"It's Been Two Years" - Part Six - "Antiques Store" - (C) - "Front and Back" - (C) - "He Buys From Houses"

"It's Been Two Years"

Part Six

"Antiques Store"

(C)

"Front and Back"

(C)

"He Buys From Houses"

The choices... and the choosing of the choices... of the ‘rest of the load’... of this picker’s peddler load... being a six or seven item selection to reach a convenient hypothetical ‘ten lots’... goes through a complicated intersection right here.  It is a sort of roundabout intersection... that is transited by the picker... not... yielding right of way and ‘driving’ (doing this action) ‘too fast’.

            It is the ‘too fast’ that lies hidden, is the most often ‘missed’ and is the perpetual stumbling moment(s)... for the outside viewer or a ‘want to do this’.  It is the ‘trick’ not understood, not credited and ...not done.

            A truly good antiques picker’s ability to ‘commercially process’ VAST amounts (in fact) of antiques with ...extreme speed... merged with a self presentation of... casual, cavalier and credible ...dead-on... accuracy... is the most missed, the most awed and the... most bewilders ‘when watched’.  THIS:  It is the ‘how valuable’ ‘is it’ (any single ‘antique’) road show on its flawed foundation that... creates THIS black hole in the ‘antiques’.  This ‘value’ ‘is it’ becomes the stopping point for most for a... very vaguely defined... but felt to be a... needing to take place.... determination.  The good (greatly successful) antiques picker ‘sees’ this moment at a very rapid speed and ...gives it no heed.

            Foremost... and again... rule one; ‘it is about the stuff’:  IF one ‘knows’ what the stuff is... and here meaning a large mound of many, many, many... objects... one may ‘keeps moving’ THROUGH ‘all that’ of ‘a large mound’.  THIS setting is enhanced (speed increased) when one ...understands fundamentally that the picker... does NOT... see objects as ‘valuable’ or as a... ‘how valuable’ ... ‘is it’... but... sees those same objects as... SOLD... only.  That is; VALUE is determined by... and only by... “SOLD” and THAT is relative to only that object and... that sale ...then.  Otherwise (not sold)... the object... has NO value to the picker.  This seemingly ‘eternally vague value’ is stabilized by the foundation... without flaw... that... the VAST, vast, vast existing mound of ‘antiques’ are... ‘not valuable’ so ‘who cares WHAT it sells for as long as it SELLS; ‘is sold’.

            This process; a picker picking his own ‘its about the stuff’ to actualize its value (‘sold’) is, again... a very, very, very fast process covering many, many, many objects.  It is done alone, without commentary... very fast... with, again, a bewildering ‘dead-on’ accuracy.  SO FAST is this process that the added-to-THIS-load objects are NOW already ‘picked’ (hence the title picker) and ‘in’ the picker’s peddler’s load and:  That picker has moved ahead to ‘capping’ the load.

            “WHAT?”

            And that is it; the picker ‘floats’ ... ‘antiques’ that are... in fact and in TITLE... moderate real antiques that are ‘valuable’ but are ...not at all rare... that he (her) will... ‘sell cheap’ ... to those who care about value... but... these objects are... from the picker’s view... SOLD... so there DOES establish ‘a’ ‘value’.

            And:

            The picker has moved on... while still in this rapid roundabout rotary... traveling ‘too fast’ to...

            “Capping”.

            “Capping” a his (her) load by a picker is... another ‘inconvenient truth’ that is ...magic and... genius.  Simply... the picker ‘puts’ ‘all kinds of old crap’... (debris from old houses) ‘in’ and ‘upon’ his (her) now resembling a gypsy caravan wagon loaded...load:  A tray of spilling and dirty salt and pepper shakers, an old bucket filled with ‘rusted’, busted boxes, spilling jars full of “oh” with loose lids, foul old cloth and garments, ‘bunches of’, ‘filthy’, “MOUSE DROPPINGS?”, ‘pieces of’, ‘once was’, “SHOULD GO TO THE DUMP”... and... inclusive such et al... ‘piled’ in a suspiciously ‘just the right amounts in just the right places... to be... to the antiquarian’s fairy tale seeking eye... the to... be... that... fairy tale... to THAT EYE.  I am always surprised at how much of this ‘this-that’ is ‘sold’ TOO.

            Yes... it is ‘sold’ ‘too’ so is... valuable.

            THEN... and so then:

            OUT the far side of the roundabout the picker and his (her) picker peddler’s load RAPIDLY travels... off.. down the coastal Maine... peninsula finger... to ‘sell to’ the ‘antiques store’ ‘down there’...as has been recorded... in reverse... to reach the:

            END of this (the ‘going backwards’) picker’s peddling ritual?

            Yes it does...

            Excepting the consideration of ... ‘where’ and ‘how’ does the picker ‘get this stuff’.

            “He buys from houses.”

            And oh... have not I been the one holding those cards for a half century.  Nome de plume be those four words... I?

            Be there of THAT eloquence?

            I have... and have recorded in a... pestered blithering of a blizzard of vagabond and verbose ‘posts’... that all... with them (the lead characters)... always seeming to have someone IN an old attic ‘making off’ with treasure... plunder... or rubbish of so titled... antiques.

            So I do not have to expostulate on what a ‘he buys from houses’... is... or means.  Do I.  No; READ about THAT elsewhere in MY written warren of ‘posts’.  But I do... here and now... foot around (like a soccer ball) the those four words; ‘he buys from houses’.  I hear ...and have heard... that utterance... for decades... to my face... to my back... to my side... to be passed on to me... to be said of me... to be... a stupid four words; a stupid explanation of ...what I do.

            “He buys from houses”.

            I do...

            That very well...

            And I am seeking ‘what’

            Or is it... actually...

            A

            “WHY”?