Sometimes the value of what you find at a yard sale cannot be measured in dollars and cents...

Sunday, August 4, 2013

My thrifting isn't just about saving money. Occasionally, it is not even about being frugal at all. Sometimes, I scour garage sales, thrift stores and flea markets searching for those items whose value to me is priceless because it is sentimental and nostalgic in nature.

There are things that you cannot buy new, because they are no longer made. Things that are a link to the past. Sometimes my own....the world of childhood memories. Sometimes a past that precedes me but to which I feel a connection nonetheless.

Yesterday was one of those days when, quite unexpectedly, I came across something that touched my heart and took me back to simpler, more innocent times.

I have always loved animals. When I was a girl, I was horse crazy. I would devour books about horses and those written by Marguerite Henry were among my favourites. I am still searching for a hardcover copy of King of the Wind which will always be the best horse story in the world to me, no matter how old I get.

Books about wolves and/or dogs were also sought out by the young Cathy. Our school library had some older copies of Albert Payson Terhune's novels about his beloved collies. Lad:A Dog was the first that I discovered, and as it happens the first that he wrote, and has remained my favourite of his books. 

I still have a copy which I purchased from my high school library at one of their discarded book sales. Gosh, I just realized that was more than thirty years ago!

I am drawn to stacks and boxes of vintage books whenever I go garage saling. Looking for old favourites. Discarded hard cover library copies with their card pockets and dust jackets with Dewey decimal system labels on the spine take me back to quiet hours spent among treasured 'friends'.

I can see again the shelves that held worlds that sparked my imagination. I can feel my fingers rifling through index cards in the wooden drawers of the old-fashioned card catalogue.

In one such box of old books yesterday, I chanced upon a trio of hardcover novels by the aforementioned Mr. Terhune. Three that were previously unknown to me; The Faith of a Collie, Sunnybank Home of Lad, and Buff a Collie. All three were in good condition for their ages, with their pictoral dust jackets intact. Not ex-library these, but pieces from the collection of a young boy who owned them a decade before I was even born.

His name was Wayne. I know this because it was inscribed inside two of the covers when the books were presented to him as gifts. The first The Faith of a Collie, was a Christmas gift from 1952. I think the givers may have been his siblings. The handwriting that penned the names is identical to that which inscribes the other book. Sunnybank Home of Lad was given to Wayne on April 18th, 1954, Easter Sunday, from his mom and dad.

I do not know whether Wayne is still living or how the books came to be put out in yeseterday's sale. I do not remember whether it was an older gentleman or couple who held the sale and that perhaps he had decided it was time to part with them, or whether they had been passed down in the family and having no sentimental or monetary value to later generations they were put out with the other offerings. 

I do know that Wayne must have thought a great deal of them, to have kept these three books for so long. I know that he took good care of them.

I wonder whether he had a dog growing up. I always wanted a dog as a child, so badly, but we never had one. We lived in the city and my dad, who grew up on a farm, believed dogs were meant to live outdoors and did not want one in the house. I would read my books and imagine how wonderful it would be to share one's life with a loyal canine companion who gave unconditional love.

Albert Payson Terhune's (1872-1942) novels were based on the lives of actual rough collies that the family raised at Sunnybank Kennels in New Jersey, U.S.A. Today, Sunnybank estate is known as Terhune Memorial Park - Sunnybank. There visitors can see the gravesites of some of the famous Sunnybank collies immortalized in Terhune's books. 

Perhaps I shall have an opportunity to visit there one day. I would love to wander the grounds with my thoughts and my camera, holding hands with the one that I love.

I do not know how many people today remember or know of the Sunnybank collie stories. If you remember these stories, or are a lover of collies, or a dog lover in general and would like more information there is a website http://www.sunnybankcollies.us/collies.htm that might be of interest.

I paid fifty cents a piece for these old books, published by Grosset & Dunlap, the company that is also known for issuing the original Nancy Drew hardcover editions, including my treasured and well worn copies from the sixties. 

They do have a bit of a collectible value. I do not ever resell for profit items found at garage sales, thrift stores and flea markets though. I have always thought it would be bad luck. And it goes against my personal philosophies. Their value to me is not financial anyhow. It is the floodgate of memories that holding one in my hands opens up.

It is the warmth in my heart as I think about the beautiful dogs with unconquerable souls whose stories lived on long after their paws no longer continued to pad across the emerald expanse of Sunnybank and their barks no longer echoed across the grounds. 

It is being again the me that I was all those decades ago when my body would lounge in my twin bed in my small bedroom of our townhouse, and my eyes would scan the pages of Terhune's books, while in my mind I cavorted with the gorgeous, spirited dogs who even then were just a memory.

So you see, going to garage sales isn't just about being thrifty. It isn't just about saving a buck or two. It is sometimes a way for me find that which is invaluable. A little piece of my past to hold onto in the present and to have for the future.

Nifty, thrifty and (almost) fifty,

Cathy