Oh, the things we've saved!

The baseballs preserved in Lucite cubes, the china wrapped in cotton wool, the photographs folded into acid-free tissue.  What's precious to us is made all the more precious by how we tuck it away amid all our treasures. Pay attention family! Our heirs will know to keep these objects safe--they might be worth money!  Take those dishes to the antique road show, not the Goodwill store.

But what about the other objects, the ones that are a bit careworn and, perhaps, a little ragtag--their worth known only to us?

Who will know their value unless we tell their story?

This week, Jim Tauber shares his childhood rendering of the Baby Moses.  Saved not because he's an artist who showed the world his early promise, but instead because he liked it—the simple, colorful way it showed confidence and verve.  And, for him, it holds the memory of its making. And because the drawing makes his daughters smile, which, in turn, makes him smile, too.

Our other contributor, Susan Stone, also saved what at first glance might be mistaken for an old laundry tag.  But the story it tells is of another baby born--not Moses tucked into a basket by the river, but very likely a much-loved baby who might have had a nap or two in a laundry basket at the family business.

Go ahead and wrap up the china and bag the silver, but take care, too, with the torn matchbook and the stained T-shirt.  Tell their stories so those who come after you will know their value, their glory! Send them to us at Storied Stuff.  We are all listening.

4-leaf clover, found by Sharon's mother, Nellie, affixed by Nellie to cardstock with scotch tape. Do not mistake this poorly preserved scrap of paper for trash--it is pure good luck!