The Blue and White thing, part 1

I am prety sure I know when my love of blue and white china began. I recall, many years ago,  standing on my tiptoes to peer into my Grandmother's "whatnot" cabinet. 

What drew my attention among the things placed on the shelves inside was a square plate of blue and white.  The plate had belonged to my Grandmother's Grandmother, or so I was told when I had asked about the plate.

 told its history.

The story I was told about its history intrigued me:

 It was part of a set my great-great-grandmother Gage "set up housekeeping with." Grandpa Gage was a preacher in rural Arkansas, and as such, host to a constant stream of guest for meals. Over time, pieces were broken and chipped. Grandma's oldest brother, whose name was Herman, caused the loss of some of the pieces of the set when he climbed up and onto Grandma Gage's china cabinet in pursuit of the sugar bowl.  Uncle Herman died in a hunting accident long before my birth but I loved to imagine him as a young child, "sitting just like a little monkey" on a shelf he had cleared on his climb, eating sugar out of the sugar bowl.

I have a picture of Uncle Herman as a baby that Grandma gave me because I loved stories about her older brother so much, especially the china cabinet one. He would have been older when the he broke Grandma Gage's dishes still I think I can see in even his infant face, the twinklings of mischief that seems to run in the family.

And perhaps it's from the story  hat I associate that blue and white plate, and all blue and white, with family and family lore.