Well-seasoned memories: for years, a woman had been collecting old cast-iron cookware, but then she realized that the pots and pans that mattered most to her--and that she uses daily--are those that have been handed down in her family. They are imbued with a seasoning she savors.(my countryside)

Country Living, November, 2006 by Collier, Andrea King

Over time, I started collecting cast-iron cookware, picking up the big, clunky Dutch ovens, deep skillets, shallow corn bread pans, wherever I found them. To me, they were an extension of the collection that I had inherited from my grandparents and used almost every day.

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As with most collecting, what's one woman's junk is another's treasure. This is evidenced by a frying pan, almost too heavy to pick up, that I bought in Gambier, Ohio, for fifty cents at a church garage sale. Of course, it cost me $30 to ship it back home, but to me it was every bit as valuable as the fine Irish crystal sherry glasses that I bought for $30 apiece.

Yet, when I brought the skillet home, I put it on the shelf with other cast-iron pieces...