I still have my little Lane.

When I was 17 my husband, then my boyfriend bought me a hope chest. Don't think my parents were too thrilled at the time. I use to buy stuff each week for our future apartment with my weekly paychecks. Really came in handy. I had small trash cans, dishes, silverware all kinds of stuff. It really came in handy when we got married. I still have the cedar chest 33 years later...it will go to a future grandchild someday.

Oh this thread brought back so many memories. My two sisters had many things that they and our mother made before they got married. I was a much later addition to the family and times had changed but our Mom had not been idle and gifted my DH and me with many handmade household items. I still have many of the beautifully embroidered flour sack tea towels, gingham aprons (never learned how to wear one but I have plenty!) and tablecloths, and lace edged pillow cases. We have moved many many times over the 41 years of our marriage--20 homes, 5 provinces, 4 countries--but my 'hope chest' has always traveled with us.

I still have my hope chest from 1959, its cedar and the lock is broke and traveled around with us during Air force moves, it wholes some blankets , but I don't know what will become of it after I'm gone, most people don't know the reason for them,,

I had a hope chest and loved collecting it in my preteen years. When I got married my hope chest became a memories chest and I put in all my preteen and teen scrapbooks, stuffed animals, summer camp stuff. It stayed at my moms, it is a huge antique domed trunk I found in my grandmother's attic. What fun it was to go thru it when we closed out my mom's house.

I have a friend who is now in her 80s. She raised five kids, so has a number of grandkids and now a bunch of great-grandkids. She has made every one of them a bed-size quilt. She starts when they are babies. The quilt is to be received by the child at his/her high school graduation. The youngest, who's about 8 or 9 right now, has had his quilt waiting for him since he was four years old. She has enough room to store the quilts for the younger kids in her house until the graduation.

Just an FYI- There was a spot on the news about kids suffocating in hope chests. It said the chests made prior to the 1990's had a lock on them so the chest couldn't be opened from the inside. If somebody gets in and the lid comes down, someone on the outside has to push the latch in to open the top letting the person out. They also said Lane did a recall and if contacted will provide a safety latch to prevent suffocation.
I can't image a kid playing in a hope chest or exactly why someone would be that far inside one, but never the less kids can do the most unusual things. If you have a hope chest, here's the link for the new safety lock

http://www.lanefurniture.com/custome...placement.aspx

I made a quilt for a nephew when he went off to University. He thanked me as it was the only warm thing in residence.

i remember my mom breaking the lock off of her 1940 Lane. The grands were toddlers at the time and Mom took the notice seriously. I did not blame her.
sandy

I think MOST kids would love to have things that were made especially for them by their grandparents. I only had one grandparent and she wasn't a quilter or crafter. BUT I did get her cedar chest and an initial ring of hers (we shared the same initials). I refinished the cedar chest and my daughter has it now...filled with our quilts and my son has the ring...I still cherish those items even though they now belong to my children, who love them, even though she died before getting to meet them.