Day 279

If you are ever feeling a little too attached to your “things”; I have a reality check for you.  Go to an estate sale.

There is something about a full house of carefully collected and cherished possessions being combed through and carried off piecemeal by strangers that makes me morose, not enough not to buy anything mind you, but sad nonetheless.   Believe me, I know that the relatives can’t take it all and I am brightened that it is getting a second life.  But, it’s still disconcerting to me, maybe because it is such brazen reminder of my own impermanence.

Yesterday, I stopped at an estate sale to try to find some hardware for something I was trying to fix (more on that in a moment).   It was late in the day, so I’m sure a good deal of stuff had already been carted off, but there was still a huge quantity of remaining things to include a large collection of Native American and Old West memorabilia as well as an entire room of items paying homage to the Chicago Cubs and Bears.

A Chicago Native?

The Old West with price tages

It’s funny for me to think that the things that seem so important to me now, the items I use to decorate our home, the functional, the sentimental are all likely to become a conversation piece at my estate sale one day.  Here are actual snippets of conversation I heard yesterday.

“Look at that, he collected Indian artifacts and buffalo statues.  Yeah, he REALLY likes Buffaloes…”

“Did you see all of that Chicago Cubs stuff upstairs? Do you think Chuck might want any of it? See if you can call him…”

“…ROUND bed,  I heard they had two, this is the only one left.”

“WHO would kill a baby bear?”

“Do you think he died or just went to a nursing home?”

These are the types of things I was thinking as well, particularly the one about the bear cub as they were selling (for the amazing price of $350) a bear cub rug.  It was unsettling to me, I can only hope it was hit by a car or some other accidental death before its second life underfoot.

Cub, but not one from Chicago

For my purposes, estate sales usually sell all manner of tools, hardware and supplies, like duct tape, twine, unopened craft supplies, vintage fabrics and other items that I am not buying this year, but I often find myself wishing I had.

Yesterday, I needed a nut to replace one lost for the clamp on a scooter.

Nuts

There were four sitting on the workbench, and they just gave them to me, which I thought was very nice.  So, it was a successful trip even if it did make me a bit melancholy for the rest of the day.  I guess unless you are an Egyptian Pharaoh,  you can’t take it with you.  And based on archeological finds, even those guys, aren’t actually USING their stuff in the next life.