What's the Story Behind These Sleigh Bells?

And other curious questions worth asking

Hello!

Today I want to do something different.

I just returned from a 24-hour trip to Bordeaux, France where my sister was celebrating her birthday with friends.

Does it make sense to travel from London to France for essentially one day?

Maybe not, but my sister lives 5000 miles away from me, so it felt like she was next door.

Plus, I was just following the advice of Cher Horowitz:

And this visit got me thinking about family…

Travel back with me if you will to my tween years, not long after my great aunt and uncle died.

Their son decided to sell a lot of their belongings, and my dad went to the auction to purchase some items from his father’s side of the family.

I don’t remember all of the things he bought, but I do remember one purchase:

Sleigh bells.

They were on a big leather strap and looked a lot like this:

Apparently these sleigh bells were something my dad had heard about for years, so he wanted to make sure he kept this important heirloom in the family. 

But Dad wasn’t the only one who saw those bells and had images of happy sleigh rides in the snow and Santa.

The story, as I recall¹, was that Dad got into a bidding war at the auction, and had to shell out $300² to win the sleigh bells.

That was lot of money for a family heirloom, especially considering that we did not have horses or a sleigh to go along with them.

After the auction, Dad brought the sleigh bells home to his father and said,

“OK, I paid $300 for these sleigh bells. What’s the story behind them?”

Grandpa looked at the sleigh bells, and then at my dad.

“I don’t remember,” he said casually with a shrug.

I suppose every family has a “sleigh bells” kind of story – some item that meant something to someone at some stage, but no one’s quite sure what exactly.

And that brings me to what I want to share with you today.

Curious Minds is all about being curious and the joy of curiosity, and every week I bring you a story about something I’ve been curious to learn about.

And aside from all of the history, business and pop culture stories I’m curious about, I’m also curious about my family.

My mom. My dad. My aunts and uncles.

I want to know more about their lives.

I want to understand things beyond what I learned in history class or heard when I was growing up.

I want to know what it was like to watch the Moon Landing, or live through the Vietnam War or Watergate.

I want to know what it was like for my mom to grow up — probably with athletic talent³ —but without the opportunity to compete in sports because she was a girl.

I want to know what music they listened to, what books they read, and what TV shows they watched.

I want to know how the world was different — better or worse.

So I came up with a list of questions and started interviewing them.

And these interviews have been fascinating.

I’ve heard stories I had never heard before, and learned so much.

This is from my interview with my aunt Sally (aka “Cool Aunt Sally”)

So I thought this might be something that others would benefit from.

Maybe you want to have a conversation, but aren’t sure where to start.

And too often we don’t think about asking questions until it’s too late.

So I’m sharing a list of the questions I started with.

And if you are lucky enough to have older relatives or friends — maybe even ones you’ll be seeing over the next few months — I encourage you to get curious about them.  

Find out what the history books won’t tell you.

Find out what you won’t learn at a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.

Because if you are ever given your family’s sleigh bells, I want you to know the story behind them!

Regular Curious Minds programming will resume next week.

Until then, stay curious!

Beth

Beth’s Curiosity Questions to Ask Your Family & Friends

Childhood

1. What was your childhood like?

2. What careers interested you when you were growing up? Or how did you picture your life as an adult?

3. What music/TV/films/books are special to you?

4. What did you do for fun? 

5. What was your favorite sport to play or watch?

6. Who was your favorite singer/actor/athlete?

7. Growing up, who inspired you the most?

8. What were you like in high school?

9. How would your parents have described you?

10. What was your relationship like with your parents?

11. What happy memory will you cherish forever?

Adult Life

12. When you think about a fork in the road in your life, what was it and why did you choose that particular path?

13. What’s a big risk you took in life you are glad you did? 

14. If you had to do it all over again, would you pursue the same career path?

15. What advice would you give your 40-year-old self?

16. What did you discover in the last decade or two that you wish you discovered sooner?

17. Looking back at your life thus far, what are you most proud of?

18. What do you miss most about the ‘old days’?

19. What was the best trip of your life?

20. What is your favorite part about yourself?

*This is just a starter list — and feel free to add any suggestions of additional questions in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

Another “Carpe Diem” day when I took my mom to Paris for her birthday in 2019.

And for my American friends:

1. I know I will be corrected if I am getting this wrong.

2. In today’s money, this would be north of $700. At the time, it would have bought me 4 Sony Sports Walkmans, so obviously it was *a lot* of money to me.

3. Mom did tell me she was the best kid at kickball when she was young - but there weren’t many opportunities for girls to play sports. My aunt benefitted from Title IX.