Collection could end from collecting dust - #lakewoodnews

 

A raccoon named Teddy sat on a rare copy of "Stormy Weather" by the Five Sharps.

Teddy cracked the record.

Apparently it's a lousy version of a great song, but the fact that it's rare has made it highly valued.

That makes no sense to me.

There may be only four copies of the record in existence. But if it's bad, all the better.

But some collectors don't think like I do.

A copy of the record that Teddy did not sit on might go for $10,000 at auction.

Help me with the logic, if you can.

I watch a show called "Pawn Stars."

People bring in some pretty odd items that fetch a lot of money. Someone brought in the record that Teddy sat on.

People bring in autographs.

The autographs of famous people, like Abraham Lincoln and Babe Ruth, can sell for tens of thousands of dollars.

Be honest. Do you have any autographs in the house?

What's a Peyton Manning worth?

I wouldn't know what to do with it.

Frame it? Put it in a safety deposit box?

If Manning wrote me a check, I'd be delighted to have his autograph. Otherwise, no.

I've heard that Lincoln's autograph is the most highly prized.

Not by me.

Again, what would I do with it?

I guess I could have people over, and we could look at it, and tell stories about Lincoln.

My favorite Lincoln story was his response to someone who said he was two-faced.

"If I were, would I have chosen this one?"

I can promise you that there will not be any intentional humor in the next White House.

There will be plenty of unintended humor. David Letterman may want to come out of retirement.

Have you seen him lately?

Full, scraggly beard. He looks like a bum, and he probably loves it. He was expected to be a sharp dresser every night for years.

He probably goes unrecognized in New York now.

I don't own many rarities.

I do have a very early Crickets album. Before they became Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

But I don't have anything to play it on.

So what good is it doing me?

And it's in the basement. That's where my archives are.

The Some Day Archives, I call them. Someday I am going to look at them.

Will someday ever come?

Our homes are full of souvenirs and mementos and scrapbooks.

Computers have made it possible to save a lot of things very conveniently.

But I have files on my screen that I rarely open.

Now and then I will get sentimental, and open a file, like Jennifer's, and reminisce. (We are no longer together.)

I open my father's file at least once a month.

And Badger's. She was the dachshund ahead of Smitty, and the first individual who ever depended upon me.

When I see that a natural disaster or a fire has destroyed a home, I always wonder about the possessions that were lost. The keepsakes.

My basement flooded in 2003 when I was out of town.

Half of my archives were lost.

For a while, I was heartbroken.

Now I cannot remember exactly what I lost.

I started over, but I no longer keep as much. Because I know that someday may never come.

"Can't go on, everything I had is gone. Stormy weather."

It's not true.

Craig Marshall Smith is an artist, educator and Highlands Ranch resident. He can be reached at craigmarshallsmith@comcast.net

 

 

 

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