Fun Monday - Hanging

I have looked forward to being able to host a Fun Monday event. Now, that school is out, I have a little more time. For this challenge, you have been asked to show us something that hangs on your wall that is fun, interesting, endearing, sentimental, or otherwise enticing. Select the picture of Uncle Horace, Grandma Galt's needlepoint, or little Susie's first fingerpainting to show the blogging community. However, in creating this challenge, I did not stop to think about some of the technicalities of this wall hanging Fun Monday. If your keepsake is something in a frame with glass, the glass reflects the camera flash and your lovely treasure is obscured. Hopefully, you have not had a great deal of trouble in taking pictures of your Fun Monday items or you may be wanting to hang me. To alleviate the light reflection problem, I have scanned some of my treasures, but the scanner does not scan the larger items.

My first exhibit is a gift that my mother gave to me when I began my teaching career. This is my great-grandmother, Pamelia Conger's teaching certificate dated April 24, 1869, which is about 100 years before I started teaching. I treasure this family heirloom, and the certificate itself is much nicer than my actual teaching certificate.

The next is a Valentine that Daddy D made for me when we were dating in 1966. Isn't he romantic?

This caricature of my Dad was given to my Dad on his retirement from the International Harvester, where he worked for 41 years. After he retired, my parents moved to Naples. One of Dad's co-workers created the cartoon, and all of the people in his department signed the back. The picture hangs on my wall in a very nice frame with a maroon matting.

This framed quote by John Wesley is from my sister, Margaret. This is one of Daddy D's favorite sayings. The advice from Wesley certainly is sound.

The picture of Lionel Richie was a sixth grade art assignment for our oldest son, Dean. In this assignment, students were to complete the second half of a black and white photograph in pencil. I think that the picture is wonderfully done.

Luke, our second son, had a comic strip published in Purdue's student newspaper, The Exponent. Comic strips are typically drawn at a larger size and then are reduced to fit the newspaper. This framed strip is one of Luke's originals. In this strip, one of the main characters, Cosmo, is taking an Organic Chemistry test. Daddy D teaches chemistry so he especially likes this particular strip.

This friendly little gate hangs in our blue kitchen. My husband's step-father made this gate; I believe out of old siding. George was an interesting fellow and an inventor of sorts. He was forever making things out of stuff other people threw away. He made the most beautiful oak kitchen cabinets out wood from the interior of an old building.

This wooden clock was made by one of my former students in his high school industrial arts class some twenty years ago. Last spring this former student, Caesar, stopped by school for a visit with his wife and pictures of his new baby. The teddy bear tucked inside the clock is one that I had as an infant. This same teddy bear was also loved by our two children when they were very young. On a quite memorable occasion, shortly after we brought Luke home from the hospital, newborn infant Luke was crying, and his almost three year old brother said, "Don't cry baby, here is my Teddy." This was the same bear that his daddy had to retrieve before bedtime from our friend's house, who watched Dean during the birth of Luke. This is the kind of memory touches a mom's heart.
So those are some of my treasures that hang on my wall. There is list of other Fun Monday participants in the margin on the left. Go visit those folks, and see what they have chosen to show us. Thank you for your visit and participation. I hope that photographing your hanging wares was not too difficult.

Interested in next week's Fun Monday. See Friday's post.