Leader Board Ad

Friday, February 5, 2010

Every so often I find something...Crappie

Okay, so it was a bad pun (the fish above is a "Black Crappie").  This post really could have been titled: "Tales from the sticky drawer III" . If you recall (and I don't blame you if you don't, but go here for a refresher) I was in the basement of an old house and somehow found may arm wedged deep in hole where a drawer should be. The drawer would have been there except I had removed it to reach papers from another drawer that wouldn't budge.   The papers I pulled out were all related to hunting, fishing, and trapping and I have been going through them during these winter doldrums.

The black Crappie (poor fish, probably eternally jealous of the rainbow trout) just couldn't afford better public relations.  However, he came inside a mint condition catalog from 1957 that is a masterpiece in graphic design: 
Or maybe it's just average, but it looks pretty good for being 53 years old. Because this was the home of a collector, and possibly an antiques dealer, I couldn't tell where the antique'ing business ended and owners personal life began.  Some of the letters were addressed to the owner, so it must have been his interest to go hunting and trapping, but in this next collage of tips and advise was one book from 1929, where everything else had been from the 40's & 50's.
I can safely say that the owner was a true trapper.  Among the pile of papers was an interesting receipt:
 
This is from November 1950, and it looks as though it was a good month.  38 skins and they were all muskrat, except for one weasel (he must have squealed on the muskrats and then tried to weasel out of the deal.) I honestly didn't know that Sears provided this kind of service, I wonder when they stopped?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Found something unique? See something here you want to know more about? Start the discussion - I'll respond. Really!