Vintage Thingies Thursday - My Desk

I have a sturdy wooden desk that I have loved ever since I was a little girl. It's a traveling desk. I don't know where it was made or who it's original owners were. I do know that it was abused before my grandparents rescued it.

After WWII, my grandpa found a job working for the Meat & Animal Research Center in the Nebraska Panhandle. He met my grandma, and they were married in Chadron in 1950. Their first home was in Fort Robinson. Sometime between 1951 and 1955, they inherited my desk from one of their neighbors who didn't want to take it with them as they moved across the state to Omaha. The neighbors had said the desk was already in their home at the Fort when they moved in. If you know anything about Fort Robinson's history, you can see why I find this tidbit of information exciting!

Once Grandma had it, she claimed it as her sewing table. That is how I remember seeing the desk - sitting in her sewing room with her machine on top and the drawers bursting with threads, sewing tools, and notions.

When we lost my grandpa almost 4 years ago, the desk came home with me. At first, we put it in the boys' bedroom for Taylor to use as a drawing table and his "Home Fun" desk when he started Kindergarten. We moved my desk into our bedroom after Taylor and Landon got their Lego table. From there it was moved into my sewing room/office, and a month ago, when we turned my sewing room into Landon's bedroom, we moved my beautiful desk into the kitchen. It fits perfectly along the wall between our little entry and the bathroom.



One of the many things I love about this desk is this little flap that you can fold up for more surface area. You can also see the cigarette burns that were left by one of the previous owners (my grandparents weren't smokers, so the burns have been there since before they had the desk)!



One more note about Fort Robinson. It is well worth your time to do a little more reasearch on the Fort. The links provided above say very little about Crazy Horse being killed there, the Red Cloud Agency, or the WWII German POW camp. Also, if you're ever looking for a place to visit in the Nebraska Panhandle, I highly recommend Fort Robinson. It is now a state park and has a lodge and cabins (these were at one time the soldier's and officer's quarters). If you do happen to stop and go through their musuem, look for the WAC uniform they have on display. Jessie Mercer donated that uniform. She was stationed there, as was my grandpa's older brother, at the end of the war. They fell in love, were married at the Fort in 1946, and a freed German POW even made their wedding cake!

For more Vintage Thingies, check out Colorado Lady's blog.