Biopsy Scheduled and a Ramble

I called this morning to find out when my liver biopsy was going to be.  I needed to arrange transportation.  The hospital called before noon and told me it will be Tuesday, Nov. 16, and to arrive at 7:30 a.m., don’t eat after midnight.  Should be ready to go home by noon.

So I now have a ride there, thanks to daughter Susan.  Lory has to work that day.  I’ll arrange for a friend to pick me up and bring me home.

After getting that call I was free to go over to the antique barn and visit with my friends.  One of them had a wig for me.  It looks a lot like my hair used to look when I got perms.  It will be a good one for going to the bank or when I want to look normal.  I still need something outrageous for other occasions.

Ramble Warning-----------------------------

This week-end is the Planned Parenthood annual book sale.  It is a great sale.  A gymnasium size room packed with long tables full of books with boxes of more books under the tables. 

I used to go on Friday and wait in line for a couple of hours to be one of the first people in.  Sometimes in rain or snow.  I have met people from New York and Pennsylvania and other states in that line. 

They used to have some amazing deals on collectible books.  The last time I went, a couple of years ago, they had started checking prices on the internet and the deals weren’t so good.  I once got a first edition of the 2nd volume of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for very little. 

They have a “finds” section, items that were in a box of donated books but are not books.  I found a primitive calculator there one year, with 5 dials, like the old dial phones, and a stylus to turn the dials which added up what you dialed.  I paid $5.00 and sold it for $200.00 on ebay.  It was a before patent item.

I also always look for the series of books that my Mother taught from in the 1930’s.  I now have several and have started giving them to her grandchildren. 

I used to collect old school books.  It’s an inexpensive thing to collect.  The oldest one I have is 1792.  I also have a couple of the paper back Dick and Jane books that I used in the first grade.  Believe it or not, those are very rare. 

I have stopped collecting as there doesn’t seem to be a market for resale and no one in the family is interested in the collection. 

The ones I like best are the primers.  Those books used to be passed down from child to child and I like to think about all the little hands that had to be washed before they were allowed to hold that special book.  All the stories have a moral to them.

One of the books I have has recipes for a cure for “gravel” and other physical ailments written in the front in pencil.  No other paper was available to write on apparently.

My Mother used to talk about taking turns to have the calendar page at the end of the month so the kids could use the back of it to write on or draw pictures.

Never have found a first edition of McGuffy’s first reader.  The date would be in the 1850’s.  They all say “revised” except for the first edition ones.

Oh well, that’s enough of a ramble.

Later….