Bonney, Frank and I at Saturday's Bowdoinham Historical Society yard sale

 

This is one of those pictures that shatters one's self image. I've got to be younger than  the guy standing at the right in this picture. Bummer! Frank is my old neighbor from across the street. He and his wife Jane welcomed Ann and I to Bowdoinham thirty years ago, with hot tea and freshly made apple pie. We had recently purchased the derelict old house across the road from their cape, and were freezing in the unheated house as we began several months worth of weekends starting to refurbish it before moving in. The warm food and good company were greatly appreciated. The house came with lots of history. Frank's grand-parents owned the house, but then traded their larger house for the small house their kids owned. Frank would always point out the room over the kitchen which he grew up in. There was a murder down the street, and the kid that did the murder hid out in the attic of our house for several days.

 

Bonney asked us if either of us knew what the cannister Frank is holding was made for. My guess was that it was a steamer for cooking pudding. I was pretty sure that I was right. I am leaning in to get a better eye on what I thought was a thermometer. It turned out to be a dial measuring the level of the fluid in the tank. Frank immediately recognized it as a removable kerosene tank for an old fashioned home heating stove. Back in the 50's when he was a kid, he drove a fuel delivery truck for his step-father, and he remembered filling these old tanks up for people around town. Bonnie pulled out her I-phone and entered the brand marked on the tank. Immediately several complete antique stoves with similar tanks popped up on google. They aren't cheap.

I had a great time talking with friends, discussing people's experiences with various solar power panel installations, and looking at lots of great stuff. I made it home with an antique quilt. I mean, after all, you can't go to a yard sale and not buy something, right?

 

Have a good day. Thanks for stopping by.