Memories on a Lawn

The auction notice stated the sale would start at 10 a.m.  It was a bright Saturday in June when I headed out to drive a few miles from my house to another country house where everything was to be auctioned off, including the homestead.

There were the usual tables piled high with possessions of a lifetime. Furniture to be sold covered the yard, both front and back.  Since I buy and sell antiques I couldn't help but feel the adrenaline flowing as I perused the tables and lifted china up to check for cracks.  Further out by the barn were the tools and rusty leftovers of a man who had once done some farming.

I hadn't come for the usual household goods.  I was looking for treasure.  As the patter of the auctioneer started, I knew I was in for a long day waiting for the items I was interested in buying to come up for bid.  A gleaming antique black Royal typewriter caught my eye.  I had learned to type on one of those behemoths in high school and I saw a similar one in Hemingway's writing studio
in Key West, Florida.  I even took an old Underwood to college which I had long since sold.  Now I wanted a similar typewriter back.  Why, I didn't know.

Next to the typewriter was an old scrapbook filled with ephemera from the 40's....valentines, birthday cards, Christmas cards, letters, vintage hankies and an old Hart Journal from 1947.  No one seemed to want the scrapbook more than I did and my bid of $15 made me the winner.

There were many hats in hat boxes and there was brisk bidding for those.  When all of them were taken, a lone hat box remained.  The auctioneer said there was no hat in it and I bought the box for $2.00.  A friend and I opened it and there was a real treasure inside, not a monetary treasure, but a memory.  The sweet things that come from a little girl's first communion in the Catholic Church were tucked into that old hat box.  There was a small white purse, a rosary, small Bible, a little frame in a plastic case with the name Nina and the date May 8, 1960.  A small white hat and two pearl like clips to hold her veil in place were also there.  A group of black and white negatives were slipped in with everything else. 

The estate seemed to represent simple people with many of the articles being useful country items.  However I bought a box of books for $2.00 which included Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy.  I have just finished reading Dan Brown's Inferno in which Dante's long poem is the backbone of the novel. The Divine Comedy was a 1947 edition and it made me believe there was a depth to someone in the family that wasn't evident in most of their possessions on the auction block.

What is presented for all to bid on at an auction sale is just the surface of some one's life.  When my possessions are put on the lawn for people to pick over, will they know who I was by my material goods?  Will my travel and personal journals be there for people to read or my photography stuck in boxes?  Will people find letters and notes I have kept?  Will my favorite poetry books be up for auction?  I hope not.


There are always clues to people's lives if one is looking and from this sale I found some memories in the scrapbook and first communion items.  I feel honored to be the keeper, for a short time, of a tiny part of this family's history.  And oh yes, the old Royal typewriter came home with me.