Garrettsville – The James A. Garfield Historical Society met in the Mott Building headquarters on Main St. to speak of “ many things, of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.” Well, not exactly.
They did accept a pair of donations from Roslyn Bauman–a green bottle imprinted “L. Caldwell, Garrettsville, and a flax spinning wheel. Maintenance items came up : cleaning and sorting and putting away costumes, especially those used in the recent vintage photo activity ($160–a good start for what may become an on-going fund-raiser), the garden fence needs painting, summer potluck picnic will be August 15, thoughts on re-applying for a Hiram Community Trust grant to do digitizing of microfilm files, thoughts on the approaching Business Showcase in the fall and the Windham Bicentennial which is upon us now…and the Antiques Appraisal Fair to be conducted at the Garfield Middle School in conjunction with a flea market/rummage sale benefiting the Garfield Middle School football program. Coach Mark Apple was present to provide information on the football program plans and to discuss advertising proposals, printing options, concessions…lots of stuff. Time and tide wait for no man…or woman or historical society. Plans are rolling!
Tickets are ready. Posters are on the way. Newspaper advertising in several marketing areas–Record-Courier, Middlefield Post, Warren Tribune, Chagrin Times, Villager, etc.–is coming as well as a spot on the Garrettsville website and on Facebook. Everybody know; everybody come! August 20 from 1:00 to 5:00.
And speaking of the Antiques Appraisal Fair….
Do not confuse this with the popular TV program where amazed folks find out that a professional appraiser has just declared that Aunt Ida’s gilded chamber pot once belonged to Louis XIV and is worth thousand upon thousands. But it is our very own, small-scale operation wherein four local professionals will give the lucky finders of attic-stashes of monumental proportions the news that most, if not all, of the detritus piled up in out of the way places in the house can safely be given away or disposed of…but that little carved-wood clock with the kookaburra instead of a cuckoo…hmmm…we might want to look at that more closely. Should your treasures actually call for further investigation, you can, of course, at a later date talk to these folks who have generously donated their time, to pursue any further course of action which you might like to follow.
The chances of your finding a twin to the Koh-i-Noor diamond in Grammy’s jewelry box are slim but you might find out that Uncle Delt was actually a primitive painter of some repute and the bunch of his old scenes in the family home could be worth your while to dust off. Antiques, at any rate, have fads and fashions like anything else and that big crock with naughty pictures inside might be just the thing this year when five years ago you couldn’t have sold it to Hugh Hefner. Hang on to it, the wheel could turn yet again.
For a small fee (one item for $5, three for $10), if nothing else, you may get bragging rights about that antimacassar from Aunt Faye’s estate sale that turns out to be a snippet from the Bayeaux Tapestry that Great , Great Grandma smuggled across the Alps tucked into her knickers as she was fleeing the Huns…or was it the Mongols? At the very least, someone other than your family can give a little insight as to whether it’s the real McCoy or a really good copy. And look around to see what kind of junk other people have in their attics. Maybe you’re not the craziest folks on the block after all. Maybe you have taste…. Maybe not..
