Musings of an Aging Nobody

Do you Curt, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to live together in matrimony, to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, to have and to hold, from this day forward, as long as you both shall live…No matter how many pieces of Pennsbury Pottery she collects?

“I do.”

And Do you Kim, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to live together in matrimony, to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, to have and to hold, from this day forward, as long as you both shall live…No matter how many pieces of horse racing memorabilia he collects?

“I do.”

 

And that was that.

A match made in antique, collectible Heaven.

I now pronounce you…

Overwhelmed.

 

Some years back in addition to being obsessed with each other, we learned that we both shared another obsession…old stuff and collecting old stuff.

That made birthdays and holidays easy.

We just bought each other old stuff.

And when we bought our house, we replaced the modern doors with old doors, we replaced the window shades with old shutters, we replaced the entrance hallway closet doors with the front of an old outhouse, and so on and so on.

And when tragedy struck and the “in sorrow” part was put to the test, I decided we needed something to do to distract us in our time of grieving, so I got a Dorchester County, Maryland business license and rented a corner of antique store in Cambridge, Maryland and Christiansen’s Antiques and Collectibles was born.

Soon we expanded to a second location in Sterling, Virginia and then a third in Lucketts, Virginia.

Then one day while buying inventory at Quinn’s Auction House in Falls Church Virginia the auctioneer held up a box that contained two pottery mugs, one with an Amish woman and one with an Amish man.

“Look at those,” I thought, “Amish people…Kim might like that.”

So, I bought them and brought them home.

Then shortly after that, at Tillet’s Auction in Ashburn, Virginia, the auctioneer held up a pottery bread plate, that read “our daily bread” and looked very similar to those Amish mugs.

“Gee,” I thought again, “Kim might like that.”

So, I bought it and brought it home.

And thus, the first three pieces of Pennsbury Pottery found someone to have and to hold them, from that day forward.

And they were fruitful, propagating until there were many more to love.

MANY, MANY more.

 

To be fair however, I had my sickness too, and in my sorrow and in my joy, my office became the racing memorabilia mecca of the east coast.  Derby glasses, Haskell hats, Triple Crown, Breeder’s Cup, Preakness this and that, Monmouth Park everything, and walls loaded with photos of those moments in horse racing history that gave me…

Goosebumps.

 

But now, with my 69th birthday looming in the not-too-distant future and imagining God whispering in the back of my head “Hey buddy, you’re getting old you know, what do you think you are going to do with all of that STUFF.  You know you can’t take it with you…we got rules up here. We got an HOA, you know what that stands for don’t you?”

I know I know, but it’s so hard, it took me so long to accumulate all this STUFF, and who is going to promise to have and to hold and to love and to comfort all of them like I did?

 

Why is it nobody prepares you for what it is going to be like to grow old and retire.

Growing up in New Jersey my vision of retirement was white loafers, white belts, driver’s hats, cigars, golf clubs, and Bocce ball.

And maybe a gold chain.

Relaxation, on a pension.

 

Now it’s fifty or sixty years later and I am starting to panic.

I don’t have any white loafers.

And before I can move into my one story small house without the stairs that I can fall down, and in a warmer climate with no snow or ice that I can fall down on, I have to get rid of some of this STUFF.

 

But it’s hard.

And it’s depressing.

Kim and I spent a long time and had a lot of fun accumulating all this STUFF.

 

And we decorated our house the way we wanted it to look.

But what now?

Who is going to buy a house with the front of an outhouse greeting them inside the front door?

 

And what do we do with all the  STUFF we collected?

 

Last weekend we began the process in earnest of preparing to downsize.

Preparing to say goodbye to many of those things that brought us so much joy over the years.

Some we will sell ourselves, most will go to auction.

I am having a hard time with it.

I am having a hard time realizing that getting old and preparing for retirement isn’t all white loafers and Bocce ball.

So if you are young and reading this, let me give you some advice.

Be careful what you accumulate.

It can be overwhelming.

And remember what God said:

 

You can’t take it with you, and…

they have rules up there you know.

 

 

 

Postscript:

Though we no longer sell antiques at any rented locations, we do continue to operate our business on a smaller scale online.  We now call it Kim’s Vintage Cool Stuff.  Most everything we buy now is intended to be sold with an occasional item getting squirreled away when I am not looking.

Pennsbury Pottery by the way is no longer in existence and was established in Morrisville Pennsylvania around 1950.  The items are very unique and the company often made commemorative items for companies as well as dinnerware.  The most valuable piece of Pennsbury Pottery is said to be the lost piece made for Walt Disney.  If anybody wants some I know where you can find a few.