I traveled Friday, a day off, some things on my mind. I found
myself sitting at a little auction in Independence, Wisconsin.
Maybe thirty chairs set up in tidy rows in the front yard of a home
that would itself be auctioned off at 12:30. Most of many years of
collecting packed in boxes, unloaded and sold one by one. The
collector now living in a nursing home. We gathered as this small
community, bidding on one after another lot. On the surface, a very
solemn event...dispersing a lifetime of a home, carried off, collections
divided many times. My number 36 was raised, very select choices...
one of her cow creamers, several of her hen on a nest, two of her milk
bottles~~ one from Augusta meant to add to my own collection. One
bid after another, I spent a morning as part of this group of bidders,
dispersing a lifetime. But I know I will love the milk bottle I won -- as will
the person who eventually picks up the little cow creamer & takes her home.
Sure, this is all stuff....but stuff certain to hold stories & maybe a memory or two.
I will remember that chilly morning on October 17 ~~ sitting on a folding
chair, raising my number, adding ever so selectively to my own story,
my own memories.
It only takes a bit of sunshine reflected just right to make a rainbow.
As I carefully packed my treasures, folding them into my raincoat,
I knew I carried off with me pieces of someone's life. Little shimmers,
little fragments of color, little stories.
