The Throwaway Society Continued...

[poliphilo]

 ...And then I asked myself, "If the napkins and napkin rings are missing, who exactly got rid of them, because I'm pretty sure it wasn't me and I doubt that it was my mother because she's a hoarder?"  So a search was instituted and they turned up- in the drawer of the dining table- which is really the first place you'd think to look- only we didn't.

Ailz, of course, wasn't a member of the family when these things were last in use- but no problems because when we looked over all we had she had no fewer than three rings to choose from....

So this family is once again using proper linen napkins with proper silver napkin rings.

Hey, look at us we're Edwardians...

Comments

[sorenr]

I actually use cloth napkins - simply because I HAVE them, so why not? (I'm a bit of an inheritance hoarder, hence why I have cloth napkins.)

My main issue with cloth napkins is when I have people over for dinner... Because people aren't used to cloth napkins in private homes any more, they seem to treat them with a degree of carefulness that kind of ruins the whole concept of a napkin.

Last night I was sorting through one of the boxes of inherited stuff from my grandmother's house, and it included a silver napkin ring with the initials MH - possibly "Martha Hansen", my great-grandmother's sister (nobody else in the family tree fits those initials, and the style fits her lifespan). Not sure I'll ever find a good use for that, but it's pretty. I need to make a few drawers for "pretty but useless things", I think.

[poliphilo]

This house is full of stuff- much of it junk but some of it treasurable. I found a little silver ladle today while looking for napkin rings. It's very elegant- with a Scottish hallmark and a family crest on the handle. It will be something she bought, I think, rather than something that came down through the family...

[sorenr]

I've just managed to somehow fill my entire house with "stuff" myself. (Largely due to my mother making room for her boyfriend's furniture to move in - he has lived with her for a few years now - and my grandmother selling her house.)

My favourite piece of silver is a spoon my great-grandmother got for her confirmation in 1911 - I use it every morning when I eat my oats with milk; it sort of glams up an otherwise rather utilitarian breakfast when you eat it with a silver spoon.

[poliphilo]

Stuff is good.

My mother shoved my maternal grandmother's stuff into boxes and stowed it away out of sight- and I've been finding it.

We have much less from the other side. My father was unsentimental about getting rid of his parents' things.

[sorenr]

I have more from my maternal grandparents, perhaps because they came from a region where farming was easy (well, relatively speaking), whereas my paternal grandparents came from farmers on poor soil and fishermen who led a rough life on the North Sea. It's a bit like comparing Kent to Aberdeenshire...

But everything I have should be used, at least every now and then. Otherwise what's the point? I won't have anybody to pass it down to, so I'm certainly not going to hoard for posterity. ;-)

[sovay]

So this family is once again using proper linen napkins with proper silver napkin rings.

I'm very glad you found them.

My family uses cloth napkins for special occasions; I don't think the napkin rings get much play.

[poliphilo]

The rings are for identifying which napkin belongs to which person.

[sovay]

The rings are for identifying which napkin belongs to which person.

The ones I remember from my grandparents' were porcelain and unmarked, so I think just for displaying the napkins decoratively. I like that yours were personalized.

[athenais]

I had fun ceramic napkin rings and cloth napkins for many years, but then we stopped entertaining and I gave them away. I still have several very fine lace-edged linen napkins, table runners, and placemats. They were my grandmother's. I cannot bear to give them away, but I have never used them, either. Hate to think they're just taking up space in my linen closet, but.

[poliphilo]

I don't suppose they take up very much space.

We have some fine old table cloths and runners and things. Too good to throw away and too good to use. I guess they'll just get passed on down the family.

[cmcmck]

You're sending me looking for a forelock again! :op

[poliphilo]

My mother's people were Quaker aristocracy- with a lovely mansion on the North Downs- and my father's people clambered up from the slums of Erith- so I'm of mixed ancestry.

[cmcmck]

Nearest my lot ever got to posh was a pub landlord in Stafford (but the frightening thought is that given our own finances we might just count as 'wealthy' these days)! :o/