Whimsy

Since I hatched this scheme to make a jigsaw puzzle necklace, I’ve learned a lot about jigsaws. The most astonishing is that some jigsaw puzzles cost 80 bucks. They are wooden, and some of the pieces are what they call whimsies – identifiable shapes that fit in with the other pieces.

Of course, I didn’t need a fancy puzzle like that, I just needed a old wooden puzzle from eBay and if pieces were missing that was fine.

The first find I got was labeled “challenging.” Good God. Every other piece was identical. I got the border done and perhaps ten percent of the rest.

I wasn’t too motivated to get it done because I knew puzzle B was coming. I had first spotted it on eBay and was elated to see one piece that looked like a bear.

“Whimsy!” I gasped, and bid $16.

It came today, and I put it together. I was so excited to discover there were multiple whimsies.

A bird, a bear, a four-leaf clover, a running man, an arrow, a beaver, a rooster, a swastika, and a rabbit. You know. Cute stuff.

I read the box for more information, expecting “Made in Germany, copyright 1942.” Instead, there was a faded handwritten message:

“To Mother – on her 29th Wedding Anniversary from Harriet, Henry and Harrison. Dec 6, 1934.”

Whew. A pre-Nazi swastika. The box also said it was made in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Just a nice innocent good-luck symbol.