Why is The Old Dark Blue the Old Dark Blue in Old New England - Part Five - "Veneration"

Why is The Old Dark Blue

the Old Dark Blue

In Old New England

Part Five

"Veneration"

            “Is there going to be some trouble?”

            Yes there is.

            The affirmation that The Old Dark Blue does have a

            Worthy

            Veneration...

            Does become... a modest core

            Fixation

            That disturbs the

            Prevailing

            Bad taste

            In the new...Old New England.

            Yes:  THAT kind of trouble

            Commonly viewed to SHARE... “tacky”.

            Is it ‘share’ or... force FEED... “tacky”?  I am not really sure.  IF... the weekend celebrates a sport show... with theatrical trappings... too... and this wiz-bangs into and out of... the old New England home via their ‘entertainment system’... leaving that system off on Monday morning and the old home hollow in its stillness and silence...:

            I can hear the old sugar bowl drop “in there”.

            Actually the sugar bowl just sits on its self and then I come along and pick it up and wrap it up and box it out and... before noon the heirs have locked the old place back up and... as they describe it... “Go Home”.

            And I don’t really care.  They have ‘horrible’ taste

            “Anyway”.

            And I just bought “a good slug” of the “many fine things” that were “once in there”.  Their once upon a time good taste is now ...all mine.

            And they don’t even know it.

            I do not complain either.  Why should I.  It is their problem.  Very superficial.  Very tawdry.  Very buoyant.  Yes... they may jump over board and float.  Most have already done that anyway.  If they did ‘keep something’ it is always ‘the worst thing’.  And they tell you about it.  And show you a picture of it on their “phone”.  And... it just gets worse.  Is there some form of actual veneration that does actually shut this petulance of tacky off?  Yes.

            And it comes in the hand of the ‘died off’ (Part One) who knew.  Isn’t that stupid:  Your great grandmother’s ghost is going to... set your taste straight?

            The first time... and for thirty years longer... that I non-cognitively encountered this expression of good taste... in the old New England home... expressed through their The Old Dark Blue... broken relic of a sugar bowl... I did... throughout... handle the expression obsessively... repeatedly.  Over and over an obsession... repeated... passed with no nod through my handling... of the old sugar bowls.  Then one day I ‘got it’; understood... on a higher level... The Old Dark Blue... veneration.

            Specifically... what I had as a satori... was the “hey wait a minute” “this is always happening” here; to me... with these old sugar bowl... “WAKE UP”.  The “always happening” was that in the course of purloining The Old Dark Blue broken ‘sugar’ ...from the Old New England home I would encounter (discover) small hand written (in ink or pencil) notes on a wisp of paper stowed away INSIDE the sugar bowl bottom.  Yes:  A cryptic MESSAGE... in the bottle of The Old Dark Blue... sugar bowl.

            I would take it out of the bowl bottom, look at it, read it and... put it back:  “LA-DEE-DAH-DAH”.  The message on the slip of paper always said the same thing in slightly different ways:  “THIS SUGAR BOWL WAS MY GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDMOTHER’S (first) SUGAR BOWL.  IT IS VERY, VERY OLD.  I WANT YOU TO HAVE IT WHEN I AM DONE WITH IT.  IT IS YOUR FAMILY”.   IT IS... your family... really?  YES REALLY.  Okay so who ever wrote that is dead and this note lost because no one ever looks in old broken sugar bowls but me so when I find the note I don’t pay any attention to it either so it gets left in there when I ‘get it out of there’ and SELL IT with the note still in it and... no one ever paid any attention to this until one day

            I did.

            And that day I was... like... “THIS IS THE PURE BLUE FLAME of The Old Dark Blue... that makes this The Old Dark Blue... THE OLD DARK BLUE.  Time stopped.  I stood there as one with the unity of all old broken The Old Dark Blue sugar bowls in these Old New England homes guarded and hand handed “DOWN” by those who “know” AND ‘is the good (correct, proper, historically traditional) TASTE. “OF” Old New England.  The REAL Old New England.

            Don’t believe me?  READ THE NOTES:

            “These dishes around 125 years old or older and were Donald’s great, great, great grandmother Elizabeth L. Pettengill’s of Enfield, Maine mother of Everett J. Pettengill Milton West grandfather on Mother’s side”.

            Again:

            “This sugar bowl belonged to my grandmother Philbrick’s first – set – of dishes I would like for Joy (Mrs. Millard Andrews) Pittsfield, Maine Rt 1 to have it = Also the little glass night lamp which Grandmother used when her babies were little.  Harriet G. Crockett  (Mrs. Andrews is the granddaughter of Mrs. Daniel Philbrick the same as I am H.G.C.”).

            Defining place time life death... these sugar bowls ...do... and have the always primitive and cryptic hand written wisp note DEFINING THAT ...too.  I am not talking the National Gallery of Art... or the Peabody Museum here.  I am speaking of little old ladies who are long dead trying to SHOW YOU THE WAY of (good) Old New England (taste) back when they were alive and

            You walked from that?  I hope not... but... my craft at Old New England purloinment proves... that these days... a shopping cart at a box store is the ‘go too’ good taste.  AND... I get the sugar bowl too.

            TOO.

            What are you going to do?  Delete the sugar bowl relic from your smart phone?

            Figures... right?

            Fill your home with crummy tea china you never use and is mass made “not by hand”?  Yep.... “CAN DO” that.

            Look at me like I am some sort of idiot ranting about... what in YOUR valued opinion “IS” a “BAD” and ...well... “WEIRD” “KIND” of  “TASTE”.

            And, too... one of these old broken sugar bowls takes care of all your Old New England decorating needs...

AND YOU CAN

            Write the note and put it in the sugar bowl

            Yourself.

            YES YOU CAN DO THAT; show ... veneration... and it’s good taste.

            Yourself:  Write the note

            TO SELF

            About the good taste ‘in china’... of china... in the Old New England home.

            Are not the little notes absolutely... charming?  Wouldn’t you just like to... FIND ONE yourself in the broken Old Dark Blue sugar bowl that you find TOO in your old New England home.  Wouldn’t you just like to be like me reaching back behind the bric and brac in the “her china cabinet” to carefully lift forward the “THAT” I have already spied ‘back there’ and that I know... as you now know... exactly what it is and...

            When it comes forward in my hand I peer-by-glance ‘into’ the bowl bottom and SEE a wisp of old paper... and do nothing

            Say noting

            Have no one else do or say either and I

            Buy it (“It’s broken”)

            And... do I say ‘spirit away’... or is it actually purloin the sugar bowl AND its spirits TOO.

            “Come home with me great, great, great grandmother.... too:  I will not cast you out of your spirit home.  YOU are safe.  You have been rescued.  You are venerated.  You are...

            Good taste.