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Join host Kate LB as she uncovers the extraordinary stories hidden within ordinary objects. From inherited family treasures to forgotten vintage finds, each episode explores how the things we keep, collect, and cherish connect us to the past and shape our future.
Through personal reflections, family histories, and the tales behind vintage discoveries, Dust & Devotion reveals the emotional power of tangible objects and the memories they hold. Whether it's a dusty antique from an estate sale or a beloved heirloom passed down through generations, every item has a story to tell—and Kate is here to help you listen.
Perfect for vintage enthusiasts, history lovers, and anyone who believes that our belongings are more than just stuff—they're the storytellers of our lives.
New episodes explore different objects, different stories, and the timeless connections that bind us to the things we treasure.
Episode 1: And So it Begins
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[00:00:00]
Kate LB: My days, they used to be filled with endless slide decks and presentations that absolutely overflowed with all of the latest and greatest corporate buzzwords. Building a personal brand was my absolute top priority. Even my vocabulary was a carefully curated tapestry of corporate jargon, a la, deep dives, key deliverables, and best practices.
Now? Now my days are different. They're filled with the whisper of forgotten things. That soft creak you hear on the hinges of an antique music box, or the dulcet clinking tones that aged glass makes when it's clinked together. And finally, that old book smell, [00:01:00] yes, that smell, the faint scent of a life lived.
I'm Kate LB, and this is Dust and Devotion: a Podcast about Stuff. And in this episode, we're kicking off my journey from my corporate past to the storied past of forgotten items. We spend so much of our lives chasing what we call success. The next promotion, the bigger house, that shiny new car. We are constantly reaching for something fleeting, something that often loses its luster the moment we acquire it.
But what about the things that we already own? The tangible things. What about the items that just endure? You know, my professional path wasn't always this dusty treasure filled road. For years. I navigated the world of nonprofit education programs and then later high profile [00:02:00] corporate learning and development.
If you looked at my resume, you'd see roles focused on communication, human interaction, the nuances of how we learn and grow, which in a way, I guess isn't so far removed from my academic background. By training, I am a sociolinguist, and before you ask, "what even is a sociolinguistics job?", I'd argue that language and human interaction are everywhere. The way we speak, the stories we tell, and most importantly, the silences that we keep. It really all shapes our world. I've been fascinated by it my entire life, and all of my jobs have been about sociolinguistics. The truth is, I didn't leave the corporate world by choice. A debilitating autoimmune disease really forced my hand.
But thankfully with the incredible help of medical [00:03:00] professionals and the marvels of, modern pharmaceuticals, I am happy to say I'm in remission. But during that time when so much fell out of my control, there was one passion that I really clung to, and that was vintage. My love for tangible things for objects with a past started, long before any health challenges that I had.
It was an inheritance, really. My mom especially, she would drag me to the antique stores, and when I say drag, let me clarify. I mean, she brought me along willingly, eager to absorb her fascination. I remember my grandmother, she would regale us with stories about my grandpa's ham radio. Always insisting his was nicer than anything they were selling.
My mom, she would plot me down in a booth with all sorts of knickknack baskets, and each item was probably only 25 cents at the time. I was barely old enough to read, [00:04:00] and I'd pour through these baskets of buttons and costume jewelry, searching for the special ones, which I still call them today. I'd imagine that they came from all sorts of places and they could tell all sorts of stories. Um, that is if buttons could talk. But by the time I was 12, I had a lot of special ones, and I do mean a lot. To this day, when I visit my childhood home, I still find jars and boxes filled with vintage buttons and trinkets that I had hidden away, squirreled away for safekeeping.
And, this passion for uncovering stories and objects never really left me. It just grew and grew and grew. And now through my Etsy shop, Good Luck Fox Vintage and this podcast, I get to share those stories with you. Because what I found in this world of forgotten things is that it's full of stories about life and about [00:05:00] death.
About how we navigate those profound experiences with our words, our actions, and our emotions. We don't readily talk about love and loss and things all in the same sentence, let alone with the same emotions from moment to moment. But these objects, these tangible pieces of history, they can help us. They remind us that we're not quite so alone.
But before we get to some of those specific stories, I wanna clarify something important. When I talk about tangible things, what exactly do I mean? Because it's more than just an antique or a collectible or even just old stuff. For me, a tangible thing is an object that holds a story, a memory, or an emotional resonance.
It's something that you can truly touch. Yes, but it's also something that touches you. Think about it, a faded photograph of your [00:06:00] grandparents, that chipped mug that you're always grabbing to use for your morning coffee because it was a gift from a friend, or even that worn out book, and it has the notes scribbled in the margins by a loved one.
These aren't just objects. They are anchors to our past and they are vessels for our feelings, and they're really just silent witnesses to our lives. They are the physical manifestations of our human experience, and they often outlast the very people who own them, and they carry those whispers of generations past into the present.
And that's where the magic and sometimes the heartache truly begins. Because these objects, these tangible things, they often come to me because someone's story has ended or profoundly shifted. They're the remnants of lives and they're handed over for a new chapter.
And that brings me to the first [00:07:00] story I wanna share with you. It's a story that, in a way, truly kicked off this podcasting journey. But before we dive into the dust, let me set the scene, paint a verbal picture for you, if I may. You're about to hear a short clip from an interview my mom and I did back in 2011 with my incredible grandmother with an equally incredible name.
Blanche. You don't hear that name too often these days, and honestly, it suits her. She's a force of nature who was born in 1929. And she's a true firecracker, even at 95. In this snippet, she's telling a classic grandpa story. Now, one thing you should know is that my grandpa was the yin to my grandmother's yang.
He had a sweet, quiet curiosity about him, and he was always tinkering or throwing himself headlong into his latest and greatest project. He was also never one to turn down a good deal. [00:08:00] So, picture this late one night, my grandfather on a curiosity whim, and presented with that ideal opportunity, decided he wanted to learn to play the organ.
So naturally, he brought one home. It's one of those random, slightly bizarre moments that perfectly captures his quirky spirit. And my grandmother's reaction? Pure unadulterated her. A characteristic loving beratement, a sassy joke, and then that shrug and quiet acceptance of the whole very weird situation all while their kids were sound asleep. Let's take a listen.
Blanche: One time late at night, the kids are sleeping because he would work late hours sometimes.
All of a sudden he comes home with these two guys and an organ.
"Blanche, I could have this organ for a month."
I said, "What am I gonna do with this organ, Herb?"
"I'm gonna play it."
Kate LB: Did he?
Diane: He played [00:09:00] around with it. I mean, he never learned how to play it though.
Blanche: So I had an organ for a month!
Kate LB: Here's what I absolutely love about this. This small, seemingly insignificant moment, a sudden midnight organ, a hopeful but ultimately unsuccessful attempt at learning to play, and a very grandma response has stuck with me for all these years after we recorded that day. It was the first time I ever heard that story from my grandmother, and it's a perfect illustration of how our things, even the odd ones, can become vessels for unforgettable memories.
Did my grandfather ever become a virtuoso organist? Nope. Not even close. But that's not what truly mattered, was it? What mattered was the story, the shared experience, and the unique slice of life that unfolded around that instrument. As someone who loves understanding the previous lives of objects [00:10:00] and collecting stories and tangible things, I find it fascinating how these everyday items become so much more than just stuff.
They become intertwined with our personal histories, carrying a far deeper meaning than their original purpose. This little peculiar event became a shared moment, a piece of family folklore that through my grandmother's retelling lives on. It highlights the profound connection between objects, memories, and the stories that we tell.
Because you see, it wasn't really just an organ anymore to my grandfather and his young family. It was excitement, dreams, a challenge, and maybe just plain old fun. What's interesting about this story is that the organ itself may have eventually gathered dust or been passed along. Honestly, no one really knew. Only that the physical item was long gone, [00:11:00] but here's the sticking point.
The story, it enabled the dust and devotion it represents remains vibrantly alive. It's these quirky, unscripted instances that are often tied to the very stuff that crosses our thresholds. They're not just things, they're keepers of our lived experiences, our voices, and yes, the choices that shaped us.
Kate LB: So now we've spent some quality time together, unwrapping the stories held within our tangible things and listening to those quiet whispers of history that they carry. But alongside that depth of meaning, there's another equally [00:12:00] captivating dimension to this world, and it's one I'm really excited about.
That's the adrenaline, the heart pumping rush that defines discovery. The thrill of the hunt is absolutely exhilarating because what it is is modern day treasure hunting, digging through piles of things, physical or even virtual, and then you spot it, and there's this satisfaction of making it yours. And for this brief, elusive moment when these beautiful, forgotten things are brought back into the light, well, it is pure magic, and that's the real irresistible depth of collecting. So, to truly illustrate this, I want to share a story with you today that still gives me goosebumps every time I think about it, it's a moment that perfectly captures how engaging with vintage can transcend simple shopping and become something thrilling.[00:13:00]
So deeply personal and truly magical. You have all now met my maternal grandmother, Blanche. And it is easy to see that the storytelling about the stuff becomes really indistinguishable from that of the people who own the things. I count myself extremely lucky that I can still call her up and pepper her with questions to the point of exhaustion, and it is a luxury I know I take for granted sometimes. That I can just pick up that phone and hear her voice pulling these stories out of her memory like they're threads from a spool. It's a direct line to the past.
But, what happens when the voice that you long to hear has been lost to time? That's the reality I have with my other grandmother, and that was my father's mother, Evy. She passed away when I was just a young teenager, long before I knew the right [00:14:00] questions to ask. Long before I understood the value of the stories she held. For years, I thought her voice was simply gone, an empty space, but I was wrong. You see, my grandmother was a milliner, a women's hat maker, and in the silence she left behind, I started to realize something profound. To me, her hats have become her voice. Each stitch, each ribbon, each carefully shaped piece of felt tells a story that words no longer can.
After World War II and years of working in a high-end Manhattan department store, my grandmother decided it was high time she owned her own business. I never knew her as an adult, but to my kid brain, she was fierce. In my mind, the original [00:15:00] girl-boss.
Her business was started with her friend Elise, and it was on a shoestring. And through sheer will and determination, the beautiful bespoke hats of Evy Elise of Manhattan were born. The creations, they were works of art and each one was designed with such care and precision. Growing up, I heard so many stories about her shop, the illustrious clients she served, and the vibrant life she led in the city.
And I never got to see the shop while it was in its heyday. I only have one fuzzy, tattered childhood memory of visiting the building. But truthfully, that memory is made up of more of the first knish I ate than her shop. Her legacy, though her craft has always been a huge inspiration for my own business.
Now, fast forward a few years, I was doing what I often do and that was [00:16:00] researching anything and everything I could get my hands on. At the time, my business was very much still in its infancy. But I was neck deep in another passion, and that was genealogy research. My twin daughters were still infants, and I was trying to piece together the family history for them.
I had just documented my grandmother's shop and became absolutely obsessed with finding one of her hats. It somehow became this desperate search to find her voice. After I put them to bed for the night, I would endlessly scroll through online vintage listings, digging deep into various platforms and all of these obscure corners of the internet.
It was a desperate digital treasure hunt, and it lasted for months with no real leads. And then, the impossible happened. My husband, Eric, helps me bring this serendipitous story to life in the following clip.
[00:17:00] Okay, so I brought you here because I need your help recounting a somewhat complicated tale. Around one of my vintage items.
Eric: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Kate LB: Alright. So let me give you some background here. Let's see if you can guess it. It was 2017.
Eric: Mm-hmm. That doesn't help me at all.
Kate LB: Hold on. And I was getting really heavily involved in genealogy research.
Eric: Okay.
Kate LB: And I went down a rabbit hole, one particular area of that, that consumed our lives for several months.
Eric: Uh, was it your grandmother's hat?
Kate LB: Yes. Yes it was! So, I need your help recounting this story.
Eric: Sure.
Kate LB: Because you were very heavily involved in making this happen.
Eric: Yes.
Kate LB: If you recall, around the holiday time I was off of work, sort of dove back into the [00:18:00] pool,
Eric: Mm-hmm.
Kate LB: And continued research, because prior to that we had come up short. The first go around where I found one of her hats, it was on Etsy, it had been sold.
Eric: Mm-hmm.
Kate LB: But we reached out to the seller hoping for any more information that they could give us.
Eric: Yeah.
Kate LB: And we got
Eric: Nothing.
Kate LB: Nothing. Crickets.
Eric: Yeah.
Kate LB: When I jumped back in, I then was doing Google searches and just trying anything that I could to find Evy Elise as a moniker.
Anywhere.
Eric: Mm-hmm.
Kate LB: To give any sort of information about her shop. And a very interesting result popped up, when I searched it that time, there was a beautiful white hat, it's more cream colored. It had a cool hat pin stuck in it. It was sort of a cloche, but it had a sunhat front to it.
Eric: Mm-hmm.
Kate LB: But it was [00:19:00] completely in Chinese.
Eric: Yes.
Kate LB: And, I immediately called you in at that point, maybe somewhat hysterically,
Eric: Some, yes, quite hysterically, I think is a better description. The first thing we did was we put it through Google Translate.
Kate LB: And that was a mess.
Eric: Yeah, that was a bit of a mess. It was only somewhat useful, but, it was at least useful enough.
For us to determine that it probably was not fake.
Kate LB: Mm-hmm.
Eric: And. That the location of the store where the hat was, was in, Shanghai, right?
Kate LB: That's right. Yeah. It was Shanghai and I immediately was ready to purchase plane tickets.
Eric: I feel like if we hadn't found another solution pretty quickly, we would've ended up on a flight to Shanghai, because
Kate LB: It was the holy grail!
Eric: I know we were having such a hard time finding these hats. I can't even tell you how many thrift stores and antique stores we were in flipping hats [00:20:00] over looking for ones that had the right tag, to no avail. And I feel like we still kind of do that.
Kate LB: And you, built a great many relationships with, thrift store, antique store, vintage clothes shop dealer.
Eric: I wouldn't, I wouldn't call 'em relationships. I asked people to email me if they ever found one, and I have never heard from any of them
Kate LB: Ever.
Eric: Ever. So, yeah, that was also a bust. But what was not a bust was when we discovered this hat, I remembered that one of my coworkers had told me that, their mother was actually about to come to the US from Shanghai to visit for the holidays in like a week or so from this time. So, I said, well, why don't I just ask him, it couldn't hurt to just see if
Kate LB: That's right.
Eric: maybe she could even just look at the website and make sure that we weren't crazy, first of all. Which they did, and confirmed that, yeah, it looked like a real shop, looked like a real thing.
And, she was nice enough [00:21:00] to actually go and purchase the hat for us and bring it, to the US in a nice box, when she came to visit. And, it was so incredible that she was able to do that. She was so excited for us, finding this treasure. It was really pretty amazing.
Kate LB: Yeah. And also a little bit like a movie plot.
Eric: It was. And, I think we were both really nervous too, like when she was on the plane and, you know, getting from, after we heard that she bought it and, getting it to us. It was kind of crazy. It really makes you wonder how the hat ended up there in the first place. Right?
Kate LB: That's right. Because she had so many clients
Eric: mm-hmm.
Kate LB: That were very well to do. She was always rubbing elbows and schmoozing with that crowd. And those were her clients and they were globetrotting because, it was very fashionable, around the mid-century. To go [00:22:00] to these quote unquote exotic destinations.
Eric: Yeah, but did they leave a hat behind? Did it blow off in the wind? Did they lose some luggage. Like how did it, how did they not bring it back home? You know?
Kate LB: It is beyond me, but I would love to keep the picture in my mind that it was that, and not just some person who briefly lived in the US , 10 years ago, and
Eric: Yeah.
Kate LB: They were like, oh, cool hat. And, brought it to Shanghai, and like, I don't want this anymore. Donate it.
Eric: Hey, maybe they themselves got it in a thrift store.
Kate LB: Maybe, I mean, this hat has lived many, many lives.
Eric: That's possible.
Someone's ahead of us picking up all of the Evy Elise hats and taking them to China.
Kate LB: Right, right. And, and we were able to find a second one. But, that one definitely doesn't have the kind of air of mystery and intrigue that this particular hat does.
Eric: And hey, we're gonna keep on looking. I'm, I've,
Kate LB: Keep flipping the hats.
Eric: I don't think I'll ever stop [00:23:00] flipping hats over in thrift shops. How many hats did your grandma make during her career? I mean, there must be more out there.
Kate LB: I can't even tell you. They're probably countless number.
Eric: Yeah.
Kate LB: And I don't really even have pictures of many of them.
Eric: No, we just have to kind of take a guess. I think a lot of the time though, I'll pick up a hat and you'll say, oh, my grandma would never make that hat.
Kate LB: I hold her millinery skills in high esteem.
Eric: She's got good fashion sense, right? I mean, these were not cheap hats. So, I shouldn't pick up the junkie ones.
I'm getting better at figuring that out.
Kate LB: You are. You're getting much more skilled at your hat flipping.
Eric: Yeah.
Kate LB: She really had a tremendous sense of style and was very, very well respected amongst her clients.
Eric: Yeah.
Kate LB: Later, after hats fell out of fashion, she was dressing these ladies, and becoming really their personal shopper and stylist.
So she had a really interesting career. And oh my goodness, the stories these hats could tell. [00:24:00]
Eric: Oh boy. I can't even imagine.
Kate LB: Well, I'm glad, that you were willing to help me bring the story home and
Eric: Of course!
Kate LB: fill in all of the, the blank spots because it definitely took two of us to make this happen.
Eric: It was pretty incredible. But hey, it's a great story now.
Kate LB: Definitely.
Kate LB: Here we are. We've finally arrived at the end of our first episode of Dust and Devotion, a Podcast about Stuff. We've journeyed through my own career shift from the corporate world to the wonderfully tangible realm of the pre-loved... that's vintage.
Through the stories of each of my grandmothers, we've explored how tangible things [00:25:00] aren't just inanimate objects, but rather storytellers that capture the history of our lives in their very fibers and forms.
They can cement family folklore, capture a personality with their quirkiness, and even lend a voice to people who can no longer share their own story. And for those of us who love the thrill of the hunt, we've explored the magic of vintage, how it transforms stuff into something far more profound, making the world feel simultaneously vast and also incredibly small.
It's about heritage and about serendipity. Solidifying for me that engaging with vintage isn't just a hobby. It's a way of honoring the past, understanding our present, and even sometimes discovering incredible threads that weave through generations and across the globe. Though, with all of this stuff accumulating around [00:26:00] us through acquisition and inheritance, it's natural to wonder why we become so attached to these things.
Is it just sentimentality? No. I believe it runs much, much deeper than that. Our attachment isn't really to the object itself, but to what it represents in our lives. The emotions it evokes, the experiences it recalls, and even the reflections of our past selves it offers. The old faded birthday photos, the kitchy snow globe that might only be half filled now from a vacation long ago, and the antique chair that was lovingly passed down through generations.
Our lives in many ways are like collages of things. Each item, whether it's a grand heirloom or a simple souvenir, is a tiny tile in the mosaic of our existence. They reflect back our time, reminding us of where we've [00:27:00] been, what we've learned, and who we've become. They offer comfort, inspiration, and a tangible link to the stories that make us unique.
While we may not literally be able to our things with us, when our time comes, the stories and sentiments they embody live on in the hearts and minds of those we leave behind. They become part of a larger ongoing narrative, a testament to a life lived. I believe that's what makes it so incredibly hard to part with our things, all those special ones.
As we close out today, I want to share one final clip from my grandmother from that same interview from all those years ago. I asked her as she looked back on her long and full life, what her prized possession was. Her answer, as you'll hear beautifully encapsulates everything we've talked about [00:28:00] today.
What, what is your most prized possession?
Blanche: My grandchildren.
Kate LB: Oh, that's flattering.
Blanche: I mean, really.
Kate LB: Really?
Blanche: Think about it. I think that's the best thing in, in, in life.
Kate LB: And with that profound thought, we come to the end of this journey. This has been Kate LB and I truly hope you found a little magic in exploring the stories that tie us to our belongings. A heartfelt thank you to my incredible family for their endless support in bringing this podcast to life. Join me next time as we continue to uncover the hidden histories and timeless tales held within the things we truly can't take with us. Until next time, keep collecting those moments.
[00:29:00]