I never thought that I would take pleasure in digging
through others grubby garages and unorganized boxes of possessions, but after
extracting beautiful handmade antique laces and French jacquard ribbon during my
first estate sale I was addicted. Maybe it was because I have long appreciated
the richness of very old textiles. But most likely this admiration stems from a
love to imagine creating something fabulous from something old or perhaps I feel
a bond to it because I was the one who created something similar to it in my
past life! Either way I have a strong connection to anything with a history.
Today I went to a family estate sale and something this morning inspired me to finally start sharing my experiences as a
junker. What I love about digging through other people’s stuff is the adventure
and mystery. There is something
intriguing about screeching up to the address that your GPS has led you to, and
never knowing if there is going to be that fabulous French enamel pin that you
had missed out on last time, or antique hand woven fabric that you just read an
article about in a style journal.
I think part of my reason in deciding to share my treasure
hunt on this particular beautiful, sunny OC weekend morning is hoping that if I
share with you, I will also work through the anxiety I am feeling. Let me back
up and explain why I am feeling anxious. Tragically, it has to do with
realizing that I had missed out. I had just pulled some very interesting World
War I photos from an old manila envelope, paid for them, and upon returning to
my car, realized that there were some documents that had most likely described the
historical significance of the photos. Why the light bulb flashed when I got
back to the car, I’ll never know, but the anxious part starts when I raced back
to the envelope strewn garage and saw a man pick up that particular crumpled
container just as I turned the corner.
Oh the horrors! I understand that I will never know what exactly was in
that illusive packet, but I did learn a valuable junker’s lesson…take it all on
the first pass, you can discard later, because there’s a good chance you won’t get
a second pass!
