Treasure Chest

A few weeks ago, on a rainy weekend Gina asked about the wooden chest in our room. I got this chest from my grandmother and I don't think I have looked in it for about 10 years, since we moved into this house. So we decided to explore the treasure chest. Some of the things in the chest are table clothes and such, not so interesting to the kids. But we also found this blue silk cape which they both tried on. It is showing a lot of wear on the inside collar but the color is beautiful. There were also a variety of old undergarments, mostly slips and bloomer type underwear from the early 20th century.
Most of the things in the chest came from my grandmother's aunts who lived in Gilroy. There were six girls: Bessie, Evie, Mollie, Millie, George and Jo and one boy, Tom (George and Jo were twins). One item in the chest is a wedding dress. It is cream colored silk (probably darker from age) and it has a pleated panel that has come apart from the rest of the dress. It is fairly heavy but very fragile so I didn't let Gina try it on. However, the shoes that go with the dress were in the chest as well. Gina had fun trying those on. This dress was for Aunt Mollie (I think I got that right) but she never wore it. Her fiance was sick (consumption?) and her father didn't want another sick son-in-law. A very sad story but one I always loved hearing my grandmother tell. Going through the chest reminded me of all the things she used to talk about but were never written down. Hopefully I will remember a few more of her stories to pass down to Gina and the boys..