Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Halloween, Toys, and Uncategorized
The bunny’s body was furry white – clean, in fact, for a child’s toy – but there was something oddly disconcerting about that face. It lacked whiskers, a knobby nose and puffy cheeks. Its face…
Posted in Black history, collectibles, and Sports
In my head, I can still see my golf buddy Gerald bent over a divot in the green grass, a small two-fanged tool in his hand, carefully repairing the groove he’d just made with his…
Posted in collectibles, dishware, Dolls, furniture, Home, and Personal items
This woman surely loved dolls and stuffed animals. They were all over and under the tables, and stacked in plastic bags under trees at the side of her house. They gave the first inkling of…
The red candy-striped fingernails were transfixing. They held me in place there in the auction house, willing me to stop my casual stroll among the other artwork and pay attention to them. If that was…
Church pews. That’s what I saw as the words formed in my head when I rounded the corner and came face to face with the long oak benches on the loading dock at the auction…
The long row of phonographs looked like a collection gone bad. They were in various states of disrepair, they were dusty, and they were neglected. The auction house staff had laid them out side by…
Posted in Dolls
As I approached the box of ceramic cinnamon-colored dolls, a wave of déjà vu swept over me. It couldn’t be, I thought to myself. But there they were, nearly a dozen of the faceless Dominican…
I was at a reading this week by author Isabel Wilkerson on her new book about the Great Migration – that mighty flood of black people who left the South in the early part of…
Posted in furniture
I was about to walk right past the colorful needlepoint upholstered chair at the auction house when the people in the fabric willed me to stop. So I stopped, stood there and watched as they…
The inscription on the paper in the photo was pretty clear. The question, though, was whether it was historically correct: “Badge worn by Sahra Douglas, Born Sept. 19 – 1817 A Slave Dyed May 12…
