I love estate sales. When I say "LOVE", I mean it. I may be a little additcted.....
This is what I just wrote on Instagram:
I found these two crates of fabulous flip-top jars at an estate sale a few months ago. Since I don't have a dishwasher, the time was never right to get them sterilized until today. As I am sorting and washing these glass jars with their beautiful labels of herbs, I am completely connecting to the woman who owned them before me. Looking at the herbs, how they were labeled (both common & latin names), and the little bit of residue in each of the jars, I know she is smiling now because she knows I found them. Sometimes I leave estate sales knowing that I was meant to go there and find the pieces that I buy, to carry on their magic for the previous owner.
I have had a little change in situation, so now I have time to sort through some of my treasures. At times, I get lucky enough to get the stories behind the pieces. I will begin sharing some of these with you who love a little history mystery :).
This particular estate sales was in a very affluent part of town. Houses were all built in the late '50's, early 60's. I really went to this one because I was "house nosy" (many of the estate sales I go to are solely for the house. Houses are my "thing" :)....I feel them, lol), and because a certain picture on the estate sale listing caught my eye. My mom was here visiting, and if I need a partner in crime, she is certainly it.
When we arrived, the house was already FULL of terribly stressed people and pretty emptied out. The pictures was gone, and I could not enjoy the house vibes because of all icky people energy, so I proceeded out the door through the garage. There was a mudroom stacked with junk and boxes. "LOOK DOWN HEIKE!" something said. I did. The boxes were FILLED with glass jars. A fellow jar hoarder. When I took a closer look, I saw there were lots of flip top jars, and if that was not enough, they were all labeled with herbs. Not cooking herbs, healing herbs. Ah, a fellow herb witch! I called my mother so loudly she came bounding from a back room, because NOTHING was going to make me move away from this treasure. As I began sorting the herb jars in new crates, interested people started engaging me.
MINE!
My mama got one the of the people working there, he gave me an excellent deal on what he obviously thought was junk, and I loaded two crates of these babies into my car. When I went through the garage to get my second crate, I saw 3 wall shelves, custom built, to hold even more large herbal jars!
I memorized the address. Nothing about this house said Herbal Witch, but those shelves sure did.
Thanks to Google and a little snooping, I found my witch. She was actually the wife of a Senator, and everything I found about her publicly was "Senator Wife". Fundraisers, banquets, foundations....there she was, smiling right at me :).
Poised & polished, but I can see that twinkle in her eye! In my mind, I see her as a talented healer, that people come to secretly. I can see her going into her garage, opening the closet to uncover rows & rows of beautfiul herbs! I have her in my little book of mysteries, maybe one day I can find someone who knew her personally and who will let the Witch out of the closet!
Labels: estate sales, garage sales, greenwitch, hedgewitch, herbal healing, herbs, herbwitch, history, mystery, secret, vintage, witch
