Home on the Range... and Blond Furniture Revisited

I'm thrilled to pieces and just had to share that my Grandma Elverna's Frigidaire stove is coming to my house!

My grandmother's stove in her pink and red kitchen.

I can't wait to cook with the range that my grandmother used to make me real hot cocoa when I was a child... and that she cooked so many wonderful family dinners with. I also have one of her aprons... I'm sensing a photo op in my future.

This stove has a deep well on the range top and it has TWO ovens. Oh Miss Frigidaire, the soup and cookies we will make, you and I!

Just for fun, here is another view of my Grandma Elverna's kitchen, showing the cute little shelves above the sink...

Grandma Elverna and Grandpa Bud in the mid-1940s with their two boys... the little guy on the left is my Dad. :)

Now, as I recall, I promised to let you know when the Heywood Wakefield furniture from Grandpa Bud and Grandma Elverna's house would go to auction. The furniture will be sold on July 12 in a special auction of higher end antiques at Travers Auctions in Dallas, PA. There's also an antique oak sewing cabinet & machine in this auction that my Grandpa Bud brought from his parents' house several years ago. It looks like the auctioneers have some really terrific items for this auction, so it might be worth the trip if you live in or near northeastern Pennsylvania.

So, who has a suggestion for a good first thing to make using my grandmother's stove?

A Bevy of Beautiful Blondes in My Grandparents' House...

My family always referred to the light-colored, beautifully-streamlined, modern-looking furniture in my Grandpa Bud and Grandma Elverna's mid-1950s-built house as "The Blonde Furniture." To me, as a child, it always seemed extra-special and somehow more than just an ordinary table, chair, or desk.

While you will most likely recognize it right away as Heywood-Wakefield, I was an adult before I ever heard the name mentioned in relation to my grandparents' Blonde Furniture.

I thought you might like to come along on my trip down memory lane and see some photos I took last fall at the house. At some point in the near future, all this furniture will be headed to auction.

Let's start with the china cabinet... full of the Franciscan Desert Rose dinnerware that I fondly recall my Grandma Elverna using for many a family dinner...


And here's the buffet... I always loved the sliding door on the one side...


One of six chairs for the dining room table - four armless and two with arms... my grandfather always occupied an arm chair at the head of the table (well, actually the end closest to the kitchen)...


The table ends fold down and the "legs" are three arches of wood... my grandmother always used a tablecloth for dinners - often one that she had embroidered or cross-stitched herself...


End tables and coffee table in the living room... my grandmother used to have lady-head vases on each of the end tables...


My grandmother's dresser... the mirror always seemed so huge to me...


My grandfather's dresser... complete with a green Roseville "Hyde Park" monogrammed ashtray that doesn't look as if Grandpa Bud ever used it (even though he was a pipe and cigar smoker at one time)...


The headboard with sliding door compartments... the quilt rack next to the bed was made by my Grandpa Bud...


And, last, but not least, the awesome desk in front of an oft-sunny window where I remember my grandparents taking care of their bookkeeping and paperwork...


I hope you enjoyed meeting this bevy of beautiful blondes! I know I will always associate "The Blonde Furniture" with fond memories of my Grandpa Bud and Grandma Elverna.

What stirs happy family memories for you?