Hello. I am not usually awake at 4:02 a.m. but I was this Monday when something quite remarkable happened. I need to set the scene because, well, it was “quite remarkable.” I was seated in a nice old leather chair in my living room, working, as always, for you, on a laptop. I was busy being intellectually brilliant, as usual. Twelve feet away from me, on a couch, was Lexi, the three-year-old hound dog, asleep, as she always is at four o’clock. She has a nice, comfy life — which I do not, but that is a story for another day.
The oldest things in my home are two stone hammers and a stone sphere with two carved depressions, thought to be a mortar. They were unearthed by my grandparents in the '30s on their farm in Langley Prairie, B.C. The mortar bears the marks of the plough. A museum anthropologist said they are about 2000 years old and the hammers were used to drive wedges along cedar trunks to make planks for West Coast Salish longhouses.
My wife and I collect old maps. They are fascinating, you can learn so much history from studying them.
A pre-World War I map of Europe shows “Turky in Europe” and “Turky in Asia”; a pre-Civil War map shows Virginia including what is now West Virginia.
Our oldest is a French map of the mid-Atlantic, "Carte de la Virginie, de la Baye Chesapeack et Pays Voisins", from 1760, with (of course) French names instead of English; for example, Havre de Petite Oeuf and Havre de Grande Oeuf in Nouv. Jersey. There is of course no Washington, but Annapolis is shown.
Growing up, in my house there was an ancient Roman oil lamp a couple millennia old. More than once, the child me tried rubbing it, but somebody must have already let the genie out long ago.
The oldest thing in my house is a copy of Knox's History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland. It's a couple hundred years younger than Knox himself but still quite old. I keep it, without great care, on the bookshelf for the curious to paw at. I inherited from my grandmother's second husband who didn't especially like it either. The best thing in it is a comically stupid screed against women in power and it is shockingly relevant today.
The 4 seconds between lightning bolt and thunderclap tells you the lightning was 8/10 of a mile away, probably not even in your neighborhood. You were not even close to incineration. The dog probably did the math before dozing off again.
The oldest things in my house are several trilobite fossils. This is not counting actual rocks, some of which might be actually older.
Now, the oldest *human* artifact in the house is probably a clay oil lamp from the Middle East, although it might be younger than the pair of coins that were minted during the Bar Kochba rebellion.
I don't remember being asked to report about our old things (though I recall the discussion about old things). I have a beautiful dress that my great-grandmother wore sometime in the 1890s. I have a couple of copies of Frank Leslie's Ladies' Magazine from the 1860s, including tissue paper dress patterns. I have my grandmother's wedding album from 1913, somewhat sparsely filled since it was her second marriage (her first husband had died of Bright's disease). We have a good bit of furniture from grandparents on both sides, some of it almost certainly more than 100 years old. I know for certain that my daughter's bedroom suite was purchased in 1914, and the bed was where my mother was born in 1915 on the day my grandparents moved into the house where they lived as long as I knew them.
I have commented on my "collectable" but I do not think it was here. I have two "pre Columbian" bowls from Mexico that I bought at an auction at Texas Tech from its museum. I have read that Mexico will not allow pre Columbian artifacts to leave Mexico, now. All the bidders wanted figures and I got the bowls at a reasonable price (under $100.) Likely when my house is emptied they will go in the trash.
The oldest thing is probably a round, cafe-table-size piece of lace with intricate depictions of peacocks (not in tip-top shape). I took it to Antiques Roadshow years ago and they said could be as old as the late 1700s. Then there are the ancient coin earrings from Israel. If they're the real deal, I guess they could be, well, ancient.
4 seconds delay? That was almost 1/2 a mile away. I was sitting watching TV about 10 years ago and almost had a heart attack. Lightning and Thunder were simultaneous and loud. (Also out of the blue. I didn't even know we were expecting storms.) I knew it had struck nearby. Most of my electronics (cable box/router/dvd player/landline phone) were fried. Months later while mowing the lawn I noticed that a tree about 10 feet outside my back yard fence (still on my property) was missing its top and had a jagged line running down the trunk. Pretty sure that was where the lightning struck. Scary.
Feel better, Dude. :)
The oldest things in my home are two stone hammers and a stone sphere with two carved depressions, thought to be a mortar. They were unearthed by my grandparents in the '30s on their farm in Langley Prairie, B.C. The mortar bears the marks of the plough. A museum anthropologist said they are about 2000 years old and the hammers were used to drive wedges along cedar trunks to make planks for West Coast Salish longhouses.
My wife and I collect old maps. They are fascinating, you can learn so much history from studying them.
A pre-World War I map of Europe shows “Turky in Europe” and “Turky in Asia”; a pre-Civil War map shows Virginia including what is now West Virginia.
Our oldest is a French map of the mid-Atlantic, "Carte de la Virginie, de la Baye Chesapeack et Pays Voisins", from 1760, with (of course) French names instead of English; for example, Havre de Petite Oeuf and Havre de Grande Oeuf in Nouv. Jersey. There is of course no Washington, but Annapolis is shown.
The oldest possession I have is a piece of gneiss I picked up while on a vacation. It's from the Ordovician Period from about 450 million years ago.
The oldest thing in my house is a wooden rice measure from the early to mid-1800s. It's big, heavy and has 2 pairs of handles for 2 strong people to carry when it's full. I've had it for about 15 years and have meant to get a piece of plate glass and use it as a coffee table. Like many projects I take on, it hasn't happened. This is what it looks like: https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/decorative-objects/bowls-baskets/decorative-baskets/antique-chinese-elmwood-basket-rice-measure/id-f_19699002/
Growing up, in my house there was an ancient Roman oil lamp a couple millennia old. More than once, the child me tried rubbing it, but somebody must have already let the genie out long ago.
The oldest thing in my house is a copy of Knox's History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland. It's a couple hundred years younger than Knox himself but still quite old. I keep it, without great care, on the bookshelf for the curious to paw at. I inherited from my grandmother's second husband who didn't especially like it either. The best thing in it is a comically stupid screed against women in power and it is shockingly relevant today.
The 4 seconds between lightning bolt and thunderclap tells you the lightning was 8/10 of a mile away, probably not even in your neighborhood. You were not even close to incineration. The dog probably did the math before dozing off again.
The oldest things in my house are several trilobite fossils. This is not counting actual rocks, some of which might be actually older.
Now, the oldest *human* artifact in the house is probably a clay oil lamp from the Middle East, although it might be younger than the pair of coins that were minted during the Bar Kochba rebellion.
Well you asked!
A four-second delay between lightning and thunder means the strike was less than 1 mile from your location.
I don't remember being asked to report about our old things (though I recall the discussion about old things). I have a beautiful dress that my great-grandmother wore sometime in the 1890s. I have a couple of copies of Frank Leslie's Ladies' Magazine from the 1860s, including tissue paper dress patterns. I have my grandmother's wedding album from 1913, somewhat sparsely filled since it was her second marriage (her first husband had died of Bright's disease). We have a good bit of furniture from grandparents on both sides, some of it almost certainly more than 100 years old. I know for certain that my daughter's bedroom suite was purchased in 1914, and the bed was where my mother was born in 1915 on the day my grandparents moved into the house where they lived as long as I knew them.
A few years ago, Jef and I were awakened by the simultaneous sound and light of a lightning strike somewhere VERY nearby.
Our dog, previously unconcerned by thunderstorms, didn’t sleep through a storm again (and would whine and pace until it passed).
Mother Nature is pretty scary.
I have commented on my "collectable" but I do not think it was here. I have two "pre Columbian" bowls from Mexico that I bought at an auction at Texas Tech from its museum. I have read that Mexico will not allow pre Columbian artifacts to leave Mexico, now. All the bidders wanted figures and I got the bowls at a reasonable price (under $100.) Likely when my house is emptied they will go in the trash.
The oldest thing is probably a round, cafe-table-size piece of lace with intricate depictions of peacocks (not in tip-top shape). I took it to Antiques Roadshow years ago and they said could be as old as the late 1700s. Then there are the ancient coin earrings from Israel. If they're the real deal, I guess they could be, well, ancient.
4 seconds delay? That was almost 1/2 a mile away. I was sitting watching TV about 10 years ago and almost had a heart attack. Lightning and Thunder were simultaneous and loud. (Also out of the blue. I didn't even know we were expecting storms.) I knew it had struck nearby. Most of my electronics (cable box/router/dvd player/landline phone) were fried. Months later while mowing the lawn I noticed that a tree about 10 feet outside my back yard fence (still on my property) was missing its top and had a jagged line running down the trunk. Pretty sure that was where the lightning struck. Scary.
I am old. 88 yrs. I’m living inn my son’s house which is 100+ years old. Loved the dog. ory.