Old
Things
“Old
things are better than new things, because they've got stories in
them, Ethan.”
Kami
Garcia (Beautiful Creatures)
One
surprising thing I saw in the many antique shops we visited during
our trip was railroad handcars that pump up and down to move along
the track. When I was a child, they were a common sight on the
railroads, but I have not seen one outside a museum since then.
Standing so close to one, I was flooded with stories my grandmother
told me of the hobos during the great depression, who would jump
freight cars as they traveled away from a station, then show up at
your back door begging for food. I thought of old movies and books,
Huck Finn, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and every old cowboy
movie or television show from the 50's. Someone was always pumping
their way down the tracks, or running along the tops of moving
trains. Now, I suppose these rough hewed old railroad relics add
industrial décor to someone's outdoor kitchen or steam-punk great
room. For me, they are stories.
I
like old things—perhaps because I am an old thing, but also because
they represent a value system I cherish. Take something as simple as
a throw pillow—new ones can be bought in bold colors and stripes
almost anywhere. They are pretty, but soulless. Old pillows were made
from tapestries, bedspreads, damask bed sheets, old velvet curtains,
worn out quilts, cut up and sewn anew to make certain all possible
use was wrung from them. People didn't throw things away just because
they had gone out of fashion, or lived one life, they invented ways
to give them second and third lives. I like the ethics of that.
I
wonder about you—what old things do you love. What are the
nostalgic stories they evoke for you? It is those stories that attach
to our heartstrings and keep us pumping along the track.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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