CHAPTER FOUR:
Tchotchkies of the Dead
To equip our new home, we went to so many local estate
sales that we said we were decorating with “tchotchkies” from the dead. Tchotchkies is a Yiddish word for
small, usually cheap meaningless trinkets “not necessarily valuable or antique.” All plastic necklaces and bracelets
qualify as tchotchkies, as do any birthday present worth less than $5 which the
causes the receiver to oooo and ahhhh and to never look at it again.
With our
many visits to local estate sales, we bought napkins, chickens and roosters as
art, a wooden form to take off cowboy boot, and wrought-iron chairs for the
garden.
After
moving to Santa Fe, we suddenly became compulsive about collecting things that
had never before seemed necessary, such as carved saints.
It was
almost enough for me to suggest that we resurrect my Groucho eyeglasses,
eyebrows and nose collection. At
one time, I had three perfectly identical Groucho noses. Shortly after Grace joined me in
Chicago they all disappeared under as-yet mysterious circumstances. This occurred only a few hours after
Grace asked what they were and I truthfully told her: a wonderful collection of
identical Groucho eyebrows and noses found in places and at times I did not
remember.
One
of the estate sales that were most successful in terms of stuff that we found
was on the north side of Santa Fe in a gated community where our friends
Barbara and Stan Spiegel lived.
That allowed us to get inside for the preview for the locals. Grace fell for a larger-than-life
chicken. It seems that nearly
every home in Santa Fe must have a huge metal or ceramic chicken somewhere,
often standing the mailbox or pecking by the front door. We bought a black, white and red,
three-foot tall metal chicken, which now stands outside near the front door.
(Note:
the #guitar #playing #chicken figure I bought in Mexico and gave as a present to my
guitar-playing younger son was eventually put out for trash while cleaning out
his New York apartment. He
theorizes that it is now a treasured possession of a homeless person there. Although I bought this ceramic figure
for around $25, in 2012, two different guitar-playing hens were going for
$4.89. It has not kept its value.)
We
also bought napkins, two tin candlesticks with metal birds climbing on top of
each other and a cowboy-boot remover, which I didn’t know I needed.
We
also bought a dinner bell in the shape of a Mexican woman whose face looks like
she is angry or has indigestion.
She is holding a platter and is wearing a long native skirt that hides
the clapper. We will put
this on a shelf and never, ever use the dinner bell.
Plus
a “lovely terra cotta pot,” with a loop to hold it and two spouts. Grace will set this on the living room
coffee table and it will forever be perfectly placed to block the lower part of
the TV screen. The dance
will be: Grace puts it there, I take it away and put it on top of the TV
cabinet. Grace will later put it
back on the cocktail table, and so it will go again and again.
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