Thursday, March 9, 2017

Pearl's Pearls

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had found a jewelry box in the far back of a kitchen base cabinet.  Nice teaser, right? I wanted to make certain that my find didn't belong to the folks from whom we purchased 3301. Not just because it was jewelry, but more that I wanted my find to become a part of the lore of 3301.


What's inside?

Backing up a bit...shortly after we moved in we discovered that the first owner of 3301 was Pearl Friedman. I imagine Pearl to be the mother of the developer of the neighborhood. She was probably in her sixties and widowed when she moved into her new home in 1964 and she entertained her sons, their wives and her grandchildren here. Note, I have no proof that any of this is true - it's my internal narrative, my backstory for 3301.

The previous owners, who purchased the house in 1993, confirmed they had never seen the jewelry box or its contents. So I am excited to reveal...Pearl's pearls!

Pearl's pearls!
 
Knotted and matched, lovely!

In addition to the necklace you can see two small pins with four pearls each. The pins look to be silver. Not sure what theses are for or how to wear them. But, what a find!

UPDATE: Just a few thoughts about Pearl and her pearls that I didn't include in the original post...Where did Pearl get the pearls? Were they hers or a gift she purchased for one of her grandchildren? Why did she feel the need to hide them? I mean, they were hidden well in the kitchen cabinet. The only reason I found them was that when I lifted the large shelf off its pins to the inner top of the cabinet I knocked the box down down. It was wedged somehow at the top of the cabinet. Where did she go after moving, perhaps she moved in with one of her children? After she moved did she remember the pearls, did she miss them? I'll never know the answers to these questions, Pearl passed away in November of 2000 (yes, I did an internet search). I hope her life after 3301 was happy.