The plan was for the siblings to work on the home and get it ready for an estate sale. Basically, this meant going through everything, deciding what people wanted and then dividing up the items. I was there to help with the hauling and to help dad road trip back to Minnesota in the rental truck. Admittedly, my ulterior motive was to see if I could get some of the African art. I knew going down that my grandfather's bar was mine if I wanted it. Apparently, everyone in the family knew that I coveted the bar and were kind enough to let me have it.
The paintings and orisha oko had been devised by my grandparents. Some of the masks and statues had similarly been bequeathed. Still, a large amount of masks, statutes and other items remained up for grabs. As a consequence, my modest home library now has a decent African art collection. My favorite is probably the esu elegbara, a fantastic cowry-covered, statue with a huge curved crest. I love it. I look forward to the day when one of my kids asks about it.
In addition to the African art, I came back with a helm, axe and shield from Afghanistan. They are decorated, probably ceremonial and not functional. Perhaps even manufactured for tourists. I have no idea. To my eye they look Mogul. Hopefully I can bring them in to Antiques Roadshow the next time it is in town and get some more information.
I also brought back about fifty books. The majority of them are on African art. Even though I came away with several boxes of books it bothered me immensely to see the remainder left on the shelves. Grandpa had carefully catalogued his books via his own form of a card catalogue. Had I more room I would loved to have kept them all. As it was, I was only able to keep a tiny fraction.
Still, the most meaningful thing that came out of the house was a cd-rom with some old WordPerfect files. I knew that grandma and grandpa had spent some time putting together some recollections. Grandma had read some of them to me but I did not know how extensive they were. I had to go buy a copy of WordPerfect to resurrect them off the cd-rom and preserve the photos that had been embedded into the narratives. I put them on the web to share them with the family and, hopefully, help in their preservation. They are here: http://wigginmemories.wordpress.com/
While I wish there was more, the written recollections are a wonderful glimpse at the lives my grandparents lived. Those are the stories I wanted for my kids. I look forward to sharing them. Maybe I will even get a chance to share a cocktail and a story over my grandfather's bar with them some day.
