Stuff

I bought a rototiller on Saturday, at a yard sale. It's only been used three times (according to my neighbor) and it was $700 new. I paid about a third of that. It's going to get a lot of use in the next weeks, but not today - I have to wait for the utilities to mark the yard, and, besides, I'm still battling the weeds and overgrown everything that overwhelmed my poor house while we were gone.

But that's not vacation stuff. This is.
Yep, that's what I found. All along to Texas and back, we stopped at antique malls, thrift shops, and I even caught the occasional yard sale - and it's not everything, but I didn't put my books or clothes in the picture because they don't sparkle like these things do. I wish I could figure out how to get the Big Lug's pipes in here, too, but he's already put them in their own places.

By the way, the prices I paid range from $2 (the big hoops, the silver treble clef) to $85 (the garnet-and-diamond ring). Everything is either sterling or 14K gold, and I've already worn almost all of it. The hoops (need more cleaning) and the ring were, I think, the best bargains, but the most interesting piece (to me) is that small pin, just in front of the ring. Need a better view?
See it? It's small, marked gold, and says "THS" with "21" in the middle. The back has the 14K mark, and "Folger N.Y." imprinted. It was in a bag (marked "odds and ends" for $7.50) along with a charm (another school - San Gabriel High School, in CA - in brass), a tiger's-eye pendant I couldn't find for the pic (not gold, but cute), and a couple of small, weird pieces I think I left in a motel room in TN. Anyway, I love it because it tells a story - I don't know what the story is, yet, but it could be a "key" (according to the Big Lug) or a "pep pin." There's no Folger, NY, but I found another pin for sale online, dated 1934 (10K) with a different high school but the same maker's mark, so (duh) I'm pretty sure Folger is the company, not the town. Where "THS" is, I have no idea, but gold pins, even that small, couldn't have been common. And why was it in a bag with a charm from California (70's, I figure), in a small antique shop in a little town in Texas? If anyone can help me solve the mystery, please do so!

By the way, the lily (or possibly lady's-slipper) pendant (see the diamond?) is the one I bought in Arkansas, on the chain I found in Tennessee. It makes a stellar necklace, doesn't it? I love, love, love it, and have already worn it a half-dozen times.

Oh, and if you're looking at the charm bracelet, yes, those are all musical instruments. I don't play many of them, but I love music - and this piece just called to me. It's even musical when I wear it!

But I didn't just find jewelry, books, clothes, and pipes - there was this little thing ... That's a fossil. Well, that's the imprint of whatever was the creature that was fossilized and then washed or wore away left, anyway. It's about 2.5 feet in diameter, too. Found on the shore of a river that leads into Lake Medina (by my sister, not me), it's probably only visible during really dry periods, like the one they're having now in Texas. There were also three or four "dinosaur footprints" but my brother (the geologist) says that this was all formed while it was goo on the bottom of the ocean. The big sea thing dying and falling and staying long enough to fossilize makes sense. A T-rex showing up at exactly the right moment, then dying standing up with his foot in the ooze (which couldn't have been there without gallons of salt water on top of it) is pretty much impossible. I believe him. He says it was probably hunks of rock back in the day. That makes more sense, especially since the little fossils (no pics - can't find them!) I collected were all under-the-sea things, and they were on the side of where the river would be (if they had the water to fill the river, that is). Anyway, it was very, very cool to see.

And one more fabulous find - a restaurant. Gotta tell you, until this trip the best beef I'd ever had was a slice prime rib (heaven) at Top of the Tower (Mark? It's gone now) in Omaha, Nebraska, when I went to visit my college roommate one summer. It's been eclipsed. Smokey's Steak & BBQ whipped that memory with a stick with the most tender, smokey, amazing NY strip I've ever eaten. Served up with steamed broccoli and grilled corn, it was even the best dinner I've had in years.

What a trip. What I like about the stuff is that, for the most part, I don't have to only have the memory of it. Yeah, that steak ... ah, that steak ... but between pictures and actual items, I have a really neat little chronicle of my journey, physical evidence that I was there. Which is a good thing, because the memory lately - not so much.

Next time, the moments I do - and will always - remember.