum, which I thought was a great idea. It ensures that anything culturally valuable or interesting won't get thrown in the garbage, and prevents family members from being forced to store boxes of crap they don't want in the basement. I also think this is a great thing for small town museums, which probably don't have a great source of income for new exhibits.
posted by something something at 8:22 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


oh, love, if only because: a) my mom never throws anything out; and b) her house is full of a lot of crap.

i thought several of the captions were pretty funny. i loled.

Parents talk back: the kids are the real crap we have at our house. Move out and move on.

Yikes.

The David Crosby marionette dances for no one.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:27 AM on July 27, 2010


I have turned into someone else parents. There's eight toothbrushes in my bathroom right now. We're a family of three. I'm in charge of the toothbrushes, my bad
posted by dabitch at 8:28 AM on July 27, 2010


My dad has this stuffed animal duck that wears overalls that he is really attached to for some reason.

posted by I Foody


I've been really busy at work the last two days and haven't spent much time on the internet, but the above line is the funniest goddamn thing I've read here in awhile. Just tickled my funnybone for some reason.
posted by marxchivist at 8:33 AM on July 27, 2010


nut blaster penetrating oil?, ha ha ha, I'm sending this site to my mom.
posted by dabitch at 8:35 AM on July 27, 2010


I liked the crazy kitchen apples.

My parents kitchen is just like that, except with strawberries. Apparently in the 70s / 80s that was a thing.

(The apple room is the entrance hallway. And they have way more apple stuff than that person. Way more. Like, heaps more.)
posted by rusty at 8:57 AM on July 27, 2010


Gnome village you say, in my mother's back yard? At least they're one with nature. A bit gruff though.
posted by msbutah at 9:01 AM on July 27, 2010


I humbly submit this aural conversation regarding one of the weirdest collections of stuff I've ever seen.
posted by dbiedny at 9:01 AM on July 27, 2010


The captions are pretty sharp, too; they must have a high caliber of sender-inners.

"My parent’s house, a place where you can find a doll for any occasion; a fall day, a winter wonderland, an evening ball, murder."

"I am an owl made of seashells. I am a solitary and nocturnal bird of prey who parties in the parking lot at Jimmy Buffett concerts. My scientific name is “Strigidae”, but my party name is “Bruce'. "
posted by redsparkler at 9:02 AM on July 27, 2010


This is really making me look forward to the upcoming trip to the in-laws'. It's a WONDERLAND of arcane crap. And I don't necessarily mean that in a snarky way...it is a truly fascinating glimpse into pop-culture history sometimes.

If only I'd had my camera when I was 15 and went to stay with my 90-year old great aunt who'd hoarded things from the 40s and 50s. That place was AWESOME. She had real "I Like Ike" campaign buttons laying around.
posted by Ouisch at 9:04 AM on July 27, 2010


Relevant Cartoon

(My mom? Not a whole lot of kitsch. She's into crafts so she's gotta redecorate every 3 years to make room for whatever the current passion is so everything gets trashed-sold-gifted-whatever. Her real mania however, is jewelry. All kinds of jewelry. Rings, bracelets, necklaces, pins, clasps, anklets - homemade, costume, vintage, QVC, conflict-free - Glass, precious, semi-precious, mother-of-plastic - gems in every cut and color of the rainbow all haphazardly arranged in three overfull boxes on the nightstand. I don't think I've seen her wear half of it. It makes buying her gifts really easy, and I always suspect there's gonna be some Guy de Maupassant twist wherein all her costume stuff turns out to be real or something.)
posted by The Whelk at 9:09 AM on July 27, 2010


Soccer playing Jesus, for the win!
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:10 AM on July 27, 2010


Oops, sorry mysterpigg.
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:12 AM on July 27, 2010


This one made me laugh out loud. I always look for food that's digestible.
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:16 AM on July 27, 2010


Ooh, this post gives me the same creepy-crawly feeling I got when I saw that "Hoarders" show. Like I want to run home right now and throw things away.

> a friend of mine advised me not to tell anyone

That's genius. I had to stop collecting penguins when my future (at the time) MIL gave me a ceramic toilet brush holding penguin for Christmas. When it was tragically broken, no one believed me when I swore it was an accident.
posted by JoanArkham at 9:29 AM on July 27, 2010




That's genius. I had to stop collecting penguins when my future (at the time) MIL gave me a ceramic toilet brush holding penguin for Christmas. When it was tragically broken, no one believed me when I swore it was an accident.
posted by JoanArkham at 12:29 PM on July 27


Not to self for future meetup present…
posted by ShawnString at 9:58 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Soccer Playing Jesus is one of a series.(More here) Letterman had a huge amount of fun with it back when. Or was that Conan O'Brien?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:59 AM on July 27, 2010


Oops. My first link shoulda gone here.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 10:01 AM on July 27, 2010


Excellent FPP, excellent posts and articles on that site. But I have an axe to grind when it comes to blogs that ditch the traditional comments full of original snark and discussion and instead fill it up with "mark24924 liked this, assdan reblogged this from crapatmyparentshouse, naaarwhal liked this", etc, etc, ad nauseum. OKAY, blog, if you don't want to build a community, i guess that's your deal.
posted by crapmatic at 10:18 AM on July 27, 2010


a friend of mine advised me not to tell anyone

I had a roommate with a worse problem. When he was a teenager he had a poster of Marilyn Monroe on his wall, so his mom told all his relatives he was really into Marilyn Monroe memorabilia even though it was just a random poster he'd found somewhere. Every birthday and Christmas it was more Marilyn Monroe crap, and any hints he'd politely try to drop were forgotten about by the following year.

Miss Manners had a great bit of advice on this. Upon receiving yet another ceramic statuette, you say, "Oh thank you! How lovely! Now my collection is complete!"
posted by hydrophonic at 10:18 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


My parents had these racist/sexist swizzle sticks, though in their defense, I'm pretty sure they received them as a gift. They were never used or displayed, and since my mom denies ever having them, it's doubtful that I'll ever see them again. Most of the rest of the tacky crap in my parents' house is either mine, or stuff inherited from my grandparents which I have forbidden them to dump (Hey, I could make use of that black velvet painting of a Red River cart somewhere down the road).
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:34 AM on July 27, 2010


I mean, dang.

Catholicshopper.com? The jokes write themselves, I tell you.
posted by maxwelton at 11:17 AM on July 27, 2010


As a life-long auction-goer I just wanted to THANK YOU ALL for accumulating this stuff so I can bid on it in the front yard of someone's house on a nice July day! Good times!
posted by Ron Thanagar at 11:32 AM on July 27, 2010


For the Hoard!
posted by Mister_A at 12:59 PM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


it kills me that I'm seeing this *after* spending a weekend at my parent's cottage. So much good material!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:01 PM on July 27, 2010


I sent this to my mom, who sent it to my grandma. Here's the transcript for those interested. (Oh, and you have to read everything after "mom:" in bright blue comic sans.)

me: At least no one in our family is this bad.
mom: Ha. As long as YOU didn't make a submission to the website, I'm laughing hysterically.
me: There once were times when I could, but you and Gram have significantly cleaned up your act since then. I suppose Dad's wood pile collection would count.
mom: Come on.....you know we could both take a tour around right now and find a way to make some funny comments. But you're right......it's mostly stashed away in dark corners of the attic, or I already shared my wit with your grandmother (while she stood to the side, silently crying) and then made her dump it.

gram: I really get your message. Funny thing ----[friend] is here cleaning the book shelf in the hallway. Your note could not have come at a better time. I have some of those things in the pictures as you know. I will hang my stuffed duck in the computer room now.


p.s. How proud am I that my mom and 86 year old grandma are both proficient emailers!?
posted by phunniemee at 1:20 PM on July 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


> When I first saw this post I thought it was stuff that people left behind at their parents house. The stuff that's not important enough to bring to your own house, but too good to throw out. So you just leave it at your parent's house when you move out and hope they don't throw it away.

My brothers did this to my parents and kept all their boxes of "college crap" in their basement - just the kind of stuff you're talking about: beer signs, neon lights, lava lamps, old tvs, an old bar, etc. Pops was sick and tired of it and repeatedly asked my brothers to take it - or else. Imagine our surprise for the "or else" when he turned it all into his own basement lounge. Party on Pops!
posted by NoraCharles at 1:52 PM on July 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Aw man. Maybe I should take some pictures of the 1937 monoknop Philips radio that has been sitting around in the house in half disrepair for 40+ years.
Or the shaving brush which' whiskers have been worn away in 35 years continuous use.
I love you dad.
posted by joost de vries at 1:53 PM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: A metric shit-ton of crap with beagles on it.

I know, I know, but I had to.
posted by Alterscape at 2:20 PM on July 27, 2010


I thought at first glance that this was an article about how for some of us there is only one place that we feel comfortable using the toilet.

Once I realized what it was actually about, I felt isolated again.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:54 PM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


If only I'd had my camera when I was 15 and went to stay with my 90-year old great aunt who'd hoarded things from the 40s and 50s.

A couple of years ago, my grandmother passed away. She was in home hospice care, and I stayed with the family for the few crucial days, so we could all sit with her. When I wasn't needed to do anything else, I took pictures of her decor. I spent a lot of time in her place as a kid, and much of it hadn't changed since the early '80s, or before. I knew I had to get pictures of everything.

She was a fan of Southern outsider folk art, which meant many bent and strange portraits and severed-head-like "busts" in the place. I almost submitted this to the site, because of the horror I had of that face as a kid. But I don't think such a submission would appropriately highlight the fact that it is awesome.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:46 PM on July 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I see the triad of 'salt, pepper, lactaid' and feel nostalgic, until I remember that my childhood home had four center condiments: salt, pepper, lactaid and allergy pills.
posted by cobaltnine at 6:41 PM on July 27, 2010


COuntess Elena - Ah I see you own "Studies In John Waters, Surprise #4"
posted by The Whelk at 11:31 PM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Just in case fabulousness calls.
posted by moody cow at 2:11 AM on July 28, 2010


« Older Cops get privacy on a public street?   |   Life in a dying village. Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments