Grandma's China Cupboard

This china cupboard holds a very special place among my collectibles.  It belonged to my grandmother.    When Papaw and Mamaw decided to build their new home and move out of the log cabin, they designed their kitchen with this piece in mind.  Mamaw had her "good kitchen" where she had her refrigerator, electric cook stove and sink with running water.  Then she had the small kitchen where she had her wood cook stove, a wooden table and chairs, a cabinet with the water bucket and dipper sitting on it and a built in corner cupboard where she stored her every day dishes.  She used the good kitchen on Sundays and when there was company.  The small kitchen was intended to be a bathroom (from the plans) but that didn't happen until after all the grandchildren had grown.  So, I remember it as the small kitchen with the wood stove.  There was a cut out nook in the good kitchen where this china cupboard fit just perfectly.  She kept her antique dishes in it - ones that she never used.  My grandparents had a little wooden footstool that was covered with red vinyl.  When I was just a small child, I would pull that footstool in front of the china cupboard and I would sit on the stool and pretend that I was an airplane pilot.  The drawer knobs that hang on the front of the cupboard were my "controls" and I would flip those knobs up and down while I was supposedly communicating with ground control.   I thought I was pretty big stuff.  Mamaw had two children, my mother and my uncle.  She always told everyone that my uncle was to have that china cupboard when she was gone.  We all knew her wishes.  After my grandmother passed away, I went to her auction to purchase some of the keepsakes that I still have today.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  There among all of Mamaw's household items sat her china cupboard.  I quickly found my uncle and asked why it was being sold.  Everyone knew that he was to have it.  He said he just didn't want it.  So of course, we bid on it and didn't stop until we had purchased it.  I also was able to purchase some of the pieces that had been stored in the cupboard as well.  I was happy that I also purchased the pink and blue piggy bank that my grandmother kept sitting on a chest of drawers in the guest room.  I always admired it but was never allowed to hold it when I was a small child.  Now that piggy bank sits on the second shelf in the china cupboard.  If you ask me, he seems pretty happy to be there.