The year on the two old Life magazines was the first thing that caught my eye. They were published in the two months before I was born, and were among about a half-dozen mags from 1939 to…
Tag: auction
I had arrived at the auction a few minutes late and didn’t get a chance to make my walk-through to see what was there. I craned my neck over the tables behind the auctioneer, who…
3 books by Elijah Muhammad
Posted in Beauty Products, and Books
The three books were in a box of other books under a table at the auction house, their spines upright and pointed towards me. They were dog-eared, as if someone had read them quite often and had barely put them…
Traveling by Trailways & Greyhound
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, travel, and Vehicles
My childhood friend Beatrice and I stood by the side of the road, looking, searching for that familiar red-and-cream-colored Trailways bus. We were teens then, headed to the big town of Macon, GA, to see…
I love road trips. I want to see all that this vast country has to offer in its land and its people. So, I’ve enlisted two friends to take a trip with me down the…
As soon as I saw the painting propped against a wall at the auction house, that infamous opening line from many a bad novel immediately seized me: “It was a dark and stormy night.” This…
I didn’t know what to expect when I drove to the home for the estate sale. The auction house was selling the items of a family who had been killed by another son back in…
This weekend, a local auction house is selling off the belongings of a couple who with their twin son were murdered. They’re not selling it at the auction house. They’re selling the family’s estate in the same…
A lesson in Taiwan butterfly specimens
Posted in Asian, and collectibles
As I approached the large picture-frame case with the butterflies, I sighed when I saw the words “Made in Taiwan.” It seemed like a disappointing let-down to what I had seen on the auction-house website of…
Lying about an ugly lamp
Posted in Lighting
I spied the gaudy lamp from across the room as I stood waiting impatiently for nothing in particular to come up for auction. I was killing time, hoping that something, anything, would rise up from…