perfume bottles


When I was a little girl growing up in Chicago my parents took me to visit my grandmother often. I always looked forward to the visits because, quite frankly, grandma spoiled me! I was an only child and the youngest of all her granddaughter's. She never failed to make me feel special!

I would spend hours staring at Grandmother's perfume bottles. She had them displayed in a floor to ceiling glass case. In the afternoons the sun would hit that case just perfectly to show all the colors and patterns of each of her perfume bottles. It was really something to see!

Every once in while on a visit Grandma and I would gingerly remove and dust her perfume bottles. We handled each and every one with such care. It was during these moments that I learned the story of how each one was obtained. Some were gifts from family and others she bought for herself. The perfumes bottles that were most prominently displayed were those she had received from my grandfather. He had been gone since I was five, so my memory of him was vague. Grandmother brought him to life with her happy tales of the perfume bottles he gave her!