Chess sets and old books

So...anyway, Bill decided to buy a chess set over the internet.  And it came.  Since most of the packages that come to this house are books and those are addressed to me, we were both excited at this substantial box.  Alas, it was NOT the set he ordered, which he tells me, was a standard chess set.  No, they sent him one of the ornamental sets with the kings on thrones and actual knights sitting astride horses - good for looking at, not so good to play with.  No worries, a phone call later the problem was resolved.  But this glitch sent Bill into the attic to look for chess related stuff.

Come into the attic, dearie!

Or wait, maybe it was the storage unit auction that sent him into the attic.  Maybe it was both.

It does not matter.  All you need to know is that yesterday, Bill spent most of the day dragging things out of our attic.  He found years and years and years of Chess Life magazines.   (Our son played competitive chess through  high school and beyond.)

He found his grandmother's personal cookbook which his mother gave to me before we were married.  I have not seen the book since we moved here 25 years ago.

He found several Cricket magazines.  Have I told you how much I adore Cricket magazine?  I do - adore it, I mean.

He found, and here I whoop with joy, my Robert Service books.  I thought I had more but, at least I have Ballads of a Red Cross Man and Ballads of a Bohemian.

Here they sit on my desk chair.

But wait there's more.  He found a set of china; -  (I knew it was there.  I just forgot) - a rack for audio cassettes and a new use for it; a lot of old Time and Smithsonian magazines, now all carted to the recycling bin.  Good-bye, old friends.

There's a desk in the attic, too, and Bill is determined to bring it down.  He found some trading cards and a photo of me when I was seven.  No, I will NOT show it to you!

Also found - finding things is a theme this week!  A marble chess set from Mexico. missing two pieces.  And a copy of Nomadic Furniture 2.

Return with me to the early '70s, folks, when making furniture from cardboard boxes and packing pallets was, as far as I was concerned, the HEIGHT of suavity.  The idea of providing comfort and utility without taking up a lot of space and weight still appeals to me.  I am a sucker for any kind of convertible furniture - sofas that turn into beds; chairs that are really step stools; tables that unfold and collapse.  I am drawn to these things like the proverbial moth to the flame; like hummingbirds to honeysuckle.  I am helpless with awe and desire when confronted with clever and useful multi-purpose domestic design.

Such a good read!

It's been fun, trekking back through some of the stuff in our lives.  Now, I have to concentrate on now and next week when I rejoin the "working" world and present the first Stories in the Schools sessions for the Parkland Community Library.