Now I know that I left some of you hanging last week on this little cup thing. I knew that my close friends and family would know what this cup is and the significance it had…to me anyway–but they were banned from telling what they knew. It would have been cheating anyway.
So I’ll tell you.
Years ago, I did some intense research for a book I was writing called, “Ellie’s Gold.” It took place in the year 1897 when the Utah pioneers had officially been in the valley for 50 years. Salt Lake City had a huge Jubilee celebration that lasted nearly a week. The activities included parades, fireworks, games, exhibits, parties, carnivals, and concerts…just to name a few. I’d read in and old newspaper that in commemoration of the event, the city had a special “Jubilee Cup” made that showed scenes from the “old pioneer days.” If a person wanted one–back in 1897–they had to mail order it for $1.00. In my book, I had the family send for one. When it arrived, this is what Ellie said:
Now, I’d seen one of these cups in the Pioneer museum many years ago and it made my heart just skip a beat. There it was–for real. I even got so brave as to ask the lady at the desk if I could look at it up close and maybe even touch it…just for a second. She looked like I’d pinched her cat and said, “Why no dear.” She was a terrible sharer.
I was crushed.
So there we were, April and I, a zillion years later in the antique shop and there it sat behind the glass case.
Only this time, the lady said, “Would you like to hold it?”
“YES!” I said. There’s a slight chance I might have screamed a little. But the lady just smiled at me and put the cup in my hand. A real live, 106 year old Jubilee cup, that somebody ordered from the newspaper, and drank water out of for a long, long time and then tucked away in the attic somewhere until it was clean forgotten, for years and years by almost everybody.
Almost.
And it’s my very own now.
If you come over, I’ll let you hold it…
because some people know how to share real good.
:}
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