Retro-engineering

What does one do when one's family leaves no form of inheritance? Create it oneself, that's what.

As previously mentioned, some of my forebears moved up North from the Pietersburg / Potgietersrus area of South Africa into the new and unnamed country that soon became Rhodesia. That would have been in the late 1800's and doubtless they would have had some fascinating items of furniture, books, firearms and the like that they could leave to their descendants, were they not such schmucks. As fate would have it, all my Dad inherited from his Dad was a hat, a Bible and a belt (the trouser-holding-up kind, not a clip round the ear) and all I inherited from the same source was a rifle for killing elephant. Dad still has his heirlooms, whereas I have long since sold mine to an uncle on the grounds that I am incapable of shooting elephant and anyway as a student at the time needed the money for medicinal purposes (Grahamstown's cold weather being made tolerable by regular tots of sherry).

From my Mom's side of the family I inherited a small sum of money - well old man Girdlestone had 16 grandchildren from his 6 daughters so in retrospect it was a healthy estate he left, just somewhat diluted by numbers of inheritors. Looking at my parents (and long may they continue to prosper) I am likely to inherit nothing, especially not antiques with family connections.

But the Hogga is nothing if not resourceful and so on receipt of my first bonus and sales commission in England - healthy ones too, nearly bankrupting the little mickey mouse company I was working for - I went online to a delightful site called www.yesterdaysdreams.co.za . This is a South African antique dealer located in the little Free State town of Bethlehem (Jesus wasn't born in this one because they couldn't find three Wise Men or a virgin) and it has an absolute treasure trove of stuff. I bought two enormous wardrobes, some cabinets and the like and had them all shipped to England.

These were not random selections, mind you. They all had to be genuine antiques from a particular period in South Africa's history - from approximately 1880 to 1900 - so that they could conceivably have been the ones my family took with them on their long trek North. To complete the illusion I also sought out a whole collection of similar-aged local books, explorer's journals from the late 1800's and so on - and stocked the one cabinet with these.


So now as far as anyone knows I have my great-great-grandmother's bookcase and other items of furniture. The perfect inheritance to one day pass on. Ah, if onl;y I had kids... well heck I can't think of everything!!!