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Today, I went to the First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX. Now, I have to tell you right off that this event is monthly, but is held on the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday BEFORE the first Monday of each month.

It was an ideal day to wander up and down the little roads and dirt pastures covering the 100 plus acres and browse through the nearly 7000 vendor spaces. Sunny, cool and lightly breezy made for a very pleasant experience. We try to go there at least once a year to see the amazing assortment of odds and ends and antiques and junk displayed by sellers from all over to the delight of buyers who are eager for a bargain or something unusual.

However, I can’t look through these forgotten treasures without thinking about the person who once owned them. The grandmother who put up preserves, beets or okra in the pretty blue-green Ball canning jars. The carpenter who carefully held up the old level to the front door frame of his home that he built with his own hands. The little boy who treasured the worn out baseball glove with laces hanging loose from many seasons of play. The little girl who carried the Raggedy Ann doll around by one arm until it almost pulled loose from her hand-sewn body.

For sure, the next time I go through the boxes of my own keepsakes, I’m going to take a minute or two to step back in time to yesterday, once more and think about the people in my family who have left me more than a cast iron skillet, or a Jewel T coffee pot or a depression glass punch bowl or a celluloid dresser set. They have left me a part of themselves, a token of our connectedness. And I’m going to take a photo of each treasure and include it in the media files for each ancestor so I will never forget how special each piece really is.

Do you have some favorite keepsakes from your ancestors? How do you preserve the memories that each one brings with it?