![a charming book
in 1941, my grandmother found two, four-leaf clovers on her honeymoon in niagra falls, this launched a 60 year obsession with collecting, preserving and cataloguing them in a little book. a sampling (from top left):
the 1.5” × 2.5” book is simply labeled, “four-leaf clover book” in my grandmother’s unmistakable scrawl.
#1: “niagra falls, june 19, 1941.”
#16: “glenham, 1950.”
#17: “hawthorne, august 25, 1974.” [there is an unexplained gap between 1950 and 1974 that exactly coincides with my dad being born and graduating graduate school.]
#25: “july 9, 1985 rossmoor golf course, 13th fairway.”
#26: “july 19, 1989, raynor found a real one at the park.” [i was so intent on getting into this book that i drew in a clover that i allegedly found a few days earlier]
#33: august 1993, snowmass village, not exactly a four-leaf clover but we really wanted to find one in colorado. [it is a three-leaf clover with one of the leaves split in two]
#40: “pennswood village, perimeter walk july 31, 2000.” [this is the final clover in the book and on the final page. my grandmother died a year and a half later]
just as i (and horatio caine) like to examine my own life through the objects that i interact with, so too can this be done with my grandmother’s book. it reveals the places that she lived and vacationed°, her pastimes, friends°, and obsessions. it is every bit an autobiography of her life as an actual biography. there is little doubt that the true subject of the book is not four-leaf clovers—it is my grandmother.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/3FZnoU8PUlt52ncxt1aeDRjFo1_500.png)
a charming book
in 1941, my grandmother found two, four-leaf clovers on her honeymoon in niagra falls, this launched a 60 year obsession with collecting, preserving and cataloguing them in a little book. a sampling (from top left):
- the 1.5” × 2.5” book is simply labeled, “four-leaf clover book” in my grandmother’s unmistakable scrawl.
- #1: “niagra falls, june 19, 1941.”
- #16: “glenham, 1950.”
- #17: “hawthorne, august 25, 1974.” [there is an unexplained gap between 1950 and 1974 that exactly coincides with my dad being born and graduating graduate school.]
- #25: “july 9, 1985 rossmoor golf course, 13th fairway.”
- #26: “july 19, 1989, raynor found a real one at the park.” [i was so intent on getting into this book that i drew in a clover that i allegedly found a few days earlier]
- #33: august 1993, snowmass village, not exactly a four-leaf clover but we really wanted to find one in colorado. [it is a three-leaf clover with one of the leaves split in two]
- #40: “pennswood village, perimeter walk july 31, 2000.” [this is the final clover in the book and on the final page. my grandmother died a year and a half later]
just as i (and horatio caine) like to examine my own life through the objects that i interact with, so too can this be done with my grandmother’s book. it reveals the places that she lived and vacationed°, her pastimes, friends°, and obsessions. it is every bit an autobiography of her life as an actual biography. there is little doubt that the true subject of the book is not four-leaf clovers—it is my grandmother.
