I was told that I was not welcome at my own estate sale, but that I could come by yesterday for Hookers & Heroin Day. I was expecting to see women in high heels and fishnet stockings and strung out drug addicts pawing through the merchandise. When I mentioned this to the woman who was running the sale she explained to me that Sunday is referred to as H&H day because everything is marked down 50% and you can’t resist having to have it. I was sitting on the bench (which was not for sale or I’m sure it would have been long gone) by the front door watching folks come and go. It was an odd feeling to see people leaving with things that once belonged to you.
I struck up a conversation with a gentleman who was waiting for his wife to complete her purchase. He told me that they were visiting from Corpus Christi and I told him I was the homeowner (or former homeowner I suppose) and that I was born and raised in Corpus Christi. About that time his wife walked out carrying the sconce that had hung in the dining room of my childhood home. I grinned and told them that it was purchased in the early 50’s in Corpus Christi from a long defunct furniture store called The Showroom of Finer Furniture on Upper Broadway. I said that when my mother redecorated in the mid 70’s she decided she didn’t want it and gave it to me. Now, 60+ years later it was going “back home.” The couple was delighted by the backstory and it gave me a little bit of closure to know that something from my earliest memories was going to a new home where it would be appreciated anew.
I’m not sure I can say the same thing about the pillows that I saw the hooker carrying out, but not every story can have a happy ending (see what I did there?)
I'm Just Being Frank 