What's In the Box???

I'm in Phoenix for the holidays. My stepmother is something of a packrat, but so too was my grandmother while she lived here, bringing with her plenty of interesting mementos and curios from her travels around the globe during her younger years.

But it's this box from my father that I find the most interesting. The leather is black and hard; it's cracked and worn from years of use and from being out in the elements. What's most interesting is what's inside.

Old vials. The box is my great-great-great grandfather's. He was a doctor way back when in Missouri. Having not found him in some of the old photo albums yet to confirm just how old this box is (as my father doesn't recall either), I can only guesstimate at its age, assuming it's from the early- to mid-1800s based on the normal gaps between familial generations.

There is a second level of vials and, below that, a third with much larger vials. Most of them contain mystery substances. I say mystery because the labels have all yellowed and decayed or the previously legible writing has been rubbed off from all the use and/or handling over the decades. Regardless, I have zero plans to handle or open up any of these vials any time soon...not without having an expert of some sort handle them first. Especially considering some of the substances may be considered highly illegal now (to say nothing of how toxic some of them may be after all these years).

And then there are the trinkets from my grandmother's travels. These I will be taking home with me once my time here is done. I was not able to come back for her funeral earlier this year, which was pretty damn disappointing, but I was lucky enough to have spent a lot of time with her during the last few years of her life after a long, long absence from it due to distance and family issues. My oldest sister wanted some of the more plain white/cream or green colored pitchers from my grandmother's travels, but I find that some of more colorful ones are definitely in my wheelhouse, specifically the bluish one on the right with the dragon carved into its side. Absolutely beautiful.

You can read about my grandmother's passing here.