The Laura Flanders Show

- [Narrator] Coming up on "Legacy List," with Matt Paxton.

Matt and the team travel to Sacramento, California.

- Patti, good to see you.

- Matt.

- [Narrator] To organize a house filled with clutter.

- This is not functional.

- And the dining room table is getting full too, there's just stuff everywhere.

- [Narrator] And help a woman find some cherished heirlooms.

- The Campbell soup bowl.

- That tell her family's inspiring story.

- So this is the Buffalo Soldier yearbook?

- This is amazing.

- I'm Matt Paxton.

Let's do it, man.

My team of specialists, Jamie, Mike, and Avi, help me help people downsize their homes and settle estates.

As the largest population of Baby Boomers in American history transition towards retirement, they, and their families, face the overwhelming task of emptying their homes to move.

We help them sift through a lifetime of possessions.

- Bingo.

- Heirlooms and collectibles.

And we have literally found- - Here it is.

- a piece of history.

- [Narrator] To help them find the missing family treasures that mean the most to them.

- Oh, my goodness!

- Jackie Robinson.

- [Narrator] And along the way, they'll discover that the most important museum in the world, may be in their family's basement.

- Oh.

- Oh.

- I've never seen that, that is cool looking.

- [Narrator] From attics to sellers, closets to cupboards, we uncover the memories they want to preserve.

- This is living history.

This is what we're here to find.

Let's go.

- And discover the compelling personal, and often historical stories spanning generations that are their family's legacy.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for "Legacy List" is provided by Wheaton World Wide Moving.

Wheaton's number one goal is to help you, your loved ones, and your belongings, get to your new home quickly and safely.

You can find us at wheatonworldwide.com.

Wheaton World Wide Moving, we move your life.

FirstLight Home Care.

Committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

FirstLight believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at FirstLightHomeCare.com.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - This week I'm in Sacramento, the capitol of California.

I'm here to visit Patti Colston.

She needs our help decluttering her home and finding some cherished family heirlooms.

(upbeat music) (knuckles knocking) Patti.

Good to see you.

- Matt, good to see you.

Thank you for coming, welcome.

- Oh my gosh, thanks for having me, look at this place.

- Welcome to my humble abode.

- Wow, this is beautiful.

- It's 1600 square feet.

- Okay.

- Been here five years.

- You're using all of it.

- I have so much stuff, Matt.

- I can see a bit, I've seen worse.

You know that.

What does the future look like for you?

- I have a home based business.

- Okay.

- So, what I thought was an office, but it's really like a big, fat storage spot.

- Okay.

- Mostly I have a lot of heirlooms that my mom has passed down to me.

- Okay.

- And I wrote a book about my mom's life.

- Okay.

- And what I want to do is create a collection of her items to exhibit.

I've been talking with the local museum.

- Oh, okay.

- About doing an educational exhibit for African American History Month.

- Okay.

- And I'd love it if I could have it done while she's able to appreciate it.

- Okay, your mom is still alive.

- She'll be 99 on September 15th.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- 99.

- Yeah.

- You see all the time, people are so proud of their past, and so proud of their heritage that they really wanna celebrate it.

Well, Patti's not a small thinker.

And so she's ready to make an entire exhibit about her mom.

(upbeat music) - So here it is.

- There's a lot going on in here.

- It's my office.

- Is this the desk you actually work at?

- I did until I cluttered it up too much.

- Okay.

- And then I moved into the dining room, so I have a whole lot of my office work.

- [Matt] That's the second office, the dining room table.

- It's become my second office, so I can't use it.

It's not usable for dinner.

- Okay.

Whew.

- It's full, the drawers are full.

The closet's full, bookshelves are overstuffed.

- A lot of books.

- A lot of sentimental things.

- Patti's brain is working so fast, she doesn't have time to clean up the past.

It's not a big space, but we have an enormous amount of work.

So just for planning purposes, are there any other spaces like this in the house?

- Unfortunately, the garage.

- Okay.

- Which is worse.

- All right.

Let's go check it out then.

- All right.

(upbeat music) (door squeaking) So here we are.

- Here it is.

- I've had this stuff since I've been here.

It's just collecting more and more.

I think I even have stuff from college.

My stuff, my kids stuff, stuff passed down to me from my parents.

- You moved here five years ago.

Is some of this stuff that you never even unpacked from when you moved here?

- Yes.

Okay, yeah, I get it.

I see why you're stuck.

- Thank you.

I appreciate it.

'Cause it's paralyzing, I start and then I just freeze.

- All right, I know what we gotta do.

We're not gonna be able to just toss this.

We're gonna have to go through box by box.

And luckily we've got the team to do that.

To do that, we need to go back inside and find a place to sit and go through the entire legacy list.

- All right.

(upbeat music) - You know, now that you're retiring, what do you want this house to be used for?

- Well, I want this to be my sanctuary, and I wanna be able to organize my mom's items, because I wanna continue her legacy.

That's part of the reason why I'm doing all this.

It means a lot to me, so I wanna be able to share that with my community, and also with the broader community.

- And I haven't met your mom yet.

She's gotta be a special person.

- I just wanna honor her and give back to her what she gave to me.

- Okay.

I think we need to get into the legacy list, so I know what we're doing.

Physically, I know we need to clean the garage, and the office.

- Mm hmm.

- And hopefully we'll get into the dining room as well.

Mainly just the dining room table.

As a reminder to everyone, the legacy list is a list of items that tell your family's story.

Some people need us to help relocate them.

Some people just need us to learn a little more about them.

- First, I have my great-grandmother's kitchen tools.

- Okay.

- So they belong to my mother's grandmother, and they were used to flip the burners on pot belly stoves.

- Okay.

- She gave them to me entrusted them to me and I don't know where they are.

- Okay.

- I packed them away somewhere.

- So the old cast iron levers?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Okay.

I know exactly what it, I'm drawing it, I know exactly what it is.

- The next item is a cast iron iron.

- Okay.

- That belonged to my great-grandmother.

My mother would talk about, watching her mother iron with this and it was part of her childhood.

- Okay.

- That she shared with me.

And I would like to be able to find that.

And since she doesn't know I lost it.

(laughs) Next.

- All right.

- My grandfather, my mother's father worked for Campbell Soup for 50 years before he retired.

So my mom always said, our family never went hungry during the depression, because my grandfather worked at Campbell Soup.

When she was born, Campbell Soup used to give all their employees silver bowls and utensils for the babies.

- Yes.

- So I have that, she entrusted it to me.

- Okay.

- And again, when I moved, I packed everything up.

- So it's a Campbell Soup.

- Silver baby bowl.

- Baby bowl.

Okay.

- And utensils.

- I love it.

What's the next item?

- It's a piece of depression era glass.

- Okay.

- That my mom entrusted me with that I just thought it was a regular old candy dish.

And it's packed somewhere, I haven't seen it.

- Did she collect all the stamps and go get it and?

- Yeah, she had a gas ration card- - Yep.

- From the, I mean, she has a lot of, she grew up during the depression.

- Yeah.

Oh yeah.

- So it meant a lot to her.

- Okay.

- I was too young to really understand the value of it.

So what I'd like to be able to do is put that in the exhibit.

You know I've worked in politics- - Yes.

Proudly.

- my whole career.

When I worked for Willie Brown, the longest sitting speaker in the history of California, he gave us lots of items to honor his personal staff.

I was on his personal staff and I'm missing some of them.

There was a wrist watch, and instead of numbers on the face of the wrist watch, he spelled out his name.

- That's funny.

- And then he also had a training card, like baseball card, only it was him.

His picture on it and all of his legislative successes.

I'd like to find those things.

And then my great Aunt Blanche followed her brother, my great-uncle Johnny, to California from New Jersey.

He had fought in World War I and he had given me a candy dish that he brought from Italy.

Unfortunately, I boxed it up and- - Okay, so it could be here?

- It could be.

- Okay.

- So he was in World War I, but my dad was in World War II.

He was in the last regiment of the 10th Calvary, which is known as the Buffalo- - Buffalo Soldiers.

Yep.

- Soldiers.

And they were the last regiment to ride horseback.

He patrolled the Mexican American border.

- Wow.

- And the legacy list item is his yearbook.

- Okay.

- And it has some other things inside of it that were mementos as part of American history.

- That's history, yeah.

- It's truly American history.

- That really is crazy.

- My grandmother lived with us and she gave me some of her treasured items.

(upbeat music) Her mother had stock in Aetna from the late 18 hundreds.

And I'd really like to know if that, if those stock certificates are worth anything.

- This is interesting.

I mean, it should have a CUSIP number, which will allow it to track down to before it converted.

We gotta find it first though, right?

- Yes.

- Okay.

All of those heirlooms that need to be in that exhibit are at the bottom of these piles.

So we've got a lot of work to do.

And I like this, this is more of a payoff than just cleaning out a house.

When we move someone, we hope they're gonna enjoy wherever they end up.

What's unique about your situation is, I think when we're done, hopefully we will able to hand you part of a museum exhibit, which is pretty cool.

- I'd love that.

- Right.

- Thanks, Matt.

- Thanks for having us.

(upbeat music) - What a great drive.

- Yes, that was amazing.

- Yes.

- What's up guys?

- Oh, hey.

- What's up, Matt?

- Welcome to Sacramento.

- Thanks.

- We were just chatting about the drive up.

- Dude, that was amazing.

- What was your favorite part?

- I like Monterey.

- Yeah.

- Thought Big Sur was pretty cool.

- Yeah.

- Just the whole coast, seeing everything.

- Yeah.

- How about you?

What'd you like?

- I thought the elephant seals were cool.

- Yeah.

- I mean, the scenery.

It was all great.

- I've been telling everybody you gotta drive the whole state.

- Yep.

- We know what your favorite part was, Mike.

- The whole beach.

- Yeah.

- It was cool.

- So, very cool client here.

Patti, now she's only lived in this house five years, so it's a little different.

- It's a lot different.

- It's a lot.

She's got about 40 years of paperwork in here.

- There we go.

- She brought it with?

- She is downsizing to stay.

- Okay.

- We do have a lot of work to do, honestly, I think your job's probably a little harder than normal.

- Okay.

- There's not a lot of trash, like at all.

- So it's mostly organizing, or?

- It's probably more organizing than cleaning, yeah.

- Okay.

- So we're gonna have to work with her, but I think we can do it.

- And there are some other things we're looking for too.

- Yeah.

- I mean, you sent us the research.

- Sent you the list.

- Yeah.

- What did you like on the list?

- Depression glass is something I love.

- Yeah, depression glass was a no-brainer, I thought for you.

- I am really interested to see the Campbell Soup bowl.

- Yeah.

- Because I grew up eating Campbell Soup.

I have great memories growing up as a child eating Campbell's tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.

It was like my mom's cure for everything.

- I mean, it looks like she has some Buffalo Soldier artifacts.

So much black history's been lost over the years.

I mean, for her to have a piece like that, I'm excited.

- Yeah, so her mom gave it to her, I believe it was her dad's.

He was a member of the Buffalo Soldiers.

- So probably one of the last regimens of the Buffalo Soldiers.

understanding Patti's family's history.

And the possibility of what we might find.

I was thrilled.

- You and I are gonna be in the office.

You guys are gonna be in the garage.

The garage door is actually closed, so we're all gonna go in through the house.

Don't get used to the AC.

'Cause you were gonna go right into the garage, right?

- Yeah.

- All right, we'll see you guys in a little bit.

(upbeat music) (door squeaking) - Oh man.

- Well.

- Yep.

- We got a pile in front of us.

- As soon as I saw the garage, I knew exactly what happened.

Boxes came off the truck into the garage.

And there they've sat for five years.

- How do you want to attack this?

- Um, I say we just dive in.

- Yeah, yeah, I mean, we got floaties.

Let's dive in.

(giggles) - There's a pool out back.

The sooner we get done here, the sooner we can get to the pool.

- Ooh.

I like that.

(upbeat music) - As a team, we're really great at walking into spaces, like attics, and basements, and outbuildings that are full of stuff, bigger items.

But walking into that office, I really was stopped dead in my tracks, because this was a lot of paper to go through.

This is not functional.

- No, even the dining room table's getting full too, there's just stuff everywhere.

- But her goal is to get back in here and use this space as an office.

- Yeah, so this needs to be a functioning space.

- Okay.

- Correct, and right now it's more just like a storage and a catchall.

- Yeah, I see that, so where you wanna start?

- I don't know.

Gosh.

I see why they get frustrated.

- Yeah.

- And I see why they quit.

I'm sitting here like- - Yeah, you're overwhelmed.

- Where you wanna start?

- Okay, you start over here.

- Yeah.

Okay.

(upbeat music) - Got some gardening tools here.

- A lot of papers.

- Not cooking tools, though.

- Let's see.

Let's see.

(plastic rustling) More gardening.

- Oh, Avi, Avi, Avi, Avi.

Hey man.

- What you got?

- Hey man, I think I've got something here.

Dude, check it out.

10th Calvary Camp Funston.

- Buffalo Soldiers.

- Dude, so this is the Buffalo Soldier yearbook.

- Yeah.

This is amazing.

We're in this garage for five minutes and Mike makes this awesome find.

Buffalo Soldier yearbook, I got goosebumps.

- I'm not really sure if Patti spends much time in the garage, this Buffalo Soldier yearbook wasn't that hard to find.

Maybe there was a mental roadblock there that just kept her from going through it.

- Patti's father had the honor of serving in the last chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers.

- Wow.

- The Buffalo Soldiers were basically the guardians of manifest destiny, you know?

And these are the moments that don't always get captured in our history books.

That's why this is so important.

And because it tells that story.

A lot of people don't realize just how integral a part they played in helping families move from east to west.

Oftentimes our Black history is an oral history.

So when we can find things that are tangible, that we can touch and feel and see.

I mean, it just brings the story together even more.

What I love about it though, despite the obstacles, the challenges that were put before them, they believed that they belonged.

They still continued to serve with pride.

- I mean, it's not often that we get to hold this kind of history.

- Absolutely.

I know she said it might be here, but to actually be seeing it, touching it, looking at it, that's a game changer.

(list clinking) (soothing music) - [Narrator] Buffalo Soldiers was the name given to legendary all Black regiments that courageously served their country all while fighting for a government that treated them as second class citizens.

In 1866, a year after the Civil War ended, Congress authorized the army to create regiments entirely composed of Black soldiers.

Posted primarily in out of the way places in the Southwest and Great Plains, these skilled horsemen provided safe passage for settlers heading west, all while facing discrimination from the very people they fought to protect.

Why were they called Buffalo Soldiers?

Many believe the nickname came from the indigenous people they battled, who thought these soldiers were as fierce as the Great Plains Buffalo?

Besides fighting out West, Buffalo Soldiers were instrumental in preserving the national parks we cherish today.

The troops built park infrastructure, put out wildfires, and warded off poachers.

They were some of the country's first park rangers.

During the Spanish American War, the Buffalo Soldiers distinguished themselves overseas.

When Teddy Roosevelt famously charged San Juan Hill in Cuba, Buffalo Soldiers took part in the fight.

Buffalo Soldiers served sparingly in World War I and II.

And the final regiment disbanded in 1951, shortly after the military was ordered to desegregate.

Buffalo Soldiers, gone but not forgotten.

(soothing music) (upbeat music) - I mean, there's just no time in the day for me to read through all this stuff.

- I know, I'm starting to think that Patti needs a system.

- Yeah, she needs tools.

- And I don't have that.

That's not my strength.

- Yeah.

- So I will bring in someone for paper.

- It's one thing for us to go in and sort through the paperwork, but it's another thing to leave that space, and then have the client just make it cluttered again.

So you have somebody?

- I do have someone.

- Okay.

- So let me call her after we clean.

- Okay.

- This does crazy, I don't know, it looks like a.

- It looks like an ottoman.

- Well, I think last time I opened one of these, a snake came out, so let's- - You know how I feel about snakes.

- Not a snake.

Look at this.

- Oh.

- These are old dolls, it's is pretty cool.

- Yeah.

- Inclusive dolls that were made for the kids.

I think they're usually kids.

- Yeah.

- Sadly, Barbie wasn't making inclusive toys until very recently.

- Yeah.

- Put these together- - Okay.

- We can keep it as a set.

- What else we got?

- Nice scarves, Oh oh!

- Oh.

- What is that?

- I see silver.

- This is kids stuff, family stuff.

What do you got there?

- Look at that.

(silver clanking) Look at this.

- [Matt] That's all the silver.

Look at this.

- It's the Campbell Soup bowl.

Yes.

- Patti's grandfather worked at Campbell Soup.

- Right.

So they would give these out as gifts.

- If you worked at Campbell's, you would get one of these.

- Okay.

- Yeah, when you had a kid.

This little silver Campbell Soup bowl and spoon.

Immediately takes me back to a cold winter morning in Virginia when I've got a cold.

And my mom makes me Campbell soup, salting crackers and ginger ale.

This is so cool.

See, they're all marked.

Mm, good, I love it.

The whole utensil set matches.

This is a legacy list item.

And this is something she's gonna wanna put in her new museum for her mom.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, this is really cool.

- It's a great find.

- It's really, really cool.

- Found some books.

- Video game controller.

This might be her son's stuff.

- Look, a shredder.

You know, and we tell people all the time.

Buy shredders, right?

Shred those documents.

- Yeah.

Shred those documents.

- That's pretty bad when the papers push the shredder out of the house.

- Well.

- It happens.

- You really have to make time for it.

- Yeah.

- You really have to make, Mike.

- What you got, Avi?

- Ah.

(upbeat music) - Oh.

- An iron.

The cooking tool.

The cooking utensil.

- That's an iron.

- Obviously.

- But that's not a cooking tool.

- No?

- No, man.

This would be the world's smallest fry basket.

What this is is a soap saver.

- Soap saver?

- Yeah.

- What is that?

- You have the bars of soap and you use them up.

- Yeah.

- And they get to those little itty bitty, little slithers of soap.

- Yeah.

- Well, you just put them in the basket.

- Yeah.

- Shut it.

And then when you're doing your wash, you put this in there so you can still get the soap in there without wasting the small slithers add up to a whole bar at some point.

- So that's why it's with the iron.

- Yeah, yeah, it's all for clothes.

- It's a laundry tool.

- Yeah.

- This iron is a perfect example of the reason why Patti is putting this exhibit together.

She wants people to be able to touch, and feel, and understand her family's past.

You think about the tools they had to use just to do laundry, the time it had to take.

- Yeah.

- To heat this thing up.

- But not too hot.

- But not too hot that it burns through your clothes.

That time, that era, everything was important to save.

And everything was important to be able to reuse over and over and over again.

- People who have lost their jobs, their homes, everything.

- Everything.

- And if you were lucky enough to have clothes to put on your back, you had to take care of them.

- Yeah.

- And this was all part of the process.

- I can clearly understand now why Patti would want to keep these items.

These are perfect for an exhibit.

Get to show the history of the family, how things changed.

- [Mike] How they lived.

- [Matt] All right, I am seeing a system in here now.

- Okay.

- I'm seeing all the work stuff is out and I'm seeing the family stuff is packed away.

- Packed away.

- And so I think that means she brought it here five years ago when she moved here.

And it hasn't been moved.

- Yeah.

Most likely.

- So I'm looking down in there.

- Okay.

- I think there's a bunch over there, I'll keep looking over here.

- All right.

- You let me know what you see over there.

- Okay.

(items rattling) Oh.

- Yeah, you find something?

- Yes.

- Oh, come over here.

- [Jamie] Some light bulbs, but look at this.

- Oh man.

- It's the gold leaf candy dish, yeah.

- The gold leaf candy dish.

- Look at that, yeah.

- With a bunch of light bulbs.

Patti has a great story about her great uncle bringing this item back.

And that's really the significance of finding the candy dish.

- So you know how we often hear stories.

This was supposed to come from Italy.

- Okay.

- Where her great uncle served, and when she told me this story, the dates didn't always match up.

You know how you, sometimes we receive stories from families because everyone's told them that story.

- Yes.

- Consistently.

- So they believe it's true.

- They believe it's true.

- Right.

- Because your dad told it.

Your grand, everybody told it.

- Yeah.

- And then we find an item and it's like, yeah, it's about 50% there.

I think we found our first one.

- So this, the family story is that it came from Italy?

- Correct.

- Okay.

And what's the real story?

- It says right here.

- Yes.

It says USA.

- USA.

But everything else adds up.

It is hand, It is gold plated.

- Yep.

- It's a cool little candy dish.

I don't really know where that dish came from, but I never let the truth get in the way of a really good family story.

The uncle was important and the fact that he gave it to her, that was important, and that's what matters.

(upbeat music) (bell clinking) - Patti had a long career in California politics.

I'm excited to talk to her a little bit more about that experience.

I really want to hear about the issues that are important to her.

I know a lot of your work has been focused in housing.

Was there any influence from your family's experience through to you in terms of the work that you're doing now?

- Well, I've been working in and around the California State legislature for nearly 30 years.

I was a special assistant to the legendary assembly speaker, Willie Brown.

- Absolutely.

- I was able to serve as the chief consultant for all the African American members of the California legislature, the California Black Caucus.

The first project I worked on was to write a letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris to support the first African American Supreme Court justice.

And I feel happy that I've had a positive impact on the lives of Californians and especially African American Californians.

- I mean, that is just amazing work, you know?

And I'm really interested in learning more, about what California's doing, about what the Black Caucus.

Is there any way we could maybe have an opportunity to go visit?

- Yes, absolutely.

One of my former interns, he is an expert in the area of housing, and policy development, and regulation, and all of the things that takes to go into policy making.

He's someone that I can connect you with.

- I'm excited about that.

- Good.

- Let's see.

It's a heavy hat box.

- Yeah?

- I'm guessing there's not a hat in it.

- She puts important stuff in boxes.

- Yes, definitely.

Oh.

- Oh, what do we have here?

Oh.

- This looks like a hodgepodge.

- Look at this.

- What is this watch?

- So this is a Willie Brown watch, yeah.

- I see that.

- Willie Brown is a, I would say complicated history in politics.

You could speak on either side of good or bad about Willie Brown, but he was there for a long time.

He did a lot of work, and he is a character.

And this fits him to a tee.

He had watches made with his own name on it.

- That's a little handbook, oh, very cool.

This one's got her name on it.

- Things have definitely changed since 1994.

- Yeah.

- Oh, there it is.

- Yep.

- Little baseball card.

- It's no surprise that she held onto these items, because she really, really takes pride in her years that she spent working in public service.

(upbeat music) (bell clinking) (upbeat music) - The bad news is we couldn't find the depression glass.

But the good news is I finally get to meet her mom.

Miss Margaret.

Miss Margaret, we are here helping your daughter clean out her house.

What do you think about that, first of all?

- That's a good idea.

- You think it's a good idea?

- Yes.

- Okay.

All right.

So we're searching around for some stuff.

And I've been looking for an old depression era candy dish, and apparently you had it.

So thank you for bringing it over.

- Oh.

- This is the dish.

Tell me about this dish, how did you get it?

Who gave it to you?

- It was in my parents' home.

- Okay.

- And I know we always had it for special occasions with little tiny sandwiches.

We had three glass China closets.

- Yeah.

- Two downstairs and one on the third floor and they were all full of dishes.

Some of them belonged to my mother's mother.

- I think of the people you've met and the people you've sat with, and the stories that have been told over a plate like this.

This was the special plate, right?

- Yes, yeah, this is the one that I always hung onto, because I like the shape of it.

So I brought it to California with me.

Every Wednesday if you went to the Criterion, which was our theater there.

- Okay.

- You got a piece of depression glass.

- You would get it.

- Yeah.

- What color would you get?

- You get tough, it's green.

- Green.

- And most of it had little flowers.

But they were smaller than these.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] It was mass produced in happy colors like pink, amber, aqua marine, and even fluorescent uranium that glows under UV light.

So why was it known as depression glass?

After the stock market crash of 1929, the American economy was in shambles, and businesses looked for ways to stay afloat.

Those in the glass industry realized that the average family couldn't afford to spend money on fine China.

Wanting to keep their factories open and their workers working, companies began to make an inexpensive version of glassware.

From the late twenties through the thirties, the bulk of what became known as depression glass was produced.

You could get it everywhere.

Department stores gave it away, so did gas stations.

Movie theaters would have dish nights to lure in crowds.

The colorful glassware was also a great way for businesses to get people to buy their product.

Prominent household brands like Quicker Oats, put pieces of glassware in their product packaging, much like crackerjack prizes as a way to entice buyers.

When World War II ended, the American economy roared back and depression glass became a thing of the past.

But for some, the kitchy glassware is still popular today.

Just ask Martha Stewart, she's an avid collector.

(upbeat music) - We grew up in a small town in New Jersey, a Quaker town, which is still exists.

Graduated from high school at 16 I did.

That was in 1940.

And then I got my first experience with being in the South, 'cause I went to West Virginia to college.

That's the only place I could afford to go, so that's where I went.

- So you went to school in West Virginia at 17, and that was probably a different experience than what you were used to.

- That was.

- Yeah, whereabouts in the state.

- Institute near Charleston.

- Near Charleston, Okay.

And then you just took off running after that.

And you haven't slowed down yet.

- No.

- What do you want people to learn from your family story?

If someone sees this exhibit, what do you want them to take with them?

- I think we should all treat each other the same at all times, love each other, care about each other.

- Wise words, you've seen a lot of things in your life.

- A lot.

- So thank you very much for sharing this with us, thanks for bringing it over.

First of all, you saved me about four hours looking for it.

You're welcome.

- So I can go on to cleaning your daughter's office, which is a full-time job, as you know.

- You're entirely welcome.

It's been my pleasure.

- Her mom is incredible.

I can see exactly where Patti gets her ambition from.

(upbeat music) - As Matt and I were combing through the office, it really became evident quickly that we needed to rely on some more expertise in the field of paperwork.

And luckily, Matt had someone local that could come in and give us a helping hand.

Gina, thank you so much for coming out to help us.

Can you just give me an overview of what a professional organizer does?

- As a professional organizer, we come in and we discuss what your challenges are, how you wanted to use this space.

And then we make a plan together.

Our job is not to tell you what to get rid of.

We don't make you do anything.

We wanna walk beside you in that journey to teach you the skills, the techniques, the tools.

What we hope is that when we leave, we leave you feeling empowered and motivated to move forward even when we're gone.

- Yeah I mean, some of these binders are from jobs that she no longer has.

- Well, and that's the thing is clutter is unmade decisions.

- Yeah.

- It really is.

You have to make some hard decisions.

So we'll group everything like by like in the office, and then we'll start going, "Okay, what do you wanna keep, donate and trash?"

- Okay.

- Yeah, and then we'll put all that back in and organize it.

- Okay.

Well, I know Patti is going to be thrilled to work with you.

She is ready to go on this journey.

- Well, I'd love to meet her and I'm looking forward to getting started with her, so.

- Yeah, I'm gonna go grab her, are you ready?

- Okay.

Yeah, I'm ready.

Let's do it.

- All right.

(upbeat music) - Now that Gina is here, it's time for me to step back and let her do her thing.

- You've mentioned that you need more space in this office.

One of the things that's taking up your real estate is books, that's one where we're gonna start.

I know we're also gonna address the closet today, because you have a lot of shredding to deal with.

And I know you've mentioned there's a lot that we can get rid of.

I'm gonna pull these books off, we're gonna clear one shelf, okay.

So let's start right here, so let's start with these.

So this one here.

- Donate.

- Okay.

- Keep.

- And then how about this one?

- This was written by a friend of mine, and so she gave me an autographed copy.

- Is that something that you would read, or would that be more of a sentimental?

- It's sentimental.

- Okay, so we can put that in this pile here.

- I love this book.

- Okay.

All right.

And that's allowed, you are allowed to do that.

- Clean someone's clutter, and it'll just get cluttered again.

But teach them the tools and it'll stay organized forever.

- How about this here?

- I just bought that and then I realized it's not long enough.

- Is that the hammock.

- It's the hammock.

- So can we donate that if it's not long enough?

- I guess so.

- Okay.

All right.

I think that's a good choice if you can't use it, right?

- Okay, or I could put it on Mercari or- - Yeah.

- On the app so I could sell if I want.

- You could, One thing I wanna bring up is that sometimes the time and the effort, the time to list it, photograph it, ship it.

You have to consider what you're gonna make on the item and value your time for that, okay.

- Well, we'll donate it to the goodwill then.

- Okay, perfect.

- I really think that Gina's leaving Patti with tools that are realistic for Patti, and that she'll actually implement going forward.

- Yeah, it's so much better.

- Getting there, um.

So this is recycling, that's shred.

- My guys are gonna be focused on the heavy lifting and I'll be focused on helping Patti make decisions.

It's really up to her if she's gonna keep this level of organization and structure to her life.

- Yes, this is useful.

- All right.

- Patti is entering a new chapter in her life.

And what's great about it is she's writing her own story.

(upbeat music) (doors banging) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Walking up to the State Capitol, you can definitely tell California likes to make big impressions.

I mean, this place looks amazing.

The big dome, I mean the columns.

Simeon?

- Yeah.

Simeon.

- How you doing, Simeon?

Avi Hopkins.

- Hey Avi, nice to meet you.

- Hey, I'm Matt, good to meet you.

- Really nice to meet you as well.

- We're really appreciative of you meeting with us today.

We've been working with Patti.

We had a great experience in helping her clean and downsize, but we've also learned a lot about Patti in terms of her work with the legislature.

- Yes.

- And we thought, it'd be great to talk with someone who she says she's so proud of.

- Oh, definitely.

You know, for Patti, anything.

I met Patti way back in around 1993, or so, when I was just an intern for then the assembly speaker, Willie Brown Jr.

I learned so much from Patti.

I really owe a great debt to her.

But I've used all those skills that Patti Colston taught me, working on how to create legislation, how to write to the constituents about the legislation, and how they affect the people who are out here in the community.

- I'm pretty blown away by the Capital of California.

I'd like to learn more about the building, and the legislature itself, as well.

- Well, why don't we go take a walk and talk about it.

- All right, let's do it.

- That sounds great.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) - When we talked to Patti about her work in politics, it was clear that fair housing is really important to her.

And the more we talked to Simeon and learned that, I mean a lot of the issues that they all worked on in the past, are still very big issues in housing today.

What can you tell us about the work you did with Patti on housing.

- With African Americans in California, and really across the country, it's been one of those things where economic development is a big deal, and what we've all recognize is that housing really can increase your economic outcomes.

Not only all the way down to the homelessness issue, bringing it all the way up to just being able to keep your home or, and be able to really pay off debt and just be a part of the economic system.

It's been very difficult, right?

And so Patti and I, working in the state legislature, have really looked at this deeply, really checked out the data and recognized that there's been all sorts of bias and discrimination in the housing industry that has essentially kept African Americans from really getting that dream, and being a part of the system in a very positive way.

- I know that pushing legislature can be fairly complex.

How does caucusing and Black caucus play a role in California state legislature?

- Sure, so it's been essential, right?

Today, now when we're seeing such great homelessness, there's a lot of different laws that are happening up here.

One of the ones that assemblyman Chris Holden, who's a part of the Black Caucus, he's kind of led the new discrimination.

And one of them is appraisals, right?

If the house is worth $800,000, right?

And yet, they appraise it for 765, whatever the case may be.

And then that becomes a problem.

If that's happening over and over and over again to African American families, well they're losing economically to the person who lives right next door to them.

- Wow.

- And so year after year, there's a different discriminatory issue, which goes back to, okay, now you've got less African Americans integrating in these communities that are affluent.

- It's really robbing citizens of the American dream.

Absolutely.

Yes, it is.

- Even though this work is hard, there's a lot to be inspired by him.

I mean, our young people have a lot to look forward to, and I just want them to believe that they can make a difference.

- What advice would you give to young people hearing what we've talked about today that want to get involved?

- Pay attention to people who inspire, like Patti.

Watch what they're doing and think about what you wanna do today and tomorrow.

You gotta be visionary, right?

And then you want to think about how are you gonna get there?

What are the steps that it's gonna take?

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Owning a home was supposed to be part of the American dream, but for millions of hardworking people, it remains just that, a dream.

That's because for more than a century, housing segregation was baked into public policy.

Cities allowed restrictive covenants, which prevented property from being sold to non-white people.

The Federal Housing Administration refused to back loans meant for Black home buyers.

But Byron Rumford was determined to change that.

In 1963, the California legislator wrote his signature "Fair Housing bill."

After Rumford's bill passed the California assembly, it stalled in the Senate.

Local activists took notice and held a sit-in at the State Capitol.

Their protests worked.

On the final day of the legislative session, minutes before the clock struck midnight, Rumford got the votes, but victory was brief.

Soon after the Rumford Act passed, Californians overwhelmingly voted for Prop 14, a ballot measure that repealed fair housing and restored discrimination.

Even after the Federal Fair Housing Act passed in 1968, other crafty restrictions kept neighborhoods segregated.

To limit new affordable housing, like town homes and apartments, many local governments enacted exclusionary zoning requirements.

On three quarters of residential land, in most American cities, it's illegal to build anything besides a detached single family home.

Policy that was designed to exclude Black people is now making it hard for everybody.

Owning a home is still the American dream, and that's why the fight against housing discrimination continues.

(upbeat music) - All right, so we did a little differently this time.

We brought in the paper organizer, Gina.

How did it go and what did you guys do?

- It was hard, but she made it easy.

She was very patient, she was very kind.

I feel like a new person.

I feel like I have shed all of this extra weight that I had been carrying around with me that was so unnecessary.

She taught me how to utilize this closet space.

So that closet was so filled that it actually knocked the drawers off track.

- Yeah, so now the room and the doors are back on track.

- (laughs) Definitely.

- And I love it.

And we also cleaned out the garage.

Now we have two spaces that we couldn't use before.

They're now cleared and you can use them for active daily use.

- Mm hmm.

All right, now I want to go find a place.

And go over all the things that me and my team found.

- Okay.

- My job this week was fun because we're finding items that are gonna go into this exhibit.

- Yes.

- Somehow, some way.

All right, so let's get into them.

The first two items.

(soothing music) So this is your great grandma's iron and soap saver.

Do you remember anyone in your family using these?

- I just remember seeing this my whole life, because it was in my mom's kitchen, but I never knew what it was.

And she, like I said, passed some things down to me.

I'm really grateful that you found this.

- What did these mean to you and why would they go go into an exhibit?

- You know what's funny about these things, is they remind me of how strong the women in my family had to be.

These strong women in my ancestors' line have passed these down.

They would've probably never imagined that here we are two centuries later, and their legacy is still living on.

It gives me strength, because I know that what they went through and accomplished with so little.

I mean, we have all these modern day conveniences and we just send our clothes to the dry cleaners.

We don't even have to worry about it.

But back then, they did the best with what they had.

- The next item we found was the Campbell Soup bowl and utensils.

Tell me what you remember about these growing up.

- Mm mm, good.

(laughs) - Yeah.

I mean, this is awesome.

This is a great piece of pop culture.

It really, really is.

When people see this in this exhibit, what do you want them to take from this?

- I want them to understand that the depression hit different families different ways.

And we hear a lot about the dust bowl and people going belly up.

My family was still prospering.

And it's a unique story.

During the depression, my grandfather worked at Campbell Soup, which meant my family never went hungry.

I learned from that to not be wasteful, to value what you have and something like this.

I mean, you think you give a silver spoon and bowls to a kid, most people wouldn't even do that.

So it's been a legacy in my family for generation upon generation.

- The next item was actually one of my favorites.

This is- - Oh.

- The depression era candy dish.

Well, it's not a candy dish, the depression era.

It's really a sandwich platter.

- Right.

- What I like about it is it's the vehicle that I got to meet your mom, 'cause we looked and looked and looked for it.

Apparently your mom had it at her house.

So she brought it over and we got to meet her.

It's actually a little nice little depression area glass.

You can see how it's really finely carved and etched.

And so that puts it post depression era glass.

What do you remember about this being used, growing up?

- We never got to touch it.

- Was that special?

- Was a touch me not.

- Okay, so you heard about this or what was, what's the, so why would this go in to the exhibit?

- What my mother was so good at when we were growing up was celebrating the reason why you would bother to put sandwiches on something like this.

Because it brings families together, right?

- I like that It that it's the togetherness.

- Yeah.

- I love that.

- That's what it represents to me, is family togetherness.

- [Matt] And your family has a lot of special things.

And that's gonna take us to our next one.

- [Patti] Oh, that means so much to me.

- So this is a beautiful piece, but it was definitely made in the United States.

- Oh.

- So he didn't get it in Italy, but that's okay.

The story sometime is bigger than the piece, right?

It's still a question mark to me.

I don't know where he got it.

It's also a very nice piece.

It is covered in 24 carat gold.

- Beautiful.

- It's beautiful.

And it's cool and I love it.

I mean, what an ornate thing for a candy dish.

- Right, and to give it to me, I know was it younger.

And I'm just proud of myself that I didn't lose this.

- Yeah, no it's wonder, I love it.

Sometimes those gold candy dish stories help you get to that next life.

- Definitely.

- So, I love this piece.

- Thanks Uncle Johnny.

- This is spectacular.

This is the Buffalo Soldiers yearbook.

- Wow.

- So how does this feel to see something like this?

- It makes me so proud to know that my dad was one of the men who not only protected this country, but who also was part of a groundbreaking group of African American men who proudly wore these uniforms, and who earned their stripes and who earned their medals.

And who then came back, and he was able to take advantage of the GI bill.

- Yeah.

And that helped him buy his first house.

- Housing keeps coming up in your story too.

We did some research and we also found out that people on your dad's side had home ownership very early.

We did end up finding the item that Patti thought was a stock certificate, but it turns out it was something entirely different.

This was fascinating to me.

When my team found this, we thought, "Gosh, this is a stock certificate."

Like what would it be worth now?

- Right?

- And the more we dug into it, it's not a stock certificate at all, actually.

Although it says it's a stock certificate.

it's actually kinda like PMI insurance.

It's a second mortgage against.

- Oh wow.

- Land to buy.

And so as we got more into it, we found out that like the bank that underwrote this, they actually got sued for this.

And so what it was was it was a way for them to protect the loans to people of color, and to actually pull them back from being able to buy land.

Which blew me away today when I found out a lot of the work you've done a hundred years later is to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen to people.

- (laughs) Yeah, through policy and legislation.

- Through policy and legislation.

But this is the best part about this.

What's the date on that?

1897?

- 1897, and it's Junction City, Kansas, which is the city where my father was born.

- 1920 Census, check this out.

This is your great grandma, Madora, and she owns the house free and clear with no mortgage.

- Really?

- Yeah.

In the 1920 census.

- No idea.

- Another woman in your family being told she can't do something and what does she do.

- That's crazy, mad.

- So this is in 1920.

- And she bought and paid for her own.

- Not only bought it, owned it.

That's pretty special.

- That is.

- What Patti and her ancestors have taught us is, they don't wait around for permission.

They're just gonna go, and they're gonna act, and they're gonna make change.

All right, let's look at this, tell us what these are.

- These are what we call legislative handbooks.

What I learned when I first started there is in order to play the game, you have to know the rules.

And this is the rule book for the state legislature.

- [Matt] I love this Willie Brown watch.

- This was a gift that this speaker gave to all of his personal staff at an event.

It was called a time to remember.

It was a time to remember.

- If this makes it into the family exhibit, what do you want people to learn from it when they see it?

- Most people don't know that Willie Brown and Cesar Chavez picked cotton together in Central California.

That's how they met.

- Holy cow.

- It's just a way to let people know that you can achieve your dreams, achieve your goals.

That there are people out there that wanna support you, that are willing to help mentor you, and bring you along, because nobody gets there on their own.

- It's all coming together to me as we sit here and talk today, right?

That office is your vehicle.

It's your vehicle to make a difference.

- Yeah.

- You make a difference with your brain, and your thoughts.

You find out the rules and then you go make a difference.

- That's what I do.

- I don't think that's gonna stop when you retire.

- True.

- And I'm gonna say, "Watch out world," 'cause if you're rested and you got space to work, I don't know what you're gonna achieve.

And I just thank you for inviting us here.

And I can't wait to see this exhibit.

I hope that I get to go see it with your mom, 'cause she'd be fun to walk through with it.

- Thank you, Matt.

- Patti's a dreamer in the sense that she wants to put this museum exhibit together for her mom, so I really don't have a doubt in my mind that she will do what she needs to do to make this exhibit happen.

- I'm excited for Patti, but I'm even more excited for Patti's mom.

- The work that Patti's doing with this exhibit is really inspiring.

I might have to consider a way to better capture my own family's history.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for "Legacy List" is provided by Bekins Van Lines.

At Bekins, our goal is to provide a smooth and simple moving experience, no matter the size or distance of your move.

Bekins is ready to help you get there.

You can find us at bekins.com.

Bekins, this is moving.

FirstLight Home Care, committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

FirstLight believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at FirstLightHomeCare.com.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Narrator] Visit mylegacylist.com to learn more about the tips, tools, and professionals to help make your own big life move easier.

Learn more about this episode.

or submit your story to be featured on the show at mylegacylist.com.

(upbeat theme tune) (upbeat theme tune)