While I waited for a train to Center City Philadelphia, I allowed my mind to wonder about the drawing I had seen in the newspaper the day before. It was an 1864 engraving of generations…
Month: November 2010
A real happy doll
Posted in Dolls
This doll was beaming. Her face had an eternal expression of cheeriness that I had not seen often. She looked ready to lighten up any child’s play: A big smile, bright eyes, open arms holding…
I used to dutifully go out and find the right Christmas tree each holiday season. I’d buy it from a seller who’d set up rows of trees with full thick branches in the same parking lot…
The cover of the book was so marred by water damage that I could only make out the word “Negroes.” Instantly, I knew it was something I had to examine a little closer. It was…
I had walked past that spot several times, but had never glanced to my right or left to see the headstone. If I had, I would’ve remembered it from two weeks ago. Even then, it…
Chinese herbs in a jar
Posted in Health & Medicine
I stuck my head in closer to the vintage jar in the glass case to get a clearer look. Still, I could not make out the dark crusty-looking items. They looked like pieces of dried wood…
Lovely vintage & antique clocks
Posted in Clocks, and collectibles
I’d always imagined having a house with a foyer off the front door, with a beautiful grandfather clock greeting me. The clock I envisioned was one of those reproductions with the fake gold and silver…
Jet magazines from the 1960s
Posted in Black history, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
In its heyday, Jet magazine was black folks’ ticket to their own world. It confounded the notion that they were lazy, had little to say that anyone cared about, and had never made history of any worth. In…
Vintage cobalt & stoneware washbasin
Posted in pottery
From a distance there at the auction house, the vintage stoneware washbasin in the cobalt blue floral design looked to be Flow Blue. It was on a shelf against a back wall with the “slightly better”…
A new Canon Vixia camcorder
Posted in camera
“Did you see the camcorder, still new in the box?” my auction buddy Janet asked me as we awaited the start of the auction at this new place we were checking out this week. I had seen…