Why have I saved the pink wooden high chair my father made for me when I was three?
The high chair was hand-crafted in his basement workshop on Avenue K in Saskatoon,Saskatchewan, Canada and placed under the Christmas tree over 52 years ago. My dolls sat in it and ate their breakfast on the tray. My daughters put their dolls in the same high chair and fed them their breakfast.
The high chair was kept in my mother’s basement until I drove to Canada from California in 1992 with my husband. We packed the high chair in the back of the van with my dolls and books I saved from childhood.
The high chair was wrapped in brown packing paper and placed delicately in a box when we moved from California to Illinois. It was wrapped again and placed in a box when we moved to Minnesota. It was unpacked and packed again when we moved back to California and now it is in my basement in Pennsylvania.
I am cleaning out my basement. My weaving supplies were sold to a friend’s mother. Several bags of clothes were donated to a thrift store and a coat was sold on ebay.
The pink high chair will not be donated or sold.
Can you see where my father carved the wood and hand-made the joints? Did you notice how the tray pivots so you can lift it up and place a doll in the chair? The felt he glued on the bottom of each leg is still in place.
I see my father’s love for me in the details.
He died on March 17th, 1998.
What have you saved to help you remember?
