Something old...

This is kind of a cool story that I don't want to forget.

My grandfather (Gibbs) worked for the Ford family as their personal accountant.  While he had an office, he often went to their home in Grosse Pointe to have them sign papers, etc.  Occasionally he would bring my dad and his brother and they became well known to Tom, the Ford's driver and "keeper of the cars" in the garage.  This was probably because Grandpa would leave the boys outside near his own car.

My Dad would go on to work for Ford Motor Company for many years until he retired. His brother also worked for Ford for a while until he left to open the Dairy Queen in Boyne City.  But those are other stories.  This one revolves around a small silver pitcher.  It's a little bigger than a quart mason jar although it looks like coffee cup size in this photo.

When my Dad and uncle were both young men and recently married, they were asked to help with parking cars at a party being held at the Ford estate.  This wasn't all that unusual.  They had been asked before and it was some nice side money.  They were hanging out in the garage with Tom, the driver, when my uncle noticed a black can of wire rods sitting to one side.  I'm not sure if he knew what they were or not, but he asked Tom if he could have them. Tom said sure, and handed him the can of rods.

My uncle's interest was only in the rods.  He showed my mom the can of rods as he dropped off my dad on the way home.  Nobody really remembers why he was so interested in them but apparently they were quite a find.  He was going to toss out the old black can they were in.  My mom said she wanted it.

Mom has always had an eye for "good stuff".  She took that old black pitcher and started cleaning it.  She quickly realized it was sterling silver.  And sure enough, it was stamped "Oneida LTD."  A once beautiful sterling silver water pitcher had been relegated to holding steel rods in the garage of one of Detroit's great families.

The bottom is scratched and dented (showing how the rods were dropped in it pushing out the bottom). It still needs a bit of cleaning again but I'm happy to have this bit of history with such a good story to go with it.