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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Remembering People I Never Knew

One of our favorite past times is antiquing, though it's getting harder and harder to find what we consider good antiques stores/malls. Never-the-less, we keep looking. We used to love going to estate auctions where antiques/collectibles were featured, but it seems that the really good auctions of the past are just that, a thing of the past. I guess those great auctions won't come back until all of the
collectors like us have passed on! :)
Bob and I are antiques dealers, but on a very small scale. We just do enough to keep playing with it. For a few years we had a shop here in town, but it became very difficult to work, search and keep it open. Now, for several years, we've had booths at an antiques mall. We don't buy a lot anymore - don't need more "schtuff"! And we don't collect high priced items, just those quirky things that no one else would want!

A couple of years ago a friend of mine who also loves antiques, gave me a little black 1939 calendar book that she had purchased somewhere. The entire book, January to December, is filled with daily entries made by a young woman who lived in St. Louis. Judging from the content of the entries, I'd say she was in her early 20s during 1939. She tells about her family, her girl friends, Edna and Ruth, the ups and downs with her boyfriend, Luke. She worked at a small downtown drugstore, but apparently the boyfriend didn't work because she often had to give him money so that they could "go out". She became frustrated with that situation. Some things don't change, I guess. She talks about the movies of the day and the popular film stars. It seems like she and her friends went to the movies several times each week, sometimes at the Webster Annex. This young woman, whose name I'll never know, talked about going to Granite City on dates - when someone had a car. She also talks about places where she and her friends used to "hang out" in St. Louis.....The Corner, The Barn and someplace she called The Farm. Anyone know where those places may have been? Something else I find interesting about the entries is that the writer used a little code on some pages, a code I will never even try to figure out. But I have my suspicions. When I first started reading the little diary, I felt guilty, intrusive, as though I should not have access to her private thoughts. But......she saved the book for some reason and I tend to think she might like the idea of another woman, over 75 years later, enjoying her stories and her thoughts. Strange, right?

Recently we were at an antique mall in Marion, IL and I found a small fancy little autograph book, owned by Mamie. The earliest entires are in 1905 and other entries go as far as 1912. I don't think Mamie was a little girl during the years of these entries. I get the feeling that she was a teenager. It was very common for females to have autograph books in that era and in earlier times, for that matter. I don't think that these days, people have autograph books. The entries in Mamie's book are quite flowery, such as "Dear Mamie: In your golden chain of friendship, please regard me as a link." That was from her schoolmate, Alice, January 25, 1910. Another, "When you are old and cannot see, put on your specks and think of me." Mamie's cousin Edna wrote that one, Sept. 2, 1908. On Feb. 5, 1912, Mamie's brother, George, wrote: "Dear Mamie: Leaves may whither, Flowers may die. Friends may forget you, but never will I. A very sweet brother. People really gave these entries some thought!

Why, you may ask, would I purchase something like this autograph book or why would I enjoy reading an old diary of someone I've never known, now 76 years in the dust? Oh, who knows! Maybe because it takes me back to a simpler time when it would appear that people really were more gentle with one another. Or maybe because it reinforces for me that people are and were just people, with the same kinds of problems and emotions that we have today. I know that for some reason, I find the reading of these books to be comforting. Seventy five to one hundred years from now, what or who will tell your story? Will someone "un-earth" a book or an item that explains who we were? :) Thought provoking to say the least.

At any rate, in a FEW DAYS when this "heat dome" passes our realm, I will be on the porch and I'd be happy to share my little books with you. You'll be hooked. I know you will.

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