Saturday, August 1, 2009

Mrs Smith's Family Treasures


A long time ago, I had a call to see a lady down in W Va.
If I recall right, her home place was in N.H. When her husband retired, he insisted on moving to the country.
And that they did. It took a long drive through many winding roads to finally find their new home. It was a sleek modern home, so, I really did not expect any treasures to be found.
She was actually the best treasure. The fist call found me haggling prices with her all day. We enjoyed it tremendously.
We made the arrangement that she would travel to the home place and bring as much down to the new home as possible for me to buy.
The first load was wonderful, but the second load is my fondest memory. She had a box of buttons and wanted a fortune for them. I joked with her about the amount and since we had become buddies at that point, I told her no way could those buttons bring such a price.
She looked at me in such surprise that I was worried that I offended her, and chastised myself for not remembering my house call rules I had always set for myself...But, no, instead, she looked at me and said, " oh my, you do not know buttons ? "
I looked back at her and said.., " Buttons ? No, not really ". She made me promise to buy a button book ( the Internet was not born yet ). We put the box of buttons aside, and after I brought just about everything she had brought down from the home place, she reach over , patted me on the hand, and told me she would sell me the buttons for a very low price..and promised once I knew buttons, I would be delighted with this treasure. Well, to her , the price was low..but to me, at that time, it was high, really high..but, I brought them anyway.
And when I got home, I went to the book store and brought a button reference book.
My eyes were opened to a whole new world. Do you know buttons ? If not, you need to buy a button book and loose yourself in the fabulous world of buttons.
I still have that box of buttons.
Mrs Smith, my dear friend, died before she could finish bringing the rest of her treasures down for me to buy..it was a sudden un expected illness..she had Cancer of the Pancreas and was gone in 2 months.
By the time I found out, it was too late to say good bye.
No need to. She will always be in my heart. And whenever I see buttons, a bell rings in my head, and I remember our visits together haggling out prices of things I was to buy.
This is the first story of this blog, and it is dedicated to her.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my Linda this is a very touching story and wonderfully written. Thank you so much for sharing these wonderuful memories. Dena

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  2. Love the story and the blog. Glad you decided to make one & look forward to reading it! Thanks

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  3. This story reminds me of the buttons many women collected in years gone by. They were quite expensive and would do double (or triple) duty if cut from worn clothing before it was discarded, for later use. I think the memories attached to the buttons made them more precious.

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  4. You make me want to delve into the world of buttons - thanks!

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