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Community Corner

Urban Archeologist: A Close Shave

Greg nearly passes up Silver, and then finds "gold."

 

I swear I’m not a shop-aholic, but I’ll admit that sometimes I just need to buy something so I can justify a long drive or even a long driveway. I have also been prone to purchasing just because I took up 30 minutes of a seller’s time, and to walk out empty-handed didn’t seem right.

Here’s a tip — whenever you end up at a sale that is being held for charity — buy something. You’ll give pickers and diggers everywhere a good name if you make a donation by purchasing, even though you might have cringed when you saw it wasn’t a true dig.

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When there is no attic to crouch in or basement to crawl through, I can be perfectly happy with the challenge of trying to find something, even when the items all have a contemporary look. At a Danbury sale this weekend I, at first, thought I was wasting my time at a tiny home in a lake community, but eventually I came up with several gems.

This home was so small that people were buying items just so they could fit in the rooms. I tried looking in each room and was just not getting a good sense of success, until I saw a table full of office supplies. When items are piled or cluttered together it is best to look and examine everything as though you find it all interesting.

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It turns out that my first purchase was a wireless laptop mouse ($1) and then I found a magnifying book light ($1) that could come in handy during a darkened dig. I hadn’t seen it during the first pass but after turning over these newer things I saw a silver box (image).

Maybe it was the box, or the tarnish, or the $5 price tag, but I knew it was something worth investigating. Is it silver or silver plate? There are no marks on it (except for the manufacturer on the bottom — see image). Seeing the razor inside, I only paused a second before buying it.

It wasn’t just any razor, but The “Valet Auto Strop” razor, to be exact. The reason why I paused before claiming it was that I have a beard and never do much more than trim it. In fact, I have been known to refer to my beard as a simple monument to the hatred of shaving; however, there I was, buying a razor. Take a look at the images and the ad and you’ll see why it’s hard to walk away from a sale empty-handed. 

I have a mystery. These found photos of Victorian-era women are related, but who they are and where they were taken, must be hidden in the image. Can you share your photo-forensic skills and tell me more about them?

Greg Van Antwerp is a Brookfield resident and blogger, who can be found on the weekends in search of a good “dig” or a good story.  You can read more about his adventures by visiting his blog.

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