I wonder how they stood the agony of losing child after child back then. Did they not get as "attached" to the babies, knowing that there was a good chance they'd not raise them? Were they better at "steeling" themselves against tragedy than we are today? I read a book once called "Mrs. Mike" which was based on the true story of a young woman who married a RCMP officer and followed him to the Yukon. She said that the women up there talked about their "first families" and "second families" and even "third families". That meant that they had lost all of their children in an epidemic and then started over again. Then they might lose that set of children to another epidemic and start yet another family. How strong and resigned to fate those women must have been back then.
I wonder if in the items WE leave behind, a generation down the road will find one of them and ask the same questions. Makes you wish you could attach a note....doesn't it?
Later generations will no doubt wonder about their findings when a time capsule is opened. There are many and are to be inspected during later eras. That would be great fun, I would think. I see someone with a certain style of coat on and wonder why that person liked it? How old it is? Was it always in vogue? There are so many thought processes about a simple item like that and makes it intriguing. For I then begin to wonder about the person who is wearing that particular coat and so on.
It occurred to me that I have a couple of cast-iron skillets that were my mother's, my grandpa's pocket watch, my dad's high-school ring. I'm pretty sure no one will ever care about those things as much as I do. After all, they are only special to me because of the previous owners, and future generations of family won't have any memories of them.
I have an old iron bed that was Mama and Daddy's bed. I don't know who had it before them; maybe my grandparents, great grandparents...… I never thought to ask them while they were alive. I'm sure it has rested many a tired, weary head for generations.
@Beth Gallagher:. I also have my mother's Singer treadle sewing machine. She said my father bought it used from a man he worked with, just about the time they moved into our house (~1947). THIS WEBSITE has the date of Singer machines based on the serial number. Mine was made in 1910. They produced approx 50,000 of them that year. You can still buy the parts for them. I bought a new rubber wheel for the bobbin threader and a new belt, just a few years ago, at the Singer store. Didn't even have to order them.