Junking

Today, while I was supposed to be working, I went "junking". Now, let me preface this by saying, I had worked -- some. I just didn't finish the day I had originally planned.

And, let me also say that I went "junking" in an antique store. One cannot call what I did antique shopping because I had no plans to buy any antiques. I just wanted to ramble through some old "stuff" (aka - junk).

Imagine my surprise and delight over finding tons of things to rifle through in my first store. I came away with the most wonderful (and yet awful at the same time) things that I'm going to give to other people. Here are some of my "finds":

1. Sheet music to the Disney score for Zip-a-dee-doo-dah
2. Original sheet music from White Christmas
3. A University of Tennessee Engineering Problem book from 1947 (HAD to get that for Kevin to share around the office)
4. A Better Homes and Gardens magazine from 1956 (this has been my treasure as I have truly enjoyed looking at the ads and articles from then)
5. Another woman's type magazine that slips my mind right now
6. Someone from East High School in Nashville's Home Economics notebook. It is beautifully written and I can't wait to share some of the contents on here. I love it. I can't wait to share it with Ellie some day.
7. A Hee-Haw cast photo from 1989 (to share with my friend Stoney who collects Opryland memorbilia -- yes, yes, I know, it's not really Opryland, but it's close).
8. A wrapper from some razor blade product that has a photo of some cartoon man shaving and talking about how you'll never get a better shave. I'm going to use this on a scrapbook page with photos I have of Joshua and his friend Bryce "shaving" when they were about 6 and 7.
9. Someone's "dream" book. Now, I bought this for no real reason. I was just drawn to it -- maybe because I used to cut out things from the Sears and JCPenney catalogs and dream that they would be my family some day. This one was obviously made in the 1950s. It has cut out photos of things labeled, "This is what God made" and photos of families, houses, husbands and wives, etc. It was so touching and I was so sad that someone's dream book ended up in a junk pile in the back of an antique shop. So, I bought it. It was an entire $.50. Inexpensive for a book of dreams, I'd say.
10. A 1950 National Geographic map of China. I thought this might be nice to hang in Ellie's room. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but it seemed crazy to find it in an antique store. Another $.50
11. A 1966 Helen Steiner Rice poetry book for Kevin's mom. I didn't get it because she likes poetry so much as the fact that this was inscribed inside, "To Mom, Love, Steve". Kevin's brother's name is Steve, so I thought this would be cool for her to have.
12. Some sort of farm book with all kinds of home remedies in it. Loved it too.
13. A couple of small recipe booklets (by the way, apparently people in the 50s and 60s really liked Jello and Spam -- lots of recipes involving those items).
14. A piece of sheet music about being in Kentucky -- for our pastor, Brother David, who is from Kentucky

I got a few other paper products at this store as well, but don't remember right off. All I know is, the saddest thing I found was a box of old photos. There were professional photos from studios all over the country as well as snapshots of families, women holding babies, families around the dinner table and individual portraits. All tossed into a box and being sold for five and ten cents a piece. How sad!! None had names on the backs and so those treasured family photos are lost forever to the people who would truly have enjoyed having them.

I also got my mother a wonderful Christmas present at the next store I went to, but I can't write what it is -- just in case she reads this. I found several lovely handkerchiefs, table runners and linen towels that were hand embroidered. I got them for Ellie's room. One of them, oddly enough, has an Asian themed design on it!! How cool!

The one thing I came away from these stores with is that life truly is a vapor. I felt this as I walked through the isles of these stores and saw the toys, appliances, furniture, hats, aprons, postcards, record albums and china that each had a story to tell of people who play with them, wore them, wrote them, listened to them and ate off them. Yes, they are inanimate objects, but each piece represented a small part of someone's life. It made the brevity of life here on earth and all the material things seem so meaningless. One day, all the things I hold dear and treasure will end up in some "antique" junk store for others to peruse through and purchase. Really puts it into perspective, doesn't it?