a memory

Granna (Norma) was an operator for AT&T.  I'm not sure for how long, or when she retired, but she was definitely retired by the time I became conscious of the world.  She collected old fashioned telephone miniatures, which I wish I'd kept.  And upon retirement, she received a little clock that sounds like a big loud grandfather clock, which I did keep.  She also kept a little souvenir for herself, which she shared with me and my sister...

When I was little, Granna lived on Westmoreland Street in McLean, VA. At the corner of Westmoreland and Kirby Road, there used to be a little farmer's market.  Maybe it was more of just a vegetable stand.  (Now it's just houses).  Granna was diligent about going for a walk every day for her health, and so we would walk up to the vegetable stand on the corner, maybe buy a few things, and walk back.  One of the houses on the street had a long chain-link fence in front, and Granna would always give me her keychain to hold and run along the fence to make a clanging noise.  She did this with Shylah too--I'm not sure why either of us thought that was super fun.

This is the keychain:

I never really knew what it was - it just looks like an incomplete piece of something, doesn't it?  I don't remember how, but I found out eventually that it's a sort of plug that telephone operators would plug into the switchboard to connect people.  Like this:

When we were cleaning out our grandparents' house after Grandpa died, we found the keychain in a little box, and that tiny insignificant memory came flooding back.  I love that ugly old keychain, I always will.