On a shelf in my living room, underneath an assortment of papers and an old family photo album sits a wooden box. The wood is dull, unfinished, but you can see it was nicely made. I originally found it in the attic.
I was no stranger to the various things placed in our attic. There were countless things to look through, hidden in boxes and in old furniture. As a child I loved to go up and explore, always careful not to step between the joists. My mother had warned me numerous times about how easy it could be to fall through the ceiling into the room below.
When I was young, the only way into the attic was through a hole in the wall, inside a closet. A step ladder was needed to get through it. The attic was my own Narnia, another world! It was filled with treasures.
The box is made out of plain wood; there are no markings on it just two tarnished brass clasps, one on either side. When opened, it requires a bit of effort due to the close fit, there is almost a vacuum to it. A slight gasp or pop can be noticed when it is pulled apart.
Inside the box sits 23 beetles, each held in place with a stickpin! Some are extremely large and others are what I’d consider normal sized. All sorts of colors decorate their backs, from black and white to neon green. I can still remember the first time I saw what was inside it and how amazed I was! What a cool thing to find sitting in an attic! My father had already passed on, so I couldn’t ask him about it. Did he collect them or did he purchase this somewhere?
The box is only brought out for “special occasions”. It probably hasn’t been opened in 5 years or more. When opening it, I like to think that my father and I both had beetle collections. His was in this box, while mine was on vinyl.
While looking at it this last time, I noticed that some of the beetles had more than one label attached to the pins holding them in place. Afraid to move the beetles due to their age, I used a pair of tweezers to carefully slide some of the labels down. Most of them had numbers printed on them and others had descriptions of the insects, in Latin I’m guessing.
On one neatly inscribed label, I saw the name BREIDENBACH! (Probably written with a fine tipped fountain pen) So, this collection was his! The larger insects, Goliath beetles, are native to Africa and the neon green ones, Flower Beetles are native to the Philippines. As far as I know, my father has never been to either of these countries. Maybe he purchased these bugs from a dealer, like people did with their stamp collections, I can only guess. I have to say, there are a lot of things that I don’t know about my dad.
I closed the box and returned it to the shelf and thought about it for a while. It has been 50 years since my father passed on. He was 71 years old when he died, so if he started this collection when he was 18, these insects would be at least a hundred years old! He had put the box in the attic when we moved to Shaler so it is at least 70 years old, either way, these bugs are old!
I can’t help but think about how; so many things stored in our attic influenced me in ways I never imagined. I feel as if my many explorations into the attic as a child and as a young man, helped make me the person I am today. Photography, writing, reading, collecting odd things, the list goes on. My father influenced me in so many ways, more than I ever realized.
Thanks Dad!
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