Dr. Freud's Sofa

Just The Way It Is:

You know being in this antique, book and appraisal business is like conducting a therapy session. " Now, just relax and tell me how you feel at this."   I learned a long time ago that some people just want to talk.  They want to recall old happy memories and they have little, if any, interest in selling an item or having it valued.  They just want to talk.  I like that, but I have to know when to draw the line.  I mean some people will think nothing of blowing a few hours of my afternoon. With no possibility of any monetary compensation or contacts established for me. That's not helpful for me to buy groceries. Some days I have time for talk and some I don't.

Some conversations can be amazing.  For instance when someone is telling about local history. Technology is great, but nothing beats having a first hand account from someone who was there. Or if someone shares information about a piece of pottery, furniture or silver. I learned some great  things just listening to people talk about genealogy and that stuff that Mim & Pops had in the barn.

 I group this antique talk in the same category, as people talking about the weather or their health.  Nothing will  energize a person like talking about a grandmothers quilt or dads pipe or the bowl that Nana made pudding in.  Some people will tend to dwell too much on the past and it bogs them down.   The past is a great place but you don't want to stay there too long.  Its like a scene, in that movie, The Blue Bird with Shirley Temple.  She travels to this land where her grandparents are  still alive and the old house is still there and the oven is filled with cookies.  Soon, they grow tired of the treats and they discover that its harder and harder to leave and explore some other special land. Finally they break free and the day becomes night and the grandparents sleep again.  I always wondered, "What if the grandparents wanted to be young?",  but I guess this was Miss Temple's remembering of the past and her grands. We can become tired of the same old things after a while.

You know one popular thing that many people concentrate on, when they talk about their property?   What they lost. I've heard that so many, many times just over and over.   I mean really was it worth it loosing your sister in a fight over the picture your mother bought at a yard sale forty years ago? Damn, go out and buy another print and hang it up.  Or better yet hang it up with YOUR sister and talk about the great time you had in finding one just like Mom's.

Many times  I have people come in and just talk non stop. I mean the ask me for help, but they talk so much that I never get to tell them about it.

HiisthworthanythingI'vehaditforyearsjusthangingonthewallandIthoughtIshouldtakethattojerryandseewhathesaysaboutitwellthanksforhelpingmewithitIdidn'tthinkitwasworthmuchanywayBye.

I often wonder if they really wanted information anyway.

 I think that enough rambling for today.  So, in a nut shell,  talk about your things, but don't harp on sad time or the past too much.  And at times close your mouth and open your ears to hear someone else talk about your property.