Rediscovering History

Mid December, amidst piles of holiday cookies and knitting on the go, I decided it was about time to venture into the storage room to look for some wrapping paper. I ended up stumbling across a number of keepsake boxes put together by my mom, and within one (buried beneath a lot of embarrassingly bad artwork) was a little box full of minerals that I had completely forgotten about in my adulthood.

When I was a kid, my dad gave me this box of labelled Canadian minerals from his own childhood because I had begun to show an interest in rocks and crystals. I remember being so amazed by this little pocket collection, and extremely annoyed with the piece of Agate in the box, thinking it looked more like a sliver of almond than anything else. I think I kept this box within reach for a year or two and then moved on from it, finding other interests and eventually forgetting much about it. Thankfully, my mom tucked it into a storage box with some other ephemera for me to find again.

When I rediscovered it, it felt really significant to me - a nod from childhood Imogen, an acknowledgement that what I'm doing now would likely strike her as extremely cool and aspirational. That was a really needed message, coming at a time in my life where I'm often second guessing my choices, wondering if I'm doing the right thing and so on.

So, let's talk about this box of Canadian Minerals. It's unclear what supplier this came from, but online research shows it is likely some sort of MCM Vintage Rock box from the 50's-60's.

My dad doesn't remember much detail about this box, he was also a kid with a lot of fleeting interests and passions and I wouldn't be surprised if he quickly moved on from this collection as a child too.

My dad was born in 1950 in Conquest, Saskatchewan - a teeny tiny rural prairie village (currently consisting of approximately 160 residents). At some point, he must have received this mineral collection, he guesses it was either a gift or a souvenir from a brief travel. One thing is for sure - it was his and his alone, as his name (Stafford Neal, Conquest Sask) is written on the front of the box AND the back of the box AND on the inside of the box behind the crystals for ultimate identification should it ever go missing.

The minerals themselves are nothing flashy - a chunk of lead, quartz, and something labelled chrysocolla which looks to me more like a piece of river rock with some quartz running through it. There's a piece of something called travertine, which I had to research just now so that I can tell you its a kind of sedimentary limestone. The agate, like I said above, is SO bland to look at that it almost blends in to the paper.

But I don't care; the sentiment is the magic of this box. It almost makes me feel like the universe (and my family) has been guiding me on this path since before I even knew it was possible.

It also makes me think about how special a mineral collection is, whether big or small. May we all collect and share and pass the magic of nature through many generations. Who knows what guidance our collections might offer in the years to come!

xo Imogen

(this post was originally shared to Patreon)