The Last of the Artifacts

Are you ready?

The final artifacts . . .

While looking at this view of part of the middle room,

you see many artifacts

from my Grandparents Neff--

the love seat, the bear rug, and the antelope rug/hanging thing.

My Grandpa, a big hunter, brought home this bear.

The antelope thing that is hanging is the softest thing you'll ever touch.

Did it come from something he hunted, too? 

I really don't remember many

pieces of art or decorations on the walls of our home,

but this picture of the Mesa Temple has always had a place in every house we've lived.

 My mom's guitar.

She used to be in a band.

With Cathy Couch.

My mom played the tambourine and sang.

They used to get together all the time and jam.

I loved hearing them sing and harmonize.

And I remember a few very good ward talent show performances.

They probably did some Monkees songs,

but I definitely remember the Mockingbird song . . .

("Mock (yeah) ing (yeah) bird (yeah), Mockingbird. Everybody have you heard . . .")

Laaaaaa!

My dad's acoustic guitar,

NOT the guitar he used to wake us up with

bright and early weekend mornings.

That's what the electric guitars were for.

The "Middle" room should really be called the "Music" room.

This room grew from two acoustic guitars to

about 6 electric guitars, a bass guitar, a drum set,

a keyboard, a piano, two or three amps, 

and equipment to record. 

Which meant lots of loud music and impromptu concerts

from family, friends, and neighbors here.

(by the way, we do call it the Middle room because the house is a big rectangle with this room in the very center and all the other rooms of the house surround it.)

 My grandma's picture of my mom and her brother, Joe.

I couldn't show artifacts from our house without including

our swimming pool.

Everyone in AZ has a swimming pool so of course we do, too.

One problem.

Ours has always been filled with dirt.

Bad for swimming.

Good for walking on "water".

Over the years us girls and our friends made many attempts at uncovering the pool.

We made it down to the second step at one point.

And this was the inspiration

for many ghost stories about our house . . .

What is really buried in that pool??

More backyard.

The other side of the wall is the alley.

We climbed this wall a lot when all of the neighbor kids

played tag and hide and seek and had water wars.

One more of grandma's frogs that always hung in the bathroom.

I guess so you could time yourself . . .

 My parents also now have my grandparents table and chairs.

At grandma's house,

we sat around this table

eating cheez-its and drinking rootbeer

as she taught us to play poker with pennies.

Don't worry. We played other games too--

Checkers, Old Maid, Donkey . . .

But you always had to watch out for Grandma--

she was a cheater.

And she taught me everything I know.

 Another of grandpa Neff's creations . . .

  Trays for coloring and writing and eating on . . .

My dad is such a romantic guy.

Sometime shortly after they were married,

he gave my mom this gift--

a little porcelain toilet.

Her name is even engraven on the top.

I've heard there was an even more romantic note that went with it,

but I can't imagine how you can get more romantic than a toilet with a green lid.

The lid even comes off so you can keep things in the bowl,

or maybe use it as a candy dish.

And serve tootsie rolls.

Oh dear, I think I've gone too far.

And on that note,

my artifact documentation ends.