How on earth did these letters ever make it to through the mail, both I and another auction-goer wondered as we thumbed through a stack of old letters in cardboard boxes on a table at…
Month: August 2017
The face that stared out at me from the broadside put the man’s time as way before the 1960s. He had black wavy hair and a light skin tone that gave him an entry and cache that those…
Turning a corner inside the auction house, I walked right smack dab into the presence of a black and white menagerie. In front of me were tables lined with figurines of a dog I recognized…
The first time I saw Dick Gregory was during a speech he gave at Ohio State University where I was a graduate student in the 1970s. By then, he had given up his lean years as…
Jazz singer Ann Robinson’s photos at Village Vanguard
Posted in Music, and Performers
I didn’t recognize the singer in the stack of photos among many others in a half-cut cardboard box on the auction table. She seemed to be bellowing out some song with all her heart, and…
Where I come from, Bibb County, GA, you won’t likely see photos of black and white children in the same class before the 1960s. That just did not happen in the South – especially not in…
It looks like a home phone but this one’s for the car
Posted in collectibles, Equipment, and Vehicles
You couldn’t tell how the phone was used just by looking at it. A home phone was the first thing that came to my mind, even though it looked rather strange. The phone was in the…
Cleveland society through lens of Jimmy Baynes
Posted in Black history, and Photos
I was flipping through a box of photos of African Americans posing at fancy events when I decided to flip one of them over to see if it was identified. Most times, folks don’t bother…
I had seen a painting like this one before at the auction house, and I had ignored it. It looked like an illustration out of some book and it didn’t move me one bit. Then…