Lucky Me!

Every once in awhile I have these moments where I wonder what in the heck I am doing standing around "wasting" time. These moments happen the most in antique stores or at art supply stores. Yesterday it happened at an auction. I got to thank a Korean war veteran, talk with neighbors and laugh with strangers. ...and now I'm convinced I was really supposed to spend my morning this way yesterday.

I've only been to four auctions ever. I went to that first one at the Newton Armory for some reason---I couldn't have been more than 9 years old. I remember being FASCINATED by the noise and the auction calling. I was taken to the second one when I was 22, and again, I was fascinated but I bought nothing. The third one...well...this.

Yesterday I went to my neighbor Betty's auction. She is moving to a retirement village. Almost all of her life's accumulation of stuff was laid out on her lawn and driveway. She has outlived two of her husbands, and two of her three children. Other neighbors of ours, and their kids have really helped Betty get along to this point.

So I went to the auction because I wanted the light up globe. I ended up buying the globe and the red toolbox, the dovetailed shelf drawer (see it under the globe), an old whirly popcorn popper, a slide projector, the mid-century desk sorter---and a metal ammo box (with a projector in it) that was once decoupaged with authentic, old, travel labels. I paid the most for the globe, $14.00.

The auctioneer and his cronies had fun when they found out I was buying the wooden boxes but had no intention of keeping the contents. They thought I was silly, and they made no bones about it! Of course they loved taking the contents off my hands for free. I did keep some of the tools, and I wanted the projectors for art.

After buying my stuff, I sat down and spoke with Betty about the difficulty of the day for her. She found out I bought the projector and wanted to tell me about it and how old it was. She wanted to be sure I knew about the slides and who took them. Since the slide projector I bought was from the 50's I just listened and kept my mouth shut. I thought she was mistaken.

Well, when I got home I opened the old metal box and studied the projector. I found the papers and the "script" for a slide show about a Mediterranean cruise taken in 1926. Just then the auctioneer called my home and said I owed them five more dollars. I ran the money over and told Betty about what I had found, but that there were no slides in the box. She told me to go find them---that they had to go with the projector. I found the glass slides laying in a box under a tree, in a separate pile from where I bought the projector.

I took the slides home and immediately looked at each one of them. They are AMAZING!!! One of Betty's father-in-laws took a trip to the Holy Land in the 1920's. He then came back and did entertaining/informative slide shows across the Midwest about his trip. Along with three photos of him, there is even a promotional brochure about his traveling show.



I have to do a simple re-wire on the bottom of the projector (it works but it sure smelled "hot" and the wiring looks shady) and then I think I'll be fired up to view once-celebrated slides that haven't been projected in years---and to project all kinds of stuff. I feel so incredibly lucky. There is no other way I could have afforded to own/use all of this. Isn't it just such a lucky find?

...Imagine what my old projector will do for art?
ps)I was sure to thank Betty for seasoning that whirly popper pan. I'm sure we'll make popcorn and watch the slide show soon. I'll announce the first screening here.