AUTUMN THE TIME FOR WANDERING AND PONDERING

It was a busy summer in the antique trade. And it has been just as aggressive in this early part of September. I love my business, and its one I've been pursuing since my late teens. I was a hunter-gatherer child and I seldom came home from school without a collection of good-finds. My mother Merle didn't think so, and she'd regularly cull my bedroom when I trundled back to school. So I didn't just become a collector/dealer as the result of some sort of mid-life change of direction. I can't imagine not being a collector of stuff. I adore writing but antiquing gets me out on the open road, and well, that inspires the writer-in-me. I can't even speculate on how many pieces I've written in the past thirty years but it would have to be quite weighty.

Suzanne and I were habitual about our antiquing runs, despite the oppressive heat for a large portion of the summer. Usually the heat confounds us antique collectors, in Canada, as it is the cooler weather of early autumn that brings out the nostalgia of life's changing seasons. We lovers of history, fall back into those homestead days, and visiting antique shops and estate sales, flea markets and church fundraisers, puts us pleasantly back in time. We are time travelers, no doubt about it. At the same time, as we settle into what will be our retirement business a few years down the road, we have also become very mellow in the pursuit. We used to hustle. When we had a main street business location, back in the early 1990's, we were like fireballs on the auction and yard sale circuit. I can remember, one afternoon at a local auction, finding myself so uptight, that my heart rate was through the roof…..like I was running the 100 metre race at an Olympic event. I was so determined to win a bid, on an item we wanted, that I became as mean, and wretched a human being as Dickens penned of the legendary Scrooge. I wanted to jump over the audience in front, and tackle my adversaries. Suzanne and our boys, Andrew and Robert, watched as my face got redder than a baboon's arse, and my bidding became reckless. I was going to pay more than the item was worth, just to prove a point. The point, "I can spend more than you!" The real point, I shouldn't take bidding so personally. And, most significantly, not only did I win the auction item, and pay more than I should have, but I proved to my family, dad needs to review his business and life priorities.

We had a long discussion, and they told me that my actions, on this occasion, were part of a pattern of growing aggression to out-muster my competitors. As a team player in hockey, baseball, football, and as a rabid golfer, I was transferring my competitive qualities, good or bad, into my lifestyle-profession. What a donkey. Apparently, my head nearly exploded at many auctions in the past. I just didn't recognize the danger signs. It's one thing to be competitive but another entirely to stroke-out because you didn't win the Hoosier cupboard, or the jug and bowl set.

As a result of this "intervention," I have mellowed a lot these days, and if antiquing can be, in any way an ethereal experience, I've come as close to finding it as anyone. When I reference collecting and the road trips taken to uncover the wee treasures, it is all with a sense of calm and enjoyment. Not just wordsmithing so that it seems this way. I enjoy my work so much that it isn't any work at all. We travel all over the region, at all times of the year, and we stop frequently for picnics, and anywhere else we are afforded a beautiful view of our home district. I don't race out of the house on Saturday mornings to get to yard sales before my competitors. Yet even when we do start late, and take a slow jaunt around town, I'm always rewarded with a couple of good finds per outing. Even if we didn't find a thing, we'd still enjoy the ride, and the visits made with friends met along the way. With all the experience we've gathered over the decades in this profession, we can boast having a sort of sonar beam of knowledge to hone in on worthy pieces, and this affords us a little more time and pleasure in between sales. I watch a lot of frantic people running and driving to the sales, and frankly, I'm glad my family helped me see the greener pasture, where it has always been. Life's too short and precious to allow yourself to get embroiled in what should be an invigorating, contenting business.

Through this blogsite, I often write about our antique outings and finds. I have been writing antique related columns dating back to the late 1970's, when I had my first weekly column in the fledgling Bracebridge Examiner. A lot calmer about the industry today, I take a gentler approach to the whole enterprise, including the write-ups, which are not about making profit, or increasing big finds out there, but rather, like the book, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," paying attention to life, the world around us, the changes day to day in nature, and how we relate to the universe of stuff……interacting with us second by second. Suzanne and I now pursue our cherished industry because we have removed all the stresses that enter in to the traditional business model. We sometimes come home without one find, yet we happily enjoyed a splendid picnic in a beautiful park, found along our route, and may have even returned home with a basket of tomatoes, some corn, newly dug potatoes, or some magnificent just-picked apples. We adore the experience, not just in the antique trade but how it spins-off into the celebration of another day together, in an oh-so-precious environs. So when I do reflect on our retirement business, in this blog-site, it is relevant to note, in advance of reading it, that we truly adore hunting/gathering, but we are even more passionate about the experience, all inclusive,….more than just making a find that will eventually translate onto the balance sheet as a profit-maker. I suppose in the Dragon's Den (CBC Television Program about business propositions, winners and losers) tradition, my attitude sucks, because to most, profit is the message. And it is a passionate one. Well, I don't think anyone swings favor at the Pearly Gates, for business moxie in life. I'm pretty sure enlightenment about life carries a wee bit more weight, than what was a fat wallet over a lifetime.

Maybe we'll see you out there on the antiquing trail. Good luck hunting.