Old Stuff

  My earliest collecting started at the age of five, when I found a cobalt blue medicine bottle in our backyard creek. I remember thinking that I'd found the greatest treasure. I still have that little bottle 25 years later, along with many others. I've had many great treasure hunting adventures since then and I've drug others along with me. We've dug in old dump sites in the woods or old homesteads long forgotten. I've found ink and medicine bottles in my own gardens too. Some of the perks of gardening behind our 120 year old house. Just imagine all my cute little medicine bottles on the window sills with little flower stems in each one, sun shining through.

  At some point in high school I became smitten with old windows. I've even taken a wrong turn on my way to a college class and ended up with 20 windows.  I simply left a note on the door inquiring about the windows leaning against the barn. He called back. I left a $20 and away we went. I estimate that I have around 100 windows now. Hopefully I can start building greenhouses and cold frames with them next year.

  I've accumulated quite a few other things too. I love baskets, buttons, fabric, tea cups/plates, antique kitchen utensils, wooden trunks, old picture frames and so much more. I realize I sound a bit like a hoarder but I have plans for this stuff, I swear. It will all happen now that we have our own house.

  Clearly, I'm very nostalgic. I'm not collecting for value or looks, though they are perks. To me it's more about the history. How many pie crusts have been rolled out by that old rolling pin? How many children have gazed out these old windows at the first falling snow? It's the same feeling that makes me gaga over an old farm. I think of the generations of families that grew up there. The hands that built it and the babies born. It's the saddest thing to see an old farm slowly falling into itself. I would save them all if I could.

  I pictured my first home to be a farm house. It's not and that's probably for the better. They need more love and since this is our first home it's better to start off with something easier. We will enjoy it too. But when the time comes for our first real old farm, I'll be ready. I'm not sure about Andrew (not much for diy), but I'll be ready.