Besides that I'm still looking for that half million dollar Native American Indian blanket I saw on Antiques Road Show. Since my client's house is in Piedmont I figured there might be some great treasures, and sure enough there was still plenty to go through. There was so much kitchen stuff that they had to put it into the living room and out on the deck.
First of all, the kitchen, no, the whole house, was right out of the 60's sitcom Leave it to Beaver. I was waiting for June and Ward to show up at any time. Was the Beaver actually a silent sexual code? I mean Beaver Clever? How about F Troop? The Fukowee Indians, I mean come on. How that got past the sensors I'll never know. But, I digress.
There was a collection in some cabinets in the garage of miniature furniture, and the silverware collection was very impressive. I mean people don't use these silver tea services like that any longer. There was a lot of silver there. The only time I ever see anything like that these days is if we go to High Tea at the Fairmont Hotel, and we do that about every 20 years. I have tea at our house quite often when I'm high.
The lady of this house was very classy for her time, and I could tell she could cook. She had some cool cook books on her shelf, one that I was tempted to buy, and another that had at least 30 yellowed strips of paper in it. I know she used these little pieces of paper to mark recipes she was working on. There was no Wolf stove, no convection oven, but I'll bet she made some wonderful meals in that kitchen. A real stay at home Mom who had cookies and milk for you when you got home from school, just like June would for the Beaver.
The estate sale was bustling with people. Some of them shoving you out of the way so they could get to things. There's another reason I don't like to go to these sales besides the fact that my wife is dead set against me being a pack rat, and that is, estate sales make me sad. I don't like the idea of getting a great deal from someone's beloved Mom, Sister, lover, brother.
I know it's not the things that are important, it's the people and the memories, but I have little mementos from my Mom, that make me think of her every time I see them. I keep them scattered about the house so I'm often reminded of her. I kept her calendar that she had on the kitchen table above the computer in our office at our home in Oakland for the longest time. Mary's kitchen table was her office desk. She crossed off the days of her life on that little calendar. The last one she crossed off was July 15, 2004. She died at that table most likely not long after she crossed out that number.
I've got many of my Mom's things in our kitchen because that's where I am a lot of the time. The kitchen is one of the common bonds that held me and Mom together. Food was our language, and that little kitchen table was where we had many a great meal, and spent untold hours talking about life. Some of those tiny treasures that I have around the house were her culinary tools, a spatula, a rolling pin, a dish towel, a frosted water pitcher and matching glasses. I've got her clothes pins out in the backyard with the basket she kept them in to hang dry wash.
In the end I bought a stool for 22 dollars (Not pictured), a beautiful little sauce pan with the lid for 5 bucks, a metal dough scraper for 2, a citrus squeezer for .50 cents, a cast iron decoration (not shown) that you're supposed to put baby corns in for 5, and a small meat cleaver to remind me of Beaver Clever. When I use those tools I'll think of that house in Piedmont, and June, Ward, Wally and the Beaver.
Just now I went looking one of the two liquid measuring pitchers that we have in the house. Could I find it? Hell no. I knew I should have bought that one I saw at the Cleavers.
 |
| Estate Sale treasures |
Where the hell did she put those?
Peace,
Make Food Not War
 |
| new sauce pan put into service |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.