The singing and praising were loud enough to wake the dead. The soloist for the Postal Service Choir had raised the audience from their seats in spirited song, setting them to swaying and clapping to…
Category: Ephemera/Paper/Documents
Is reader’s Ring magazine an original or reprint?
Posted in Boxing, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Sports
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
Diary – not Bible – speaks of family & country’s history
Posted in Books, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
Another diary, I groaned silently as I read the words in gilt on the cover. I had just seen a small thick diary on the box-lots table at the auction house, and I wasn’t ready for another. This…
Guess the current equivalents of these items from the past
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Kitchen, Military, Music, and travel
When I first saw the Western Union telegram, Jerry Butler started singing in my head: “Oh, Western Union man, send a telegram to my baby Send a telegram, send a telegram, whoa Send a telegram…
The words “Inaugural Committee” were in a neat script on the oversized envelope, making it clear that the content inside was official. The envelope itself was the faded off-white color of aged paper, so I knew that…
I was pulling three bucks out of my wallet to leave a tip for the waitress when I saw the $1 bill. Someone had stamped a message in red on the front of it. I was…
When rural mail was delivered by sleigh in snowy places
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Vehicles
I grew up in a rural area in Georgia, and each day the mailman would drive his car up close to the tin mail box on a wooden pole, lean across his seat, open the little door…
When I first saw the scrapbook/photo album, I didn’t expect to find much in it, probably just some photos from a trip long forgotten. Photo albums/scrapbooks turn up like weeds at auction because they usually…
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items or to get them started on research. Today’s question is from a…
1930s communist pamphlet on blacks in a ‘Soviet America’
Posted in Books, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
The small pamphlet with the black and white cover bore the title “The Negroes in a Soviet America.” On the cover was a young African American man, smiling broadly and happily as he undoubtedly envisioned…