Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Advertising, Books, and Cooking
The cookbook was a mess. Its cover was so dusty that I could barely read the title. Its spine was unglued, its pages were brittle and pockmarked with brown stains – which surely were made…
Posted in Advertising, Businesses, history, and Signs
When I saw the broom holder with the attached Bond Bread metal sign, I knew I had found what I was looking for. The wooden holder was exactly what I needed to store the vintage…
Posted in Advertising, collectibles, Equipment, and Vehicles
The thing had the shape and look of one of those parking meters that we’re constantly pumping with quarters and nickels to stave off a parking ticket. But I could see that this one was…
Posted in Advertising, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Games
As soon as I saw the first few lines on the folded and wrinkled sheet of paper, I figured the rest was tongue-in-cheek: IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT YOUR GIRL’S AGE, There was a…
I was digging around in a box lot of disparate items at auction when I spotted some small wooden blocks. I brushed aside red heart-shaped nesting boxes, a new Rolfs man’s wallet, a Gillette razor and a Tissot…
Posted in Advertising, Asian, and travel
I’d seen the dealer at this auction house many times before. I never found him very friendly, but lately he had begun to nod or offer a quiet hello to me. I knew that he…
Posted in Advertising, Auction, collectibles, and Medicine
When my buddy Janet and I started going to auctions years ago, we’d wait around for hours until the last of the box lots were sold. By then, many of the buyers had gone home, overwhelmed with…
Posted in Advertising, Art, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
When I saw the painting of the woman in the red hat, she instantly reminded me of another painting. Her black hair was nicely coiffed, her red hat was fashionable, and she looked so life-like.…
Posted in Advertising, Black history, collectibles, Figurines, and history
The figure looked like many of the other ceramic sculptures of African Americans that I’d seen in discount stores. This was an image of George Washington Carver, the man who experimented with peanuts at Tuskegee back in…
