The Blast of the Trumpet


for the love of old things, french la vie, Kristen's Home

My Mother and Aunt Marie use to go to the antique auctions when I was child.

After the dinner dishes were done, they would race off with a smile,

high hopes were written on their faces.

A 1920s blue glass beaded evening bag-

An oak dresser with a swivel mirror for $35-

a round wooden table,

a chair with rawhide lacing,

Grey freckled tinware,

and a trumpet were some of the won bids I can recall.

Especially the trumpet.

My Mother used it as an alarm clock, "da da ta a ta dum da ta da da ta dum!"

She would toot to wake up my four brothers and me. 

The sound was startling as the morning light barely filled our rooms.

 It was not the blast of the trumpet

that struck my heart for the love of finding old things. 

(It is a wonder I like old things at all after that!)

It was the joy I saw on my Mother's face,

as she would come home late at night, with her arms carrying her latest acquisitions

and watching her create our home with her finds.



Comments

6 responses to “The Blast of the Trumpet”

  1. My mom hung a little trumpet in our stairwell when I was growing up. It was the brass trumpet that my great Aunt Cora blew when WWI ended in 1914.

  2. Judy (Aportmanteau)

    It’s late Friday and I’ve found a sale on line that ends tomorrow and everything left is half price. I hadn’t planned to do a sale this weekend, but pictures on web site look really interesting, especially the books. Makes my blood move a little faster. I’m sure you know the feeling. The hunt just gets in your blood. 😂

  3. Now I see where your love of old things originated from
    How beautiful.
    I love your stories.
    Blessings

  4. Lovely story. Thanks for sharing, friend.

  5. I would take my young children through the antique shops, but for some reason as adults they are not found of antiques. Hummm? They do like the quirky though. The trumpet story just makes me smile.

  6. Cousin Chris

    Many of those antiques Mom bought (your Aunt Marie), I still have. Sister Ginny has a few and I think a few have been passed on to niece Courtney.

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