Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Dinner Bell

When my dad retired in 1978 his friends at DuPont gave him a dinner bell. He and my mom sold the home where we grew up and bought a small farm for their retirement years. They hung the dinner bell outside by the back door where it hung for 29 years. After my dad died two years ago, and the house was sold, my brother and sisters said I could have Dad's bell. At first I thought we'd hang it outside the way Dad did, but I like it inside even better.
It has a horseshoe mounting bracket, and Dad's name is engraved on the bell. Hanging outside for 29 years in all kinds of weather didn't seem to hurt it.

Now when I want to call the family for dinner all I have to do is pull the ribbon. The clapper is in the shape of a music note and makes a lovely (and loud!) chiming sound. It took me two years to decide what to do with Dad's bell, but we finally hung it up in time for his birthday next week. Happy Birthday, Dad! We miss you.


5 comments:

Suzanne said...

I love the bell, I could see Allan realing wanting something like that outside our home.

What a nice memory of your Dad the bell must be.

Connie said...

I'm sure you think of your Dad every time you see it, Diana. Very nice way to keep him with you. I miss my Dad too.

Owen said...

Hi Di, thanks so much for your kind comment today... yeah, I guess you might have missed a little of my history along the line... Your bell story is wonderful here, I guess the farm you mentioned is where I came to spend a week in Ohio way back when, and helped dig post holes to build a fence for the horse??? Hadn't thought of that in a long, long time... this is why we blog, to helps us remember.

Liked your post too about cleaning off the pool cover... I was wondering if there wasn't alot of life in there, maybe a few frogs even? Happy Sunday !

And my word verification on this comment is "ownesing"... change one letter and it is "owensing"... i like it...

Gingerbreadshouse7 said...

Ladydi, what another nice reminder of your Dad's Exsistance..
It's also a beautiful treasure...
Ginny

Tine said...

That is such a beauty! My parents have a bell -not as pretty as yours, though! It's really helpful to be a ble to just pull a string instead of walking around yelling for everyone to come to the dinnertable!