A Pirate’s Envy: My Silver Stash

The best pirate has nothing on me and my stash of silver.

This isn’t even all of it. There is also my wedding silver and my mother-in-law’s silver. This pile of silver has been stowed beneath the church pew in our dining room. Not everyone has a church pew as a piece of furniture in their house, but we do. My husband brought it into our marriage along with several other peculiar furnishings. It dates from when he was the unpaid secretary and court interpreter for a workers’ rights organization called Esperanza Unida. He never went to church though, so it’s a mystery. Was it gifted to him as payment for something? Found at the curb? Or spirited out of a living church some wild night? We don’t know.

But the silver.

At the moment, I cannot explain why I have all this silver. But, to avoid stowing all of it in a black garbage bag at the back of the coat closet, I bought two silverware organizers. Then I carefully sorted the silver, one pattern here, another there, wondered about a few renegade pieces but then created order out of chaos. In this case, order vs. chaos may well be a distinction without a difference.

This is still a crazy amount of silver in my possession.

In addition to the silver, which I’ve had hanging around for a quite a while, my very odd sister sent me another quite large shipment of my grandmother’s dishes. There were four boxes. Each was packed solid with packing peanuts and several pieces of china – plates, cups, saucers, small and large dessert plates, serving platters and bowls of all sizes. This was crazy making at first as well as inexplicable since my sister hasn’t talked to me in years nor did she include any note or explanation, but then I decided to use the china for Thanksgiving dinner.

Which I did. But the plates were very small. So we all felt a bit as if we were playing house with our toddler daughters. Tea, you know, with the tiny cups. I theorized that the small plates might explain why people were a lot skinnier in the 20’s and 30’s. I’ll never know. I’ve resolved to keep a place setting for six stowed where I can reach them (I bought containers for the rest) so when we have a wee watercress sandwich, we have an appropriate plate.

Thanksgiving is about so much more than silver and china but you have to admit all this stuff has to be sending me a message about history or legacy or durability. Something important. I could sort it out, but I have to get my t-shirts and sweaters in order. They’re driving me crazy.