who we are and where we came from

My grandmother was absolutely mad for antiques. When my father was in high school she and my grandfather purchased and furnished the home that they lived in together for the next 30 years. The home she built was one from another time. My dad has stories about how Mimi would drive to pick him up from college at the end of the year and how he would be forced to get rid of things when she pulled up because the trunk was full of antique nick knacks and the back seat stuffed with a hundred year old dresser. The walls of the house were strictly for historical pictures-- contemporary photographs were put in standing frames and nestled into arrangements in cupboards and on coffee tables. As with all versions of American history, Mimi's was sometimes falsified, elaborated or arbitrary, but indisputably puritanical and American. I'm excited about these pictures and what they mean and my head is humming with thoughts about them.