Antiques: What's In YOUR Junkpile?
A few days ago I was out for a walk, and as I walked by Paul's house, I saw he was in his garage working, so I stopped to say hi. He had an antique sewing table, of a kind I had only seen once or twice, that he was repairing and refinishing. The veneer was damaged in a couple places, but not too bad (I used to work in the furniture restoration business, so I know a little bit about damage that is "bad")So I asked Paul where he'd picked up this piece of antique furniture, and he said, "on the side of the road."
"You mean, this was in a yard sale?" I said. (if you're not familiar with a "yard sale", depending on your geographic location it may be called a "rummage sale", "lawn sale", "garage sale", or probably a multitude of other terms. Basic premise is, sell stuff cheap that you want to get rid of, in your own front yard.)
"No," he said. "I mean, it was in their junkpile." (No translation needed for that term, right?) "They were going to have it hauled off to the dump. So I asked for it, and they gave it to me."
Wow.
Later on that day I went to visit my parents, who had just returned from their vacation to the South. They showed me pictures of all the places they had visited, and told me lots of interesting stories about the places and events along their journey.
Then, as I was getting ready to leave, mom said, "We're trying to get rid of some of our old board games. Do you want any?"
So I went through the cabinet that contained the board games, and selected a few that I thought our youth group might enjoy playing. When she said "old board games", she wasn't kidding, either! Some of these games weren't just from when I was a kid...they dated back to when my folks were kids! (Mom, Dad...if you're reading this...I'm not calling you "old"!
)Today, probably very few people have heard of some of those games. So we talked for a little bit about what they were going to do with the rest of them. They didn't want to throw any of them away, and I didn't blame them.
So I said, "Put them on ebay." After all, all it takes is one person to see a game they were fond of when they were a kid, but can't find anywhere else, and they would be willing to pay big bucks for it.
One man's junk is another man's treasure, right?
So, I'm looking around my house, wondering what should be on my junkpile. I've got an old laptop that the keyboard doesn't work, and the display is so badly fouled up that I can only read the right hand half of the screen. Should I trash it? I certainly can't sell it on ebay.
Or maybe I should just hold onto it until it becomes an antique. In the computer industry that shouldn't be more than five more years. Then I can sell it for millions.
Posted On Apr 27, 2005 at 4:10 AM
|
Doug's Random ThoughtsEverything from Soup to Nuts,And Maybe Even More! ABOUT ME Current PostsBlog Is Moving...Emergency Room Last Entry Join The Chorus Jeorge Sings A Hymn 
|