To the Editor:
Re “5 Girls, Heirloom China and the Reverence It Could Lose” (entrance web page, Jan. 5):
Rukmini Callimachi’s unhappy however pretty story of doomed heirloom dishes evokes a sophisticated response. After all it’s impractical to dine commonly utilizing such gadgets, or in lots of circumstances even to search out area to maintain all of them. However to what extent do the problems transcend the specifics of consuming habits to embody a present lack of curiosity in our personal histories?
Do youthful individuals who don’t care about these outdated gadgets additionally really feel no connection to every other household heirlooms — to the concrete artifacts of their very own household tales?
I’m reminded of my shock when my aunt knowledgeable me that the photograph albums my grandfather had taken onboard a ship from Tokyo to Seattle in 1919 had been tossed in a dumpster, as a result of “we by no means met these individuals and we will’t learn Japanese.” (Fortunately a cousin rescued them and later gave them to me for safekeeping.)
How many individuals know the biographical particulars of their lengthy gone ancestors? The place can we draw the road between lack of area and failure of creativeness? May not there be room for a number of saucers, if solely to place cash and keys in, together with a little bit of the historical past they characterize?
Andrew S. Mine
Chicago
To the Editor:
I drank in each phrase of your article about heirloom china. On Saturday excursions through the heyday of the division retailer, my mom, aunt and I visited china departments in a lot the way in which others would possibly take a look at a brand new exhibit at a gallery.
We eagerly parsed the variations between manufacturers, debating the relative deserves of plates with vibrant patterns versus these adorned solely with elegant bands of silver or gold.
Was the sample employed in such a means that the presentation of the meals might additionally shine? How concerning the form of the gravy boat and the creamer? Had been these vessels each stunning and sensible?
Now my beloved mom and aunt are gone. I’m certain that lots of the effective china departments are gone, too. However all reside on in my dwelling: I’ve three units of Mother’s tableware — the Russel Wright set she used daily when first married, the china manufactured in Japan proper after the struggle that she and one other aunt collected with grocery store stamps, and the black and white Victorian-inspired sample she chosen to match the sterling silver flatware she was so delighted to have the monetary flexibility to buy.
Each time I choose up one in all these dishes, reminiscences of members of the family, household meals and household celebrations come flooding again. Maybe these stunning issues are headed for the landfill. Till then, I’ll treasure them.
Amy Cohn
Marblehead, Mass.
To the Editor:
“5 Girls, Heirloom China and the Reverence It Could Lose” actually struck a chord with me. For years, I’ve been bemoaning the truth that I can’t discover a dwelling for my mom’s 1940 Renaissance sample Lenox gold-rimmed china set for 12, or her classic minimize glass Seneca water goblets.
And I’m not alone. My feminine associates of a sure age have the identical criticism.
It’s so unhappy that our lifestyle is altering, and never at all times for the higher. We will solely hope that sometime elegant entertaining at dwelling will make a comeback with the youthful technology.
They’re lacking one thing particular. You may really hear the desk dialog, in contrast to at most of at present’s eating places.
Lynn Hearth
Los Angeles
To the Editor:
As your article factors out, complete providers of classic dinnerware are simply obtained in thrift outlets for a fraction of the price of newly imported plates and mugs. To all younger individuals establishing a family, I strongly suggest the acquisition of heirloom dinnerware.
Blended place settings will be modern and attention-grabbing. If one thing breaks, eliminate it gently and head again to your native resale store or storage sale. You may be doing each the planet and your pocketbook a favor. And if Mother desires to present you a set, say “Sure!”
Melinda R. Meister
New Vernon, N.J.
Serving to Federal Employees Beneath the Trump Presidency
To the Editor:
Re “I’m a Federal Worker. This Is What We Want Most within the Trump Period,” by Stacey Younger (Opinion visitor essay, nytimes.com, Jan. 12):
The author expresses completely affordable worry about job safety and integrity in addition to harassment on the job by politically appointed higher-ups and in non-public life by the MAGA goon squad.
To supply the sensible assist she requests, we want a nationwide fund-raising effort: Small donors and billionaires alike ought to create and fund a system that pays for on-line protection (and offense), authorized protection (and offense), and all method of assist, together with direct and substantial monetary support.
Maybe it will restrain frivolous company “investigations” and the ever-urgent right-wing media seek for a villain du jour if everybody knew that the most recent sufferer would get monetary assist to climate the storm and would possibly burden the perpetrators with each doable authorized motion towards their defamation and harassment.
Keith Nelson
Newton, Mass.
To the Editor:
I perceive Stacey Younger’s level that federal workers will want authorized, psychological and sensible assist to remain of their jobs, given the brand new administration’s doubtless hostility towards them.
Nonetheless, to provide that, the general public wants complete data on what is occurring to workers and to the federal institution usually. However due to a tradition of gag guidelines constructed up over a minimum of 5 presidential administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, we’re unlikely to get that. In lots of companies workers are barred from talking to reporters or having such contact with out the authorities’ oversight.
Thankfully there are some individuals, together with the Society of Skilled Journalists, preventing this beautiful menace to democracy and human welfare.
Kathryn Foxhall
Hyattsville, Md.
The author is a longtime freelance journalist and a volunteer advocate with the Society of Skilled Journalists on the gag rule subject.
An ‘Interabled’ Couple
To the Editor:
Kudos to Wendy Lu for her wonderful article, “Sharing Tales About Love and Incapacity” (Sunday Types, Jan. 26).
I’ve been a quadriplegic since struggling a soccer harm once I was in faculty. Now, greater than 50 years later, I’m a part of an “interabled” couple, married to Anna, the love of my life, and the daddy of triplet boys who’re faculty sophomores. I by no means thought I might be capable of have my very own organic youngsters, however medical science has allowed that.
I lately retired from a 40-year profession as an assistant district lawyer on Lengthy Island, and have a life wealthy with a loving household, fantastic associates, journey and the chance to inform my story to encourage others.
My incapacity doesn’t outline me. With Anna at my facet, I’ve been in a position to face challenges to turn out to be the person I’m at present.
Ken Kunken
Rockville Centre, N.Y.
