That old thing

Whatever it was, it had been in the Adams family for years.
Clarence Adams bought it one day and brought it to his brothers right before their business opened. It was something he saw shortly after he came home from the Great War and thought it might make a good addition to the business' waiting area, so there it was.
It was later handed down to his son Bud, along with the rest of the business and Bud's family hung on to it until his oldest son, Allen, started a family of his own.
Allen didn't join the family automobile business, which had gone from ABC Motors to Adams AMC by the time he was old enough to work, so he took that old thing to the waiting area of his insurance office and put it on a table there.
Allen has a daughter named Elaine, who decided to join him in the business now that her children are in school. One day, she took it home to wash it out and came back the next day with some flowers in it.
You mean they finally found a use for that old thing?