I recently inherited my grandfather's trunk. I am very excited about the refinishing process, but because of all the other stuff going on my life (kids, church calling, other hobbies, social life, extreme HEAT, etc.) it has been a work in progress for about a month or so now... but hopefully soon it will cool down outside and I can bear to be out there and MAKE some time to get it finished and into my bedroom where it belongs!
So here are the pictures of this marvellous vintage trunk, in all its rusty, beat up, gloppily painted, grungy glory...
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| It is a canvas covered trunk, which has been poorly painted with a real ugly, sloppy brown... so I'm stripping off the canvas and will stain the wood underneath. |
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Just so you get a good idea of how grody and corroded the hardware is on this thing... each little piece takes a lot of time to clean and polish, it is QUITE the undertaking!
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| side view... I count it a blessing that the leather handles are in great shape! |
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The inside tray is missing, it will need a new lid latch-catchy thingy, and the inside paper will need to be stripped off.
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Partially stripped and cleaned, already invested a couple days worth of sweat and elbow grease to just clean up this little bit.
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Well, that's it for now, and until it cools off a bit, it will stay on my back porch waiting to be lovingly cleaned and refinished. It has been a rewarding project so far in many ways, one of which has been that it has brought me closer to a grandfather who died long before I was even born...
My dad's father died when my dad was just a toddler, and working on this trunk, knowing it was his, I have felt a bond to him that I've never felt before. In fact, nearly every minute I've spent on it so far I've spent thinking and pondering on my grandpa. He was only 24 when he was killed in a plane crash on a military base in California. He was a pilot, training another pilot, who collided mid-air with another pilot in training with his trainer. All four men were killed. He left behind a young wife and two children, my Aunt Deanna, 3 yrs old, and my dad 1 yr old. My grandma remarried and I never really learned anything much about my grandpa. So after working on this trunk for a coulpe days, my curiousity was really growing so I did some research. I found a few neat pictures of my grand-dad as a child, and found out some neat history about his father, my great-grandfather.
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| My great Grandfather, Harry, and his family. |
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| Inside Ericksen Meat and Grocery, in Mt Pleasant Utah. Built and operated by my great-great Grandfather, Henry Ericksen. |
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| My Grandpa, Dick L Ericksen, with his grandparents and cousins. |
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| My grandpa (in the white cap) on his grandpa's lap. |
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| My grandpa to the immediate right of his grandpa (seated in the chair). |
Sooooooo, as you can see, this trunk is more than just a project to me, it is a link, a connection, a strong bond to the past, to a grandpa I never knew, but whom I feel closer to just from having the privaledge of owning and restoring his trunk, almost seventy years after his tragic death.
I will be posting the AFTER pictures when there are after pictures to post, hahaha, hopefully that will be SOONER rather than LATER. :)
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed my first post on this blog!
p.s. I would like to mention that these pictures were found on
mtpleasantpioneer.blogspot.com
I am grateful for the individuals who shared these!!
