We live on a golf course, across from the women’s tee for the 11th hole. Older gentlemen also use this tee, so I call it the “old folks’ tee.” I don’t know what the formal name is for the tee closest to the hole.
There are two tees that precede the old folks’ tee on this hole. Errant shots that hook right from these allegedly more professional (and definitely more difficult) tees sometimes cause balls to land in our backyard.
In addition, I walk along the golf cart path behind our house about once a week. Often, as I walk to the path from our yard, I find other balls in the rough between our yard and the golf course.
During the four years we have lived in this house, I have acquired quite a few golf balls. I retrieved most of them from our yard, and others I’ve unearthed on my walks. Most of the balls are white, but I’ve found fluorescent pink and green and blue as well.
I have amassed quite an eclectic collection. Shortly after we moved into our home, I sent a few balls to my brother. But the rest I have kept.
Several years ago, our daughter-in-law gave my husband and me a beautiful Iitalo Aalto Vase. Alvar Aalto was a Finnish designer and architect, and our daughter-in-law is Finnish.
I’ve learned something about Alvar Aalto since receiving the vase. He designed buildings, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as creating sculptures and paintings. In 1936, Aalto designed the prototype of the vase we received. The Aalto Vase won first place in the Karhula-Iittala Glass Design Competition. The following year, it received accolades at the World’s Fair in Paris.
Vases based on this design have been hand-blown at the Iitalo Glass Factory ever since. The simple, organic, wave-like curves of the Aalto Vase (also known as the Savoy Vase) have earned admirers worldwide.
When we first received our vase, I used it for pretty things. For example, it held a Christmas arrangement of pine cones and holiday ribbons one year.
But since we moved into our current house, it has become the repository of golf balls. And a few unbroken tees, which I’ve also found along the golf course. I’m not sure it’s appropriate to put such prosaic, man-made items in our lovely Aalto vase. But it makes me smile whenever I see it.
Plus, I’ve seen pictures of Aalto vases used to hold flowers of every ilk, planted as terrariums, filled with walnuts, containing a little Christmas tree potted inside, filled with shells, holding kitchen utensils, as well as for many other purposes. So why not as a receptacle for golf balls?
The vase is practically full now, and I’m going to have to find something else to do with the golf balls. Neither my husband nor I is a golfer, and we have no need of them. Perhaps I will put them in a less fragile bucket out next to the golf cart path and invite golfers who pass by to take one. But the beautiful Aalto Vase I will keep.
What lovely things do you use for everyday purposes?
I love reading your stories, first was the one about the Pioneer trails through your farm in Fairville, and the last about golf balls and a beautiful vase warmed my heart too.
My late husband’s golf hobby was closer to a vocation! After he passed I kept gallons and boxes of golf balls. I have two cases and 2 large vases with special ones. In my entry I have an open curio with a cut glass vase filled, along with crystal trophies and a special framed photo with Adam Sandler at a golf course in Hawaii. In my ‘memorial’ game room in the center of the game table is a very large glass vase filled with golf balls that he inscribed each time he scored a round less than his age. Those balls got more numerous as he approached 79, the year he died. I will, one of these days go thru all of those balls to find the very last round he bettered his age????
Sadly, reading isn’t my strong ability. I was a math and music person, and a farmer. I was seldom interested in fiction, and would fall asleep reading things that didn’t get straight to the point of solving a problem or giving me important information. That is a handicap. I am hoping to read some of your books in the near future. I haven’t ever really tried historical fiction, but can imagine I would learn a lot of information and enjoy along the way.
I first tried to contact you about the old Fairville Baptist Cemetery. I’ve been working to restore it, while also striving to record connections of the burials there to their parents and children. I’m not sure why, but wish I was talented and clever enough to compose a story imagining the lives in that Fairville, Mo community .
Thank you for your stories and sharing in your blog.
Sincerely,
Linda Simmons
Thanks for the comment, Linda. I’m glad you have all those memories of your husband.
Theresa