I hadn’t thought of the book about a little boy named Turky until I got a letter recently from a reader who fondly remembered reading it as a child. “Turky Trott and the Black Santa”…
Category: Children
The trash can touched on a memory. So did the name. There was something familiar about its style, colors, and the cacophony of shapes and pieces plastered onto it. The auction house listed it as…
Pulling the strings on Disney’s Mickey & Minnie
Posted in Children, collectibles, Performers, and Toys
Mickey and Minnie had lost their luster. They lay inert in a case at the auction house like discarded playthings. Their clothes were tattered, their bodies were marred (Minnie had a chip on her nose),…
A mixed bag of items people tag to buy
Posted in Auction, Books, Children, China, and collectibles
The small round orange and lime stickers pop up like weeds. You can see them on any number of items on the auction tables. They don’t usually bother me because I’m always curious about what people…
Awe-inspiring interior of Memorial Hall
Posted in Architecture/Buildings, Art, Black history, Children, and history
It was a near-moonless night in November when I arrived at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park for a meeting. This was my first visit to the place, although I had passed through the area many…
‘Little Brave Sambo’ is a new look on an old stereotype
Posted in Black history, Children, history, and Records
When I first saw the title, I thought I had misread it. “Little Brave Sambo.” That didn’t sound right. All of the books I had seen about this little boy’s encounter with four tigers were…
Lynn & Leslie, Constance Bannister’s African American babies
Posted in Black history, Books, Children, history, and Photos
Leslie did most of the crying. She wouldn’t sit still for the shoot by famed baby photographer Constance Bannister that day in the early 1960s. Usually, her brother Kevin, about 5 years old, could get her…
Birdhouses created in a child’s hand and manner
Posted in Animals, Architecture/Buildings, Children, and Home
I spotted the shelves of birdhouses from a distance at the auction house. They were arranged neatly in a cabinet near a wall – some of them alike, several reminding me of an abstract painting. I…
As soon as I saw the title “Four and Twenty Blackbirds,” the little ditty started playing in my head: “Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye, Four and twenty blackbirds Baked in…
At some point, I’m sure, the little girl’s clothes had been neatly folded and lovingly placed in the suitcase. But by the time I came upon them at auction, too many hands had unfolded and…