memories

A Christmas Story

I saw the ad for the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story on TBS and I had a few thoughts — which turned out to be pretty cool, because this week’s Monday Movie Meme is about favorite holiday movies.

My first thought was not about how that film, despite it’s having been set decades earlier, seems to ring nostalgic for so many of us (and interesting phenomenon that I do often ponder whenever I think of A Christmas Story, but rather how TBS has turned that film into a different kind of holiday classic…

You know, one of those films you associate with the holidays and family simply because it was on TV every year when you were a kid.

Scene From It's A Wonderful Life

Most of the Christmas movies and television programing hasn’t changed much; we’ve still got the animated Frosty and Rudolph “specials,” and Miracle On 34th Street, It’s A Wonderful Life, etc. Most of these are not as memorable — or more accurately, these films are not as tied to family holiday traditions because at Christmas time, we kids were preoccupied with our gifts. So while I fondly remember Rudolph, The Littlest Angel, and The Little Drummer Boy, I remember those pretty much like any other TV viewing event.

(Even now, watching Miracle or It’s A Wonderful Life is pretty much a solo couch potato event; momma’s down-time in a busy holiday season.)

But there are other holidays too. And television network execs take advantage of this time, programming us along with setting the program schedule.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Film Poster

For me, the phrase “holiday films” brings to mind those I watched with my cousins. Sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the old console TV, we watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang & Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory — I think it was Thanksgiving and Easter, respectively. (And I tried for years to stay up and watch The Ten Commandments at Easter too; only I never made it more than an hour before nodding off.) I do remember that sometime between the time we kids were expected to join adults in conversation and the age at which we became too cool to do so, the TV networks changed the holiday family films. (Don’t ask me what they were. Once my cousins and I mockingly went to watch Willy Wonka, and he wasn’t there.) I guess the network guys and gals had moved onto a younger kid demographic for their ‘new’ holiday family fun.

(This reminded me of the one Mother’s Day that one of the major TV networks ran Rambo or something equally disgusting. I guess the thinking was that men would stick around for family time if they could have a all the action and excitement of body count film to watch. But I digress.)

Thinking of how the films change reminded me that soon enough, TBS will stop running A Christmas Story. And that simple act will change family traditions.

It is this fact, and this alone, that has me finally turning the corner on an area of collecting I have been snobby about: film collecting.

I used to be offended when I had rented a booth in an antique mall and some guy was moving into his booth, stocking it with nothing but VHS cassettes. Those were not collectible, I thought to myself snobbishly. Collections are not simply amounts of something, they represent something more… A collection is more than a stack of movies, a shelf of books, a pile of CDs or iPod full of audio files. A collection, I vehemently believe, is attached to something more than simple consumption of merchandise.

Scene From A Christmas Story

But now, thinking back on all those movies that were once my family’s tradition, I see it differently. If I buy all those movies, they are significantly different than movies I like to have around to watch should the mood strike me. Accumulating the original Willy Wonka & Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a nostalgic act — I’m buying back a bit of my childhood.

So, movie collectors, you have my apologies for having been an ignorant, stuck-up collector. Please don’t make me put my tongue on a flagpole.

Antique Mirror Reflection

When we went to that farm auction in Buffalo we talked to a lady who was related to the family having the estate auction about the pains of estate sales.

She told us of how there were many items and shelves inside the home marked “save for” with a family member’s name, and that all the children and even great grandchildren were there for the sale too. We told her how glad we were that photos and things were kept in the family, saying, “The only thing worse than seeing neglected and possibly abandoned furniture was to imagine things like photo albums ending up like that.”

“Oh no,” she said, “everyone who took something is taking care of it. She made the daughter that took the piano promise to keep it in good shape — and to play it. She not only promised to, but had her over to play a duet. It took a bit of playing first before her memory fully came back, then she said, ‘I think we can both do better than that’ and they played the song again.”

Such stories reminded me of when my Great Aunt passed away just a few years ago. She was the oldest member of the family and had the best stories of the generations which had already passed. I’m ashamed to say that while we had the best of intentions to record her stories, but we didn’t. For years we talked about how we should get a tape recorder out while she told stories at holiday time, but we never did. I’d like to say it was because we were so lost in her stories that we forgot; but the truth is there was also discomfort at the notion of doing it. It was like saying, “Hey, we don’t think you’ll be around much longer.” But by being so polite (to a woman who knew she wasn’t going to live forever), we missed the opportunity — and many of our family stories are lost.

The lady at the estate auction and I discussed a few ways to keep such history alive, such as tape recording or video taping older members of the family as they go through family photo albums, documenting their stories of family members, so that you don’t lose the history of the people in the photos. This would be a good thing. But why not take it a few steps further, and record them discussing the objects & heirlooms as well?

So many times at yard sales the sellers will tell their stories of the things up for sale. (Sometimes it’s because you ask; other times it’s because they want to keep the price high and believe their sentimentality will affect you — which it does because they hold firm on the price, not necessarily because it matters to you that ‘Aunt Sally’ owned it.) But for every story told, how many are lost — even when the object itself is saved?

This time of year, as the garage sales & flea markets diminish due to colder weather, we will be spending more time indoors. It is all too easy to busy ourselves with back-to-school stuff and indoor projects, but we should save a little time — make a little time — to record our own family stories. Better still, to have the oldest members of our families do this with us too. We can use audio & video to record these talks, use memory books with prompts, or even just write the stories in notebooks & place them with the other papers we leave for whoever we must leave behind.

What’s more, we can do this with our ’stuff’ too.

A Note Regarding Vintage Clothes

As we spend the winter months placing our comic books in protective mylar sleeves, organizing our ephemera in acid-free containers, placing photos into family photo albums, maybe even making lists of valuables for our insurance agent and considering to whom we will leave our beloved collections, why not record what’s really valuable about all these objects? Record why those old tie clasps & cuff links shouldn’t be sold for scrap, and why that Shazam! glass or those old mixing bowls shouldn’t to go to the thrift store.

I realize this is dealing with death and that can creep-us-out; but by avoiding the inevitable, we are making the choice to leave the stories behind. And for all our talk here at Collectors’ Quest about objects & how to protect them, including making preparations for what becomes of them after our passing, it seems only right that we should also discuss what will become of our stories. They are the links between objects and people, between people in our families, and what we really treasure; we should be collecting & preserving the stories too.

We were on vacation last week, in Florida. In Tampa, to be exact. Along with Disney, we did several other tourist things, which got me thinking about souvenir albums — you know, those old books with construction paper pages and all sorts of postcards and paper glued into them along with hand written notes on what they did and thought… The ones that force you to page through them at the estate sale so long that you have to buy them so you can take them home and really read them. And in doing so you experience the trips taken by persons long gone, to attractions (if not actual places) which may also be long gone… But in those faded pages the spirit(s) still live.

I get goosebumps just thinking about those old scrapbooks.

I wanted the kids to make such scrapbooks, but they had no interest in it. They never really have. Nothing short of forcing them would make it happen, and vacation memories at gun-point isn’t exactly the sort of charm I was going for.

If they wouldn’t do it for me, they certainly had no interest in doing it for some future collector. And that made me a little sad. At first.

I wondered if we just weren’t making vacations good enough — or at least “like they used to,” but then something happened…

In our condo’s packet of stuff to see and do, I found a brochure for Tampa Bay Ghost Tours. Boasting “All The Best Haunts”, I called and made reservations for the whole crew, including the kids (ages 7 through 18), without asking any real questions. I didn’t ask what the tours were, how long it lasted, or anything that (apparently) sane people ask. I just thought we’d all enjoy it and booked a date.

Now perhaps I should preface all of this by saying that the kids are, among many things, into ghosts.

Along with having hysterically historical parents (both in terms of our ages and our love of history), they are themselves imaginative as well as scientific in their approach to such things as ghosts. (Our household not only watches History Detectives & MythBusters, but Ghost Hunters too).

And it should be noted that one of the favorite Disney attractions was the Haunted Mansion. It was such a favorite, my personal souvenir from Disney was the book, The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies; certain to be a favorite for it’s ghost theme as well as (especially by the eldest) its information on theatrical effects. Oh, and we’ve officially got at least one goth kid. :sigh:

So while I may not have known much about the Tampa Bay Ghost Tours, I did — and do — know a lot about our kids. So I felt confident booking the evening walking tour along the boardwalk at John’s Pass, called the Maritime Mysteries & Pirates of the Pass tour.

The tour itself was everything I could have asked for — and so much more.

It was over an hour of ghost stories, told to us against the backdrop of the beautiful boardwalk at sunset. The stories or legends are of real people who lived in or around John’s Pass, documented and researched by Deborah Frethem who has authored Ghost Stories of St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Pinellas County: Tales From a Haunted Peninsula — a book available in the tour’s gift shop.

Books I eventually purchased.

Yes, “books” — because, for reasons I shall soon explain, each of the kids and myself, needed a copy.

You see, the tour was very cool, but what really made the tour so neat was our tour guide, Quartermaster Moe.

A large, physically imposing man dressed as a pirate (but not in an over-the-top way), his deep voice and mesmerizing storytelling had all three of the children, as well as we adults, spellbound. I can’t really say enough about Quartermaster Moe without further embarrassment of my family or the Quartermaster himself, but will say that Tampa Bay Ghost Tours has a goldmine in that pirate.

He so fascinated the children that when we returned to John’s Pass to purchase books the next day (the gift shop being closed by the time the tour ended), that I had an idea… I’d ask if we could get the quartermaster to sign our books. I wasn’t sure if this would be possible that day, but driving there I figured I could shoo the children to grandma for a few minutes and sneak into the gift shop and ask. Even if it meant having the books sent to us via mail, I imagined how happy each child would be… But when we arrived at the shop, who awaited us outside? Quartermaster Moe!

The kids were falling all over themselves at the sight of him when I asked him if he’d mind signing our copies of the book. He was surprised and said he’d never been “honored” with such a request before, but he’d happily do it — and shouldn’t we have photos of that too? At which time one of the other ghost tour guides offered to take a group photo of us all.

Well, long-story-short, he signed all three kids books and my own copy (because the kids wouldn’t have it any other way) and that, my friends, was the high-light of the day if not the trip. Girls clutched the books like they were pirate booty and even the seven year old boy who normally cannot be bothered with books outside of school sat down to read it!

From a collector’s standpoint, Quartermaster Moe’s signature may have no value — but to our family it sure does. In those bits of ink, the spirit of our family and our vacation are collected. Just like those old scrapbooks. Even if it is something a future collector would scratch his head over…

For unless this article makes Quartermaster Moe famous or something, researching that name will be rather difficult.

And that makes me rethink every book I own, ever seen, which has an unknown or seemingly unrelated inscription… Who might that person be/have been and what secrets does it hold?

It wasn’t until later that I noticed the books had also been signed by the author. Then I felt a twinge of guilt. I was marveling at what will likely be “meaningless” or intrinsic personal value of Moe’s signature and oblivious to what is perhaps the autograph with monetary value.

But then I realized (or at least hope) that Frethem would get our family’s love of such quintessence — she, after all, spent a great deal of time researching and writing about similarly powerful but oft unseen mysteries: ghosts.

Her collection of ghosts, or at least their stories, is a preservation of more than History with a capital ‘H’, but the specters of the past which are as incoherent yet potent as any other memory. And collecting them has value.

We collected some great items this year, filling voids in glass fronted display cabinets, shelving and most horizontal spaces left open in our home. On the way we also collected items to sell in Wifie’s antique mall booth, web site and on Ebay.

We managed to share many of our collections with you throughout the year. These pieces decorate or provide function in our little abode. Peruse some of these revelations from this year with me:

My first discovery of the intrinsic value of antiques. Finding the beauty on both sides of a mirror in Wifie’s collection of vintage hand mirrors and small mirrors. Enjoy the colorful array of glass paperweights or get ready for a group of friends to drop by with a full ice bucket from my collection.

We covered our antique furniture, antique lighting accenting our rooms, the items that adorn our fireplace and the doorknobs we are still working to replace with old ones. We touched on Wifie’s collection of Buzza Motto prints and the wonders of the fashions from the turn of the century. She gave us an insight into her earring collection and her love of music.

Over the weeks we showed you these collections here at Collectors’ Quest and shared the adventures we had in scouring for bargains. The “Quest” makes every item a pleasure to collect and we get a special rush at finding a prized possession, like a hopeful couple on their first date.

This year our hunting passion took us to the Cotswald region of Merry Old England, for the vacation of a life time and we shared our experience of viewing, learning and buying antique items. The lessons the shop owners taught, and the items we saw were worth the money twice over.

Other travels took us to Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and the Dakota’s. We shopped and had time to visit dealers at spectiality shows, the Bead and Button Show, store owners or managers, auctioneers, show managers , participants, collecting fanatics and one elf that promised to put in a good word for us this holiday season.

We reported on art sales, a common form of collecting for decorating, at an art fair in a historic setting and on a Gallery with a Galley in a home shaped like a dry docked ship. There was the show where you could have bought a million styles of beads, and an English antique store with 200 year old spice cylinders. Plus the interview Wifie had with the operator of the best Antiques Fair in all of Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, presented an inside view of the workings of such a venue.

All of the stories we shared, bring back memories we also gathered along the way. Many is the time that the Quest is more important than the booty collected. And often the tales we hear from the people we meet enhance our knowledge of the items we seek.

On a personal note we added another grand baby to our collection, but he’s still too young to sit on a display shelf. That makes five wonderful grandchildren, and three of any one thing is a collection.

Wifie’s Ebay location busted through the 10,000 feed back mark, to earn a shooting star. And we still have a few items we could sell.

And we have another year of great memories.

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We recently entertained some friends from out of state. They had not been to our home for about 9 years and were inquisitive about where we found our “treasures.” It made me stop and think about just where I did find them. And it brought back some fond (and not-so-fond) memories – I’m happy to share them with you!
Probably my “all time favorite” is our dining room chandelier. It is brass and has a lot of prisms and glass beads. Quite lovely. But it did not always look this way. When I first found it, it was in 3 bags, seated on the floor of a garage.

My sister and I had gone to a rummage sale. She always beat me to the costume jewelry, which was her ‘addiction.’ So I did not even bother rushing to the table where they were displayed. Who wants to be elbowed out of the way every time? Not me.

So I sought bargains elsewhere. I was looking at some porcelain figurines on a table and my foot bumped a bag and I heard a “clink.” I asked the seller what was in the bags. She replied “my sister and her husband are opening a bread & breakfast. They decided to replace the old lighting fixtures with new ones and those bags hold the parts of their cast-off.” I was curious and picked up one bag.

To my amazement and great pleasure, I found a very large, cut glass prism! I looked further and found a lot more. The next bag had the brass arms and the third held the strings of beading. I tried my best not to be too excited and casually asked “how much do you want for this?” Her reply got my heart racing “$5.00” she said.

I am so used to bargain-hunting that before I even thought about it I blurted out “would you take $4.00?” “Oh, sure” she said, “my sister will be glad to get rid of it.” I paid promptly.

When we got to the car, my sister showed me her little pins, then asked if I had any luck. I tried to stay calm and said I thought I had been lucky.

We got to my house and hubby and I pulled it out of the bags. We were in awe. I knew it was in pieces but he can ‘fix anything’, just ask anyone! So, he took it to his workshop and in two days we had it up, replacing our other chandelier. (On an even further positive note, we sold that newer one for $35 at our sale. Probably to the lady who wanted to open the B&B!)
Another of my ‘bests’ is this charming framed picture. It features a little girl who resembles “little red riding hood” and the frame is beautiful. My hubby actually found this one. We went to a ‘block rummage sale’ with a lot of houses that participated. I went to one side of the street, he to the other. Along the way, he yelled to me “do you like this picture?”

I could not see it well, but what I could make out, I definitely liked and responded to the affirmative. He brought it to the car and I took a better look. And instantly loved it! I asked “how much” and he smiled broadly and replied “$5.00.” Yikes!

I rarely find nice jewelry at yard sales and especially so if my sis was along. But we went to a sale along Lake Michigan, ritzy place, and the lady had a lot of Oriental items. Not being a big fan of this décor’, I thought I’d be leaving early. But on her table, underneath a shawl, was a ring. It was gold (I thought it was “the real thing”) and had a green stone. She had $25 on the tag, but instantly said she’d take $20 for it – this was her third day and no one had even inquired about it. I paid her what she wanted.

It just FELT right. When I got to the car, I pulled out the magnifier and verified that it was 14K. The stone turned out to be jade. I wore it for a year or two and then sold it at our antique booth for $125. That was about 7 years ago and someone is probably writing a blog about the bargain they found at our booth. The circle of (antiques) life. Ahh.

When you are ‘into’ antiques, you don’t often go to the sales that advertise ‘kids toys, toddlers clothing’, and the like. But I was with a friend who had grandkids and she wanted to stop. “OK”, I said, “but make it snappy.” I looked at the books and games, nothing old enough to add to the collection or sell. But then something caught my eye and by the stuffed animals and Barbie tricyle, I saw a face peering out – it was a metal horse. I looked closer and discovered it was a very old child’s toy.

Made in England, called a Mobo. It had some wear to the paint, but overall, it was quite nice. He only wanted $15 for it, telling me it was ‘old and had been ridden by numerous kids in the family.’ I did not quibble – paid him and popped it in my trunk. Hubby looked at it and was uncertain – nothing he’d seen before. We put it in the garage.

About a month later he was at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant. There, on a shelf above the check-out counter, was another one! He was excited and asked to chat with the manager. When she arrived, he inquired about the horse – what did she know about it, how old was it, was it for sale, and if so, how much?

She was taken aback but responded that these antique items are not for sale and she really knew nothing about it. It was a fairly new restaurant and she explained that when they were ready to build, a ‘team’ of pickers would come to the area and get nostalgic items – they’d also select other antiques from a warehouse and bring them in.

He was a little disappointed, but at least felt it had enough value to be so displayed. We took it to a summer flea market and put a ‘ridiculous’ price of $100 on it. It sold in 12 minutes. We have since seen two others in antique malls. We’ve learned they were made in Kent, England, are circa 1947, and actually called “Mobo Bronco” riding horses. One was in very poor condition and that price tag was $225. The other was in a condition that was similar to ours and had a tag of $350!

Another blogger somewhere, is bragging about this treasure they found from the ‘rubes’ in aisle 11. But we made our profit and had fun – so there!

Another time we went to an estate sale. It was the last day, sometimes a good time to attend. Usually things are half-price or at least there is room to wiggle. We saw these beautiful candle sticks in the basement. The gent who was in charge in that room said they had been in a trunk and not noticed until earlier that day when the trunk had sold.

We thought they were beautiful, but when he said he wanted $50 for them, we played our ‘good cop and bad cop’, being hesitant to make a commitment. Then he thought for a moment and said ‘oh, prices are 50% off today so they could be yours for $25.” Scooped those up and put them in our dining room. A wonderful find!

We continue to shop for additions for our home and some to sell. While it may sound easy, just yesterday we went to 11 garages sales, put 30 miles on the van, and came home with just $4.00 worth of ‘goodies.’ And that’s a pretty strong word for them. “Mediocres” would be a better word. But who knows what the next garage, front yard or estate sale might hold?

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