Enjoyed reading your story. Thank you for sharing. I resonated with the Calculator as sometimes it can be a single present that shapes an entire person’s life.
I think it would take a dedicated person who has a child very young so that they could influence grandchildren and potentially great grandchildren who also has an item that has some value but maybe can’t be sold for equivalent amount and that person has to build this item up like it’s magical. Yeah it would take a lifetime dedication of one person to create an heirloom so they are pretty special actually.
The item doesn't matter so much as the memories that get attached to it. If you want to do this through conscious effort, make sure to use the item frequently in activities that you do with whomever you intend to pass it on to.
Anecdotally, the things that are most likely to become multi-generation heirlooms are things like woodworking tools. They last forever with moderate care, and woodworking as a hobby or profession can also be passed from one generation to the next so that the tools will continue to be useful.
I might not know what heirloom really means because it's hard for me to think of a purchased watch as an heirloom. (From the post though the Seiko is clearly the one that has the strongest familial connection.)
A piece of furniture a grandfather made feels more like what I think of as an heirloom. Something one-off, made by the person you are remembering. But also a letter my mother wrote, her handwriting, is more valuable, more heirloomish than whatever the most valuable thing is that she owned.
I always wanted to do ancestry for my family (family tree?) And I realized and still realize how far away people really become.
My last grandpa will die soon. I know his stories everyone knows but I don't know what he would have voted, what his favorite food is, what music he liked.
He has dementia now and forgets that he is at home and asks go go home.
What do I know from his life really?
He will end in some online tool as a name, two dates an image and lines connecting him to other family members.
I thought about making a legacy somehow and if I would make children I would create a family book and create rules which would share my thoughts with every future generation and everyone gets reached to follow it and enhance it like having Familie values and keeping them.
But at the end of the day I do realize for myself that this will not work as imagined and it doesn't matter at the end anyway.
Thanks. That use is very much want I was thinking. I had very similar experiences with elder relatives and it would have made their (our) lives easier and better.
First off, you can spend a lot of time adding amazing features that are never used.
Second, many successful products weren't all that complex. (though I'm not sure if these days still exist)
Third, realize that most stuff that gets created disappears into the infinity of time & just gets replaced with other stuff.
Fourth... do you love your grandparents? (or parents, or friends) I hope you still have them. If so, then be sure you call them on their birthdays & on holidays. Maybe even send a card. Spend as much time with them as possible. They are truly the most important things to your life. The rest is just icing.
My grandfather is 92. I have a small number of relatives I fully expect will want more than their share, the things that may fetch some coin. I hear the more brazen ones 'Grandad, when you're gone, Grandma can't drive, what do you plan on doing with the car?'
I would dearly like to ask him for his harmonica. I remember sitting on his lap while he'd play Larry Adler tunes (he doesn't have the breath for it anymore). I don't think anyone else will care for it, something to go in a box to the thrift store I'm sure, but watching the looters plan their moments I can hardly bring myself to say anything, and so I'll just sit and make him another cup of tea.
A past years as a child brings back the flood associated with memories regarding times invested with a unique grandparent. You may or even may not have were built with a lot of many years to spend together to hear their own stories of the lives and also to learn about their own wisdom. However, many things might stand out in your head like the precious metal Antique Pocket Watches Grandpa transported everyday that you simply knew him or her.
This isn't exactly a productive comment, but I just wanted to say that it's extremely thoughtful to do that for the elders in your family, and I'm sure they would appreciate it immensely. Now that you've given me the idea, I want to do this for my grandmother while she is still in good health. Thank you!
I only met my great grandfather once before he died, but I remember his name, and my parents still have the artifacts he left behind. He was a carpenter, and made several wooden pieces we still have, including a turtle footstool, a doll house, and a garage for toy cars. He also made a kid's rocking chair which sadly got destroyed over time. I played with all of them plenty when I was a kid.
I plan on keeping these things in the family as long as possible.
Make things and leave them behind, and hopefully your family will still cherish them. I write and make board and video games, I'm hoping some of those will stay in the family. I also want to get into woodworking once I own a home, and make custom components for my games.
That’s not a question any of us can answer. It’s gotta be something you cherish. And in a way that your children would know it, and associate you with it.
Most dinner plates aren’t heirlooms. But the fancy china that reminds your kids of Thanksgivings and their graduation dinner might be.
Or furniture. I actually have the dining room table my grandmother bought in 1960something. It’s not even all that fancy. But… thanksgiving. The crappy centerpiece I made as a 7-year-old kid proudly featured there for the next 2 decades. The best beef stroganoff I ever had. The table is a mid-century modern design and slightly clashes with the house it’s in. But I don’t care because it holds so many memories.
Other examples in this thread are often mechanical things. Like old cameras. I’m wondering if this will still hold for future generations. Digital stuff just doesn’t seem permanent enough to be passed down.
I run a family wishlist site called DreamList (https://www.dreamlist.com) and it is frequented by grandparents. Since 2020 we started working on a family journal to build into the site to make sure families are reminded to jot down and preserve their stories and potentially to give them to loved ones on special occasions. Some insights and lessons are more valuable than any material gift and you don’t have to wait till a terminal event to share them.
The grandparent is a naive oversimplification. Most things that aren't just very trivial CRUD do have irreducible complexity, that cannot be encapsulated away. Also, making notes doesn't help there, notes that were written need to be read again and again and again, multiplying the effort involved.
The grandparent's example of a different world wasn't the guy picking up the check, it was making six figures by doing something virtually nobody does.
I think it would take a dedicated person who has a child very young so that they could influence grandchildren and potentially great grandchildren who also has an item that has some value but maybe can’t be sold for equivalent amount and that person has to build this item up like it’s magical. Yeah it would take a lifetime dedication of one person to create an heirloom so they are pretty special actually.
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