Found a repair log in my great-grandma's wooden chest from 1923

I was cleaning out her old hope chest last weekend and found a little notebook tucked under the lining. She had written down every single repair she did on her sewing machine over 15 years, even the date and cost. Has anyone else found hidden notes or letters inside heirlooms like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

victorclark8d ago

That line about "every single repair she did on her sewing machine over 15 years" really got me. It's funny how people used to treat their tools like they were part of the family. My grandpa had a similar thing with his old pickup truck, he kept a little spiral notebook in the glovebox and wrote down every oil change and tire rotation from 1965 to 1987. I think we've kind of lost that, you know? Now most people just toss stuff when it breaks and buy a new one. There's something special about seeing someone take the time to track the life of a thing they really depended on.

aaron1978d ago

Hold on a minute, I gotta play the other side here. Keeping a log like that for 15 years sounds more like a chore than something special. People back then didn't have a choice, they had to fix stuff because money was tight and new things were expensive. It's not like they were being sentimental about their sewing machine, they were just trying to survive. Now we can buy a decent machine for what a single repair cost in 1923, so tossing it makes more sense than hoarding a notebook full of old problems.