Sentimental Value

In the last couple weeks I have been looking for the 'perfect' dresser for our guest bedroom. I have been hoping to come across an antique that was just the right price. After estate sales, consignment stores, garage sales, Goodwill-ing and even hitting up furniture stores I was starting to lose hope. I was wanting a dresser to fit on a particular wall that wasn't very wide and had light switches on it. Nevertheless, I felt like I was searching for a needle in a haystack. Earlier this week I was on the phone with my Mom and I mentioned looking for a dresser and asked if they would have anything that I was looking for.... My parents have a home filled with antiques from relatives and auctions throughout the years. Come to find out, they had just the right piece and it even has a mirror that fits perfectly between the light switches. What's even better ~ the dresser belonged to my Nana Baumhauer, my great-grandmother.

After my Nana passed away in 1948 and my Grandma Baumhauer inherited the dresser, it started off blue and then she antiqued the dresser with a gold finish in the 1960's.

 My Aunt Dene used this dresser as a little girl on Hilltop Drive.

The dresser was at Hilltop  Drive, Green Trace (1975), Concord Village, then moved to Iowa with my parents once Grandma moved into Friendship Village. My parents refinished the dresser in 1995. The dresser was then given to my brother, Drew, when he purchased his first condominium. After he married, he gave the dresser back to my parents.

I can only imagine the memories that this dresser holds inside it's drawers. As I pulled each one open today, you can almost feel the richness of history inside. Each drawers pulls open almost effortlessly, leading me to truly believe that they really don't make them like they used to! The knobs were pulled open by so many members of my family that are now gone... Nana, Grandpa, Grandma, Dene.... I couldn't have asked for a better piece of furniture to be passed on. I am incredibly thankful that my parents have held on to so many pieces of furniture that hold a sentimental value to our family.

The more I thought about this dresser the more I thought about what it had been through... Just to put it in perspective:  ~Pearl Harbor, 1941  ~The  invention of the bikini, 1946   ~Gandhi is assassinated, 1948 ~Color Television!, 1951  ~Dr. Suess publishes Cat In The Hat, 1957  ~First televised presidential debate, 1960   ~JFK assassination, 1964  ~U.S. troops sent to Vietnam, 1965  ~Watergate scandal, 1972  ~Microsoft founded, 1975  ~Elvis is found dead, 1977  ~AIDS is identified, 1980  ~MJ releases Thriller album, 1982  ~Challenger explodes, 1988  ~Operation Desert Storm, 1991  ~Nelson Mandela elected in S. Africa, 1994  ~Princess Diana's death, 1997 ~Columbine, 1999  ~ September 11, 2001 ~Hurricane Katrina, 2005 ~ First black man elected president, 2008 ..... and here's hoping for many, many memories to come!