Junk or treasure?

  I saw a post from a historical society concerning an antique foot warmer. I looked at the photograph and immediately recognized that object. My brother has one exactly like it on his hearth. It had belonged to my Great Grandfather, Floyd P Lester. Gramp, as I called him, had explained it's use to me when I was a small child. When he was a young man, he operated a horse drawn taxi service in my hometown. He told me about using that foot warmer in that carriage. You placed hot coals, or warmed stones inside that little box, placed your feet on top and covered your legs with a blanket. He told me how he would stop at different houses to get more "heat" as those coals burned down. People were happy to share and often gave him hot coffee or tea to drink as well. It was like seeing an old friend.

  I told my wife about all of that, surprisingly I had told her that story before, go figure. I began to think how my home and great grandfathers' home was filled with antiques, but I was unaware of that. Yes, back then it was just a bunch of old stuff gathering dust. I remember seeing that foot warmer over sixty years ago and thinking it was an old piece of junk. It may have been fifty years old then, I'm not certain. But there were also spinning wheels, old tools, kitchen things, books and magazines. I remember an old toy, handmade, that my father said he played as a child. I remember playing with that toy myself. The whereabouts of that toy is unknown to me today. 

 But the thing that stuck out to me was how back then it was just old stuff. We all have old stuff today. Mostly it is just outdated technologies we no longer use. I guess that never really changes. I have vinyl records, 45's and 331/3 but no record player. Yes, they are coming back into favor, a nostalgic thing, but not too many years back would have been found in most homes. I still use a percolator style coffee pot, how many homes have one of those today? When I was a kid Mr. Coffee hadn't even been invented so the percolator was in most homes. Kerosene lanterns, everyday items. Things like an ax and a bow saw could be found everywhere. A rifle or a shotgun. 

 All those things commonplace, taken for granted. I have a wind up, pendulum clock running on my desk that is over a hundred years old. It's not an antique to me, just an old friend. It was in great grandfathers' house, my childhood home, and now my house. I have a cigarette lighter, given as a gift from my aunt to her husband, my uncle at Christmas in 1949. It's just an old relic. All of this stuff is always in jeopardy. At any time, I may pass judgement on it, declaring it junk and dispose of it. It's that way with everything. I know for a fact that at one time I had Mickey Mantle baseball cards, along with many others, that are quite valuable today. At one time I thought they had become junk and tossed them out or had them in the spokes of my bicycle. Heck my Sting Ray Spider Bike is quite a collector's item today. I sat mine against a tree when I was sixteen, having gotten my driver's license, where it went from there, I have no clue.

 It's a bit of a problem though, this deciding what is good and what is junk. You can't save it all, that's called hoarding. I'm in a constant struggle with that. I want to clean up the attic, get rid of some junk, but what is junk? Is it that Kodak camera? That Kodak camera was the first and only camera Kodak made that was like a polaroid camera. The picture developed itself. Kodak got sued for that and had to stop production. At the time you could return it for a full refund. The value to a collector today isn't very much. I don't want to throw it out. I have a lighted Joe Camel tobacco advertising sign. Surely it is a collector's item. Well, they can be had on E-bay for a hundred dollars or so but I'm certain that value will increase. 

 Is it junk or treasure? That is the question with those things that aren't necessarily sentimental to us at the moment. Later when a sentimental attachment has been formed the decision is much easier, hold onto that, it isn't old junk, it's an heirloom! Sure, it is only a few years old, but an heirloom has to start somewhere. Today I wish I had my old bicycle, especially my very first one. That one was hand built by my dad because he couldn't afford to buy a new one. He used parts from discarded bicycles to put it together. I wish I had my Racquel Welch movie poster from one million bc. Where is my portable record player? It was in a briefcase like James Bond would have carried, ran on batteries or you could plug it in. It had speakers that could be taken out of the case for that true stereo sound! Discarded as junk. 

 One Mans' junk is another Mans' treasure. That's an old adage that holds a lot of truth. I do think it applies, or originally did anyway, to those items of sentimental value. Today we are all very much aware of the value of collectibles. I can remember when my sons were buying baseball cards for their collecting value. I remember telling them and thinking, that doesn't make sense. If everyone is buying them for that purpose, they will never be rare or collectible. Today those cards are in a big box in my attic, collecting dust in their protective envelopes, untouched for thirty years. I'm certain you could find many just like them from those "collectors" like my sons. But I have no sentimental attachment to those things, so I see junk. I've seen where people will buy old military uniforms, I have a number of them, just old clothes to me except for my dress uniform. Make an offer. I have a gyroscope that my sister bought me, just like the one I had when I was eight years old. It's not for sale, although it isn't the original, it's an heirloom to me.  It was being sold as an old piece of junk, sold to a sentimental old man. Sentiment is the costliest thing of all. It isn't a commodity that can be traded or sold, it can't be easily identified. But it sure is a satisfaction when you have it. That's the real treasure.