Note:  About five years have passed and the glass is still fine. 

I am inserting a few pixs from start to finish on this project and while I was getting the glass in place my bride and our youngest daughter Lisa Dianne Netting were cleaning the silver, crystal, china and all the do dads from different parts of the World to have them presentable again.  I know my Grandma Coley would be very proud to see the things that she had collected over the years looking so pretty again.  The top shelf in the cabinet was reserved for some of the crystal that I have given my bride “Tweet” along with some items that our daughters have given her.

The right curved glass is installed which has the manufacturer’s ID on the glass.  My bride cleaned all the curved glass side panels and front serpentine curved door glass as well as the rear mirror. There were four flat shelving units that were cleaned also.

The flat glass-shelving units ready for a serious application of Windex!

This is some of the goodies that different ones gave Grandma Coley over the years for her china cabinet.




Inserted are some pixs showing the hand carving….the carving is in relief and the back ground has a stippled finish all done with hand tools.




It should be noted that wood carving machines (pantographs) were available when this item was manufactured that did the rough routing (carving) which allowed such items to be mass produced and the fine details of the carving was finished by hand using carving tools.  This was at a time when labor was very cheap in comparison to today’s standards!  The particular carving shown above has a name but don’t ask me what it is.  I will research it if anyone is interested.  Note:  According to Chuck Erikson of Grass Valley, CA, "The carving is what's called "Acanthus Leaf " (in a "scrolled" motif), originating in classical Greece and used as a basis for fine carving ever since".


The side panels have matching pattern carving only on the top.  The only carving on the bottom are the two front feet.  I have seen some on the Internet with different carving patterns and in different locations but I guarantee you this one is ahead of most that are fore sale although not the most ornate.




Grandma Coley’s Serpentine China Cabinet looks as good as new again and it I know most of you didn’t know her unless you were family or friend but I am going to tell you a little about her and share some pixs and memories of her.



This is one of the earliest pictures that I have of my Grandma Coley whose maiden name was Mary Francis Trexler and was born here in Wadesboro, N.C. February 9, 1892.  The young chap with her is Joe Coley, her first son.  He died in a car wreck near the old West Knitting Mill which is now part of the South Piedmont Community College in Wadesboro, NC.

I have the original picture and carved framing of the above pix in our dining room of which I am very proud.  We had it restored years ago and at the time of Grandma Coley’s death, it seems that no one wanted the old picture but I am thankful that we obtained it.

My Grandma Coley “conned” my mother Ann Lee Porter into letting me stay with her when I was in the first grade in school and she raised me like her own son.  Mom and Pop lived next door so I guess it seemed plausible to my Mom at the time.  My bride tells me every once in a while how my Grandma Coley “spoiled” me since I never picked up any clothes, washed any clothes or did too much in the way of chores around the house.  I just hunted, fished and trapped growing up without any responsibility of which my bride’s work was cut out for her to get me trained.  I think she will freely admit it did her take a long time but I finally did come around. Go ahead and grin if you must!

Grandma’s old home place did not have central heat or air and getting up on those cold winter mornings with hardwood flooring; one did not linger around too long before getting dressed.  There were two Seigler brand kerosene heaters in the home and until around 1960 or so there was a full sized wood burning cook stove in the kitchen along side a more modern gas range.  Grandma Coley made some “beautimous” tasting lard buttermilk biscuits with that cast iron wood cook stove and you better believe I did eat my share of them.

Fond memories still linger of the many conversations we had in the front living room with each of us sitting beside the oil heater in our own wooden rocking chair with Grandma telling me about how things were back when the lifestyle was much different.  I know many people that said they would like to go back when things were much simpler but Grandma Coley had no such desire because life for her growing up was very difficult.  As a young girl, she had to help support her invalid Dad and look after the family, as her mother was deceased.  She worked as a silk spinner at the ole Silk Mill on Sikes Avenue where now is located the Oak Hill apartments.  The old silk mill was still standing in the early 1960’s and many times we would sneak into the mill climbing up to the third story looking out across the countryside.  She related to me how she worked as a child at the silk mill until the Child Labor Law was locally enforced and had to stay out of work until a few years later when she was old enough by law to work again.  She said she wore shoes until the soles would fall off and would fasten the soles of the shoes in place with cord or wire.  The supervisors at the Silk Mill showed no mercy to the child workers and they were expected to work like adults.

It was during our many chats that moral and Christian values and issues would always surface of which I have not forgotten them.  I know I have fallen short many, many times but those values are still rooted and grounded as those type of life lessons are long term in effect!

Many years after Grandma Coley’s death, it was revealed to me in a dream that I had a reel-to-reel tape recording of her singing, crying and laughing as she was trying to teach me a few old songs to learn on my Dobro guitar.  It was on that tape one could hear, feel and understand her love and commitment to Jesus Christ and the subtle underlying urgency for all to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior as evidenced in her songs and testimony.  Eighteen minutes of the tape survived as it was taped over long before I ever remembered making that tape.  That is a whole story and sermon in it’s self!


I will insert some of my favorite pixs taken in the middle to late 1960’s.

The below pix of my "bride" Joyce with Grandma Coley taken a few weeks before our first child was born on July 5, 1968.