Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Treasures from the past


My 80 year old grandmother recently moved from her 5 bedroom house of 60+ years into a one bedroom apartment. Bless her heart, she came from a generation of never throwing anything away, so you can imagine what it was like to go through her things in her home. I was lucky to be on the receiving end of a hand pieced quilt top created by my great grandmother which was never finished & is in absolute pristine condition (no stains or discoloration) & these wonderful little treasures pictured above. These are the dog tags & a couple of medals from my great grandfather who was in the 49th & 50th Canadian Machine Gun Battallion during World War 1 while being enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces in Calgary, Canada.

Two of the dog tags (at that time, were made from a paper hard resin) are still attached to the original cord that the soldier wore on his uniform. (I apologize for the photo, however, they're actually a little difficult to read in person so the photo isn't too far from the actual tags & I am actually impressed that these "cardboard" tags, that are over 90 years old, are still pretty well preserved & that I can make out most of the lettering & numbers on the tags.) The "Wounded Stripe" bar was given to soldiers who were "injured in hostile action in World War 1". The round medal that states "For Service at the Front" was awarded to soldiers who were discharged from the Canadian Expedtionary Force (CEF) & on the back is a number given, which I'm sure somewhere it is recorded that George Raymond Slaight received this medal on some certain date, however, I haven't been able to locate where I can find this information.

When I asked my grandmother where she had located these, she said, "oh they were just lose in the bottom of some drawer." I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am to have received these. Now what to do with them to display them??

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