An artifact

May 27th

It was there for years since I moved into an old family house. In the attic, in the outbuilding that I am using mostly as a garden shed and storage space. It was under all the junk that I don’t really have a need for, but I don’t feel like throwing away — because “who knows, I might need it one day”. You know — empty cardboard boxes, old garden tools, old clothing, parts of machinery, and kitchen things. But that day never comes, and the junk just keeps piling up. Even when last year I rented a garbage container and threw away 8 cubic meters of old stuff and trash, that barely made a dent.

But it made it more visible. I tried to move it several times to get a better look, but each time I would move a little, there would be so much dust immediately coming up in the air that I would quickly give up the idea. Also, to even see it I would have to move a lot of the other stuff and that would be a hard and dirty job. Something that I wanted to avoid. So it just stayed there, gathering dust and taking space I could use for keeping other junk out of my view.

Last weekend, my brother came for an unexpected visit and that was a good moment to actually do something about it. I braved the flying and annoying dust particles, moved other stuff, and was able to move it close to the floor opening in the attic. It weighed a tone. Or something close to it, maybe 70–80 kilograms, but it was dirty, cumbersome, and unwieldy. But we are two big and strong men, and slowly we were able to lower it down the opening and take it out through the door.

And there it was — a fricking wooden bathtub! Of course, I knew that it was when it was still it. My mom told me that it has to be that wood bathtub that she remembered from the early 1950s. Then it was just standing in the summer kitchen, and soon after it was moved to that attic, where it stayed for 70 years. Even in the 1950s, that bathtub was already old, something from the era of my mom’s great-grandparents, so from the mid-to-late XIX century. And it is so awesome! It is made from one piece of wood, so it had to be a really serious trunk of some tree to make something like that. And it was just carved out from that piece of wood, almost like a dugout boat. It is a very good shape for a wooden thing that is over 120–150 (?) years old. I don’t know what I am going to do with it yet. For now, I cleaned it, and after drying, I will apply a coat of colorless varnish to prevent any mold or insect damage. Then I will see. But the fact is that I found an amazing artifact from the time passed and something that was used by my great-great-great-parents. It was always there, preserved in the corner of the attic under a layer of dust. It is not gold, and it is not shiny, but it is a truly priceless find and an heirloom to me.