This is a book about memory and meaning; these texts bring to light the patterns of story and emotion that women have woven around the objects they have kept and treasured, objects which in the past may have seemed unimportant. These treasures contain and reveal each woman's life experience and act as vehicles for her values and for the development of her character. They are often passed along to other women or handed down to family members, thereby connecting generations and cultivating a collective women's history. Selected from interviews with over one hundred different women, these are rich, compelling and sometimes haunting stories, told in their own voices.