Treasures

Never in my life have I owned real silver. Till now.

And to be fair, this isn't "real" silver. It's plate. What connoisseurs of fine things sniff at. But this is my family silver. I'm not sure what happened to the everyday stuff. This is what we set the table with for Christmases and Thanksgivings, Big Deal Birthdays, Engagement announcements.



I didn't so much "inherit" this from my mother, rather I acquired it by default. We went around the room, "Do you want this? Do you want this? Do you want this?" We did this about everything -- from silver to blankets, holiday decorations to sweaters. It was very quick; we're a decisive lot. I got the silver because nobody else wanted it. I guess my brother and sister already have silverware. And now, so do I.

But something was missing. A knife and a fork. The set was incomplete -- I felt I'd failed to look after the family silverware from the minute I got it ... 5, 6, 7, 5, 6, 7... there should be 8. 8 little spoons, 8 salad forks, 8 dinner forks, 8 knives... Why don't soup spoons ever go missing? There were 8 soup spoons, but only 7 forks, 7 knives.

It bugged me that two pieces were missing. Thank goodness for the internet. Thank goodness for Replacements. Have you ever been there? I love Replacements.com. For one thing I LOVE china. But they deal in crystal and silver too. Even if you don't know the pattern name of the piece you are looking for, send in a photo and they will identify it for you. How cool is that?

As it happens I do know the name of my silver, so I looked it up, placed an order, -- 1 knife, 1 fork. There was even a choice between pristine perfect ones or ones with "flaws", "mars," and "imperfections". Wait, mine are 60 years old -- this was my mother's wedding silver. It's been banged around quite a bit. I opted for "flawed" silver.

And looky -- it's here. I still don't see any flaws. It's lovely. My family silver is once again a whole set.

Just in time to set the Thanksgiving table... I better practice -- I've never set my own table with good silver. I wonder if my son and his wife will like it... I can tell them the story about the missing knife and fork. They can tell their son... after all, it isn't the silver that's the family treasure, it's the stories... always the stories.

Gut Apetit.