The Winter of My Life - Looking back at a long, long but memorable journey
It was on the cusp of Christmas, probably back in 1977, when I finally decided it was going to be entirely necessary to amalgamate interests and build a Frankenstein profession out of my mishmash of career interests. I studied to be a writer and I worked tirelessly to make my mark as an antique collector/dealer. I was a fledgling historian, an adequate researcher with improving skills, and when I landed my first writing gig with a local Muskoka publication, I embarked on a ten year swing at both reporting and editing for weekly and feature magazines. For decades I’ve been unable to decide which is number one and the order of importance for the rest of my lifelong passions....that sometimes even make money. As comedian John Candy once said, in his roll as a shower-curtain ring salesman, in the movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," "I’m still a million dollars short of being a millionaire!" But I’ve had a hell of a life just the same.
While I enjoyed my tenure as a news writer and didn’t mind that just about any profession going was earning more than I found in my pay packet, even as an editor, I knew that it would be impossible to ever cease my passion for composition regardless of the money situation. While I didn’t care too much for the hardships of being a writer, (just making rent with enough left over for a few pints of ale) I was always able to supplement my income over the hardest periods by knowing how to buy and sell antiques and collectables, particularly old books. I have often reminisced with my young lads today that I have had four oil lamp collections in my life up to and including this point. "What do you mean dad....where are the other three?" Well, you see, the one I have now which is quite substantial, (50 or more) is the result of a festering anger that on three previous occasions I had to sell off what lamps I had collected..... in order to eat during that particularly hard and cold month way back when. Or fix the car! Or something else that demanded a quick cash solution. I could always find a buyer for good quality vintage oil lamps. I’ve had to dip into this new semi-permanent collection twice, (and I hated to do it) parting with two beautiful blue and green glass lamps three years ago to....what else....pay for a car repair.
I’ve been able to survive as a writer because I had developed a knack for being able to uncover treasures at yard sales, flea markets, estate sales, auction sales, and find a fair number of what the trade calls "sleepers" (important vintage pieces under-priced) in Ontario antique shops.....and sell them for a modest profit to prop-up a "seldom if ever profitable" writing pre-occupation. It’s kind of funny actually thinking about the two careers, and the half dozen offshoot professions including museum curator (in two locations in Muskoka), that I’ve been involved in since 1977, the year I returned home to Bracebridge after graduating from York University with a degree in Canadian history. So here I was an aspiring historian, with a penchant for writing, who was taking twenty-five cents off every dollar earned as a reporter, and re-investing the money in antiques.....first using the old books I bought as research aids, and as a base for historical feature articles I was getting paid for.....then when finished, selling them off for a small but significant profit. Even my boys have borrowed this in their vintage guitar business here in Gravenhurst, making money off the instruments through rentals over a couple of years, and then selling them off to finance new and better guitars. I wouldn’t have lasted five years as a reporter if I hadn’t been able to use my knowledge of antiques to bolster the depleted coffers.
In retrospect, I needed all these jobs and out-riggers just to make a tiny but comfortable wage. But by golly what a fun life I’ve enjoyed having all these interests to fall back on in times of need....and when I got bored with being a writer for too many months in a row...or attending many, many auction sales and toting those awkward and heavy purchases down rutted farm lanes to a car parked too far away.....there was always a gainful alternative to resort to for a few weeks or months. Today it’s becoming increasingly necessary to have career alternatives from the get-go that are practical and adaptable at a moment’s notice. The days of one career from beginning to end are over and those who can quickly adapt to new opportunities in diverse career fields, will be living comfortably in the future. Unless you’re a writer. But then you’ll feel that the hardships endured are just the patina of the soul, enriched by the ups and downs of the creative process,..... the learning curve of experiences survived....."doing without" being at the forefront. I guess in some ways I was ahead of my time but I never thought of myself as a trend setter. I did have this cartoonish image of myself in those early days, clinging onto the edge of the modern world with red finger-tips and white knuckles, afraid to climb up and over because of what was on the other side, and just as scared to look down at what I might fall upon if my grip failed. Yet I knew that there was a future for us "clingers to existence," and while I never fell all the way to the bottom (close though), it did become relevant in time to move about and experiment with this clinging-thing.
Limbo wasn’t for me for the long-term, so I made diverse plans and by and large they succeeded. I did eventually overcome my fear of what dangers lurked below and beyond......and did become more adventurous and desirous for discovery as my confidence began to build. I know a lot of folks stuck in this position......especially when a job they thought was theirs for life was suddenly and unexpectedly gone. I always anticipated problems. It was my strength. I could pretty much tell the time and day I was going to tell the publisher to stuff the job. So I learned early to have a strong plan "B" and even "C".
The antique business is not for the faint hearted in either the physical or emotional sense. You’ve got to be a gambler, a high roller, the possessor of great wisdom and knowledge about a trillion vintage items you might well run into in one good weekend out on the hustings. If you’re short on knowledge (and courage to take a chance) about good art, well, you might pass up a major Canadian painting just because you declined to spend fifty bucks for an oil on masonite landscape.....could you pass on a Group of Seven because you’re cheap? Sure! I get some of my best finds courtesy people who hit the sale first and refused to pay fifty bucks for a several thousand dollar painting. (The stories of missed opportunities are weighty) I have on occasion purchased a fifty dollar art piece only to find out it was a copy of a good painting (worth pennies for the board only)......and thus the adventure of trying to improve your odds of success based on knowledge and experience. My odds are certainly better and my finds more substantial. But truth is, it’s much easier to sit at this keyboard and make these notations, than to stand at an auction for seven hours, or travel three hundred miles on a weekend, to maybe purchase three or four antique pieces. It’s the reason I’m glad I have this convergence of interests and the will to stop antiquing for awhile in order to work on a writing project for a month or so. When I do get back in the saddle to commence my collecting rounds, I’m refreshed and restored to a collector’s mission.....seek, forage, and discover.....possibly the holy grail if its somewhere on my rounds.
I’m going to spend the winter months here at Birch Hollow pursuing a number of editorial projects I’ve been putting off for the past year. I’m working on a special long-term series about collecting and the semi-amazing adventures hunting for old paintings, books, documents, furniture and anything else of a significant vintage attraction......"What for?" you ask. Well it will be offered to my friends at "Curious, The Tourist Guide," for the 2009 and 2010 issues....and will not only explore some of my own exceptional finds but offer some advice for hobbyists and fledgling collectors, on how to do better on a budget. Seeing as the economy isn’t all that robust anymore, and investing in the stock market and real estate is kind of precarious these days, I have a hunch my antique collecting friends will know exactly where to place their mad money......still after all these years buying low with the intent of one day selling high. Finding my oil lamps for good prices allowed me to net a substantial profit at a time I needed it most. From experience I do know what I’m writing about. I’m not all that proud that I had to sell so many fine pieces off but it was the price to pay for being a writer at the same time as an antique collector. Thank goodness I had one to support the other. It’s worked pretty well over the past three decades.....and I’ve enjoyed all the variations and diversions along the way.
It will not be a column for the rich and famous but they’re invited to read along as well. It will be a collection of feature articles for those who simply love travel, are willing to answer the call of the open road when the mood presents......appreciate the value and quality of old stuff, history, culture, simpler times, and the opportunity to meet some fine folks doing the same thing as you. I was a pauper who found enough coppers to get into the antique trade at the lowest level possible.....I started by digging for old bottles, and my first major purchases were old sealer jars which I adored. I moved up to oil lamps because of a love for old glass. I had to settle back then for lamps that need restoration. I’ve always had a good work ethic that way, and I can tell you there is nothing as satisfying as restoring a lamp and then enjoying its warm golden glow on an old sideboard or pine harvest table on a mid winter’s eve. This will be a collection for the poor sod who doesn’t have deep pockets but has instead a lot of raw enthusiasm for the hunt. The hunt has always been the attraction anyway.....and even with a van full of finds, I’m always a little sad when an adventure ends up in the driveway of home. There’s a pleasing aura of it all,...... it has been a good day with a partner (my wife Suzanne), and the experiences making new contacts, meeting up with old friends and dealers, and stopping awhile in this great province just to enjoy the view. I can’t tell you how many roadside picnics we’ve enjoyed in some of the most pastoral, enchanting, scenic places in this amazing hinterland. So yes, there’s much more to antiquing than the hunt and companion purchases. Getting there and back is pretty incredible.....remarkable in fact!
The first issue of this new antique and collecting series will run in Curious, The Tourist Guide beginning in February 2009.
Have a great holiday season. With kindest regards. The Currie family of Birch Hollow.

Merry Christmas, have a wonderful New Year and best wishes from Birch Hollow
Christmas has always been an enchanted time of the year for this writer, and the winter has always been an inspiring season in which to compose. In my earlier newspaper days, I would set about to research and write the coming summer season copy for The Muskoka Sun, by early December, and for the first week of January I was into full production mode. Each year I produced between two and four major feature series which could run part of a summer season or extend from the 24th of May until Thanksgiving which meant about 24 weighty chapters. I worked at home the first years, in the late 1980's, because I had assumed by economic necessity, the role of "Mr. Mom," looking after our first son Andrew and then Robert at the onset of the 1990's. I welcomed being a writer-in-residence after a high stress ten year haul hustling copy from an over-crowded newsroom. My wife was able to return to her teaching job shortly after the birth of both lads and my home office was officially open between diaper changes and feeding....playtime at the park and bedlam at home. I learned quickly how to work amidst the chaos and as far as output I never received one complaint about quality or quantity from the publisher when it was time to haul the manuscripts up to The Herald-Gazette office on Bracebridge’s Dominion Street. While I made the publisher smile it made the typesetter nuts in this pre home-cumputer situation. I wore out a lot of typesetters in my day.
I had a nice neighborhood view in those years from our small brick home on lower Ontario Street just below the High School, where my wife taught in those days. It didn’t matter what time of year it was....the humble little abode was settled amidst trees and history and it was only a short jaunt down a small path from our backyard, ........ to the secondary school playing field, which offered a massive area for Andrew to run with our dog Alf. Second son Robert came several years later after we had moved to a similarly charming little homestead on Golden Beach Road near Bowyer’s Beach, on Lake Muskoka. This was also a fabulous retreat for any writer, being surrounded by a splendidly encroaching Muskoka woodland.
So here I am 22 years later, still pounding out the editorial copy, for a few still-loyal readers after all these decades, and yes, still acting as house-father and honorary "Roadie" for my lads’ music business here in Gravenhurst. Tonight for example, is the annual Christmas Variety Show for their guitar and drum students....and many talented musician friends at the Gravenhurst Opera House, a fundraiser for the local Salvation Army Food Bank. While some things have obviously changed over the years.....well, fundamentally things have remained family-themed.....whatever they get up to....we join in support....and they do the same when we find ourselves with an unruly project. While we have our critics out there....the "Who do you think they are" kind of naysayers....it hasn’t daunted us from our Walton-like commitment to help each other navigate the tricky turns and long hauls of life. Of this connection I am grateful and proud.
I have set aside much more time this year to pursue many other writing opportunities now that several other community projects have been successfully although reluctantly concluded. This year I plan on spending more time in composition and an equal share of time to be spent out on the antique hustings which has always been this writer’s best outlet.....to release the frustration built up trying to wordsmith my way out of a trillion log jams at this computer keyboard. You know it seems like ancient history when the keyboard I was tapping at, was an old beat up Underwood that weighed more than the Queen Mary’s anchor. I might finish a column at this keyboard and feel tired from sitting so long. In those days I finished a writing jag with black fingers......because I always had to adjust the ribbon, and physically exhausted from both repairs, adjustments and the energy needed to heavily impact those metal keys through the inkless ribbon and onto the white paper in the roll.....and then there were the "white-out" missions. Ah, those were the days.
I’m looking forward to this winter season holed-up in beautiful Muskoka which by early storms would suggest a long and evil period of snow, ice and bitter cold. For output, a long and cold winter will keep me at this keyboard on most days. A nice mild winter might have me spending many more hours wandering through the woodlands like the lost bard, here in the snow-laden haunts of dear old Birch Hollow.
Our family would like to extend Season’s Greetings to one and all, and trust you will enjoy a Happy and fulfilling New Year. Amidst all the turmoil surrounding us, the bad news on the economy and the many conflicts throughout the world.....it is the time of contemplation and restoration of faith, and a rekindling of goodwill and commitment to the cause of Peace on Earth. Have a safe and very Merry Christmas.