"It's Been Two Years" - Part Three (A) - "The Dreadful News"

"It's Been Two Years"

Part Three (A)

"The Dreadful News"

            I... am not... a... “care about”... ‘people’s’ children

            Getting married.

            I... do not care

            About

            That.

            Devine coupling ‘of its time and place’ upon the surface soils of humanity’s

            ‘Social’

            Mingling:

            Global love nesting

            Greeting God

            Returning to earth?

            I do not care

            Unless they dare

            Let me

            See

            Their attic.

            A ‘marrying off’

            “Sells off”

            The family attic?

            “Thank you for doing this.”

            It is my wedding gift.

            That’s right:  MY wedding gift.

            Helen (Snow) Cransmore’s oration of horror titled ‘The Dreadful News’ about her daughter’s “A LAY ABOUT” (her words) “BOY FRIEND” and the extended-in-Helen’s-mind only of “THEY’RE GETTING MARRIED” did cause the antiquarian in her to ‘start’ ‘selling’.  Sort of.  As ‘The Dreadful News’ failed to “gain traction” (Helen’s words again) due to HELEN actively DOING NOTHING to ...assist ...enable ...provide for ...suggest of ...speak about ...dote of ...mention  ...engage ...or see ...that ‘ship at sea’... IS doing the trick.

            This has ‘cut back’ on her antiquarian self plan of ‘selling’.  It has also cut OUT her antiquarian self plan of “BUYING” antiques.  Too.  To the local antiques dealers ...and pickers... this is... dreadful news.

            I am affected.

            I am affected?

            Do I want to ‘buy’ a ‘whole (hole?) collection’ of mid nineteenth century English ceramic pudding molds that... Helen ‘bought’ ‘over the years’ at annual local antiques shows ‘in the area’ and... well... ‘mounded up’ in the cache in her ‘basement’?  (See the recently re-posted “Hutton Loots Cransmore Parts One [and] Two”).

            I do not... even for a fraction of her ‘purchase price’.

            Helen has no problem selling such cache for ‘a fraction’ for ... she has no idea of even slightly remembering the “what I paid” for

            ANYTHING.

            That includes snow tires for a car, pruning nippers AND gloves for her garden ...onward to Cadence’s heating oil cost to heat the “we SHARE the costs” family mansion ‘Defiance’... onward further and a ‘board across’... to the ‘her house’ as a domestic museum status - hoarding hollow - of her, for example... “MY PAINTING ROOM”.  This last consists of ...rows... of ‘art work’; mostly ‘OIL PAINTINGS’ that Helen has purchased and... “leaned up” “IN THERE” “I’m going to HANG THEM ALL UP”.  This last has never happened.  An ‘every now and then’ a ONE is “HUNG” “UP”.  It was reported that the cause of The Dreadful News...; “Reggie”, DID “HELP ME HANG” ...a painting (?)... once.  Does this mean Reggie is not as “OUT” as he is purported to be?

            Does this mean I want to go to this antiquarian hoarder’s ‘painting’ room and “buy”?

            IF... an antiques collector... who buys from antiques dealers... regularly... often... ‘for years’ and... ‘well’ (‘high dollar’ amounts)... ‘stops buying’... that collector... ‘is dropped’ “NOW” ‘by the dealers’.  This is for no other reason than ‘economic safety’.  Dealers simply ‘cannot’ buy a something with intention of selling that to a SOMEONE who... has... ‘stopped buying’.  NO nurturing along and no ‘a hope for’.  It is up to the collector to RE-nurture themselves ‘back into’ ANYTHING to do with antiques and antiques dealers.  A peddling picker who has been ‘selling to’ a ‘just stopped buying’ collector is “so gone”... and THEY are the first to know... so... all dealers LISTEN TO THEM to ‘keep on top’ of’ CHANGES in a ‘local market’.  ALL of Helen’s ‘she buys’ dominos were (and are) ‘down’ ‘now’.

            All of her ‘sell’ dominos are... ‘a work in progress’...?

            I am... “no...” on to “well... MAYBE”... ‘interested’ (in ‘buying’).  But... Helen... is a rascal... at configuring that IF one knows what one is ‘doing’ in the antiquarian sense... one... should be a ‘pay more’... especially if there is a:

            “WELL I’M GOING TO SELL” (any this) starting from HER mouth before being presented – offered to - a... someone like I... soooo... :

            AROUND THE back of the BUSH WE GO.

            THAT WAY means... that when James Hutton verbally sneaked his way back into Helen’s basement cache... again... by using the old ‘just happening to be going by’ ‘just WONDERING IF” and ... he being let in, shown in, “Let’s go DOWN”, “Let’s LOOK AROUND”, “CAN WE” and... about an hour later... came out with... only... ‘three things’ AND a “she’s got so much CRAP down there I thought I’d DROWN in it.”

            Too picky a picker... Mr. Hutton be?  Has he visited her TOO often in the last two ...months?  Does he feel he’s... “cleaned her out” of  “good stuff” (high profit ‘real antiques’ mixed into ‘the rest’) in her “basement” room warren?  Is he dropping his velvet cable of ‘exclusive’ access?

            Or is it just HELEN be the ‘be figuring’ on HER FINGERS better that Hutton knows?

            So I take the word of this picky picker and ...and... WAIT... until ‘the frost is on the pumpkin’ of that first fall of ‘it’s been two years’.  And... just before it gets ‘cold’ I

have Seacus (see post title “MOD-er-ATE With You”) in the yard with him ‘MOD-er-ATING’ to be ‘barrel heading’ something and:

            Click.

            Bang.

            “Seacus... you want to... take a run at Helen Cransmore for me?”

            “Ike is SAY... she be THAT?”

            “I’ll have to set you up.”

            “She THAT to buy?”

            “No... but that’ll START IT.”

            “MR. VALUABLE?”

            “Mr. Valuable will do the trick Seacus.”

            “Me Mr. Valuable?”

            “Today’s a good DAY for it.”

            “Do it with my BUCKET?” (Seacus was in the yard to “MOD-er-ATE” (sell me) a “BUCKET; GOOD ONE”.  The ‘bucket; good one’ was an ‘original old green paint... ‘covered’ (has its original lid) ‘bale handle’ (has its original wire and wood-with-the-old-green-paint handle) ‘pantry box’... that is ‘mint’ ‘old surface’ ‘perfect’... ‘right out of a house’ “RIGHT” that... the only thing WRONG with it is Seacus’ “WANT THREE FIFTY ($350.00) BARREL HEAD YOU FIRST”.  The ‘you first’ means I-am-the-first-dealer-he’s-shown and offered-IT-to.  “IT” is... at this moment in the... ‘MOD-er-ATE’ of bartering... THE WOULD BE BETTER (cheaper priced)... if he’d ‘shown it around’ at ‘that price’ ‘a bit’ (to several OTHER dealers who would ‘pass it’) before “SHOWING YOU (me)”.  At ‘three fifty’ I can “wait”?

            Yes.

            “Not the bucket Seacus.”

            “YOU bucket?”

            “Not for three-fifty?

            “What barrel head?
            “You’ll be Mr. Valuable?”

            “Helen knows me.”

            “I say we bring her a piece of pewter.”

            “Pewterer?”

            “Maine coffee pot.  F. Porter Westbrook”.***

            “You sell pewterer?”

            “Well... THREE-FIFTY ($350.00):  She won’t BUY it.”

            “The pewterer?

            “No.  But YOU buy from HER.”

            “Hutty buys.” (James Hutton is the picker buying ‘in there’; Seacus knows the current ‘his call’ status of Helen’s ‘selling’.

            “Not today.”

            “You tell Hutty?”

            “No.”

            Pause.

            “I not tell Hutty.  OK?”

            “I’ll tell him.”

            “Hutty TOO BIG right?”

            “Hutty too big; you got it”.

            “I barrel head?”

            “If you can.”

            “I can:  She LOVE me.”

            “I know that.”

            “I ‘clean out’ OK?”

            “After your in (get inside from being ‘Mr. Valuable’; offering to sell Helen the coffee pot); not too fast.  You know.”

            “I know.  Barrel head”.

            “Anything she’ll sell.  Get it.  Buy all of it.”

            “Barrel head.”

            “I’ll do the...: We’ll do three hundred and... five hundred.  Be sure she sees the cash.  You ‘buy today’:  Show her the cash.”  I am... as I am speaking to Seacus... turning out of rummaging in my truck cab... with two envelopes that contain five hundred dollars each.  From one envelope I take away two hundred dollars and then pass the two envelopes to Seacus who put them in his pants pocket.  That is... I just fronted him eight hundred dollars in cash to spend at Helen’s to finance my “Anything she’ll sell.  Get it.  Buy all of it.” order (instructions).  “Risk” you say?

            “Risk I say?”

            How about ‘risk away’... I say.

            AND... Seacus is no fool with the barrel head:  I can BANK THAT risk.”  He actually LOVES doing this.  To him... “this” is ‘proving his skill’ at ‘buying’ as a picker... TO HIMSELF... with a little bit of ‘to me too’ thrown in.  Soooo:

            Off he goes.

            With his ‘bucket’, my pewter coffee pot AND the ‘my cash’.

            Without a handshake.

---

*** A classic ‘pear shape’ ‘Maine maker’... with clear maker’s mark on the bottom; “F. Porter  No. 2  Westbrook” (brother of “A. Porter” (Westbrook)... pewter coffee pot in ‘original old surface untouched’ collector grade condition; a classic Maine collector’s ‘must have’.  Please see Edwin A. Churchill, HAIL BRITANNIA: MAINE PEWTER AND SILVERPLATE, Maine State Museum, (Augusta), pgs. 7-12 noting mark #2 on page 8 and ‘pear shape’ form note on page 7.