Big score at the Freebee Tables™ !

The Freebee Tables™ are a unique feature here in the Hermitage Arms community. It's a tradition that makes a lot of sense when you think about it, considering the transitory nature of renters.  The Freebee Tables™ (show below, disappointingly devoid of free stuff at photo time*) are where tenants donate all kinds of trash and treasure; from home-grown produce to magazines and calendars to snack food of indeterminate age to antiques that might actually be worth something.

Recently, TSG acquired several items worth mentioning, and we thought we'd take this opportunity to show them off.

First, we have this set of early 20th Century apothecary jars.  They were subsequently [re-] donated to E. Linton for use in an art project:

The next artifact, manufactured about 50 years later, is this desktop item from 1956:

And last but not least, is this nearly mint-condition book on perhaps our favorite airplane ever:

Not a bad haul, not bad at all.

Now, here's the twist: these 3 items were donated to the Freebee Tables™  by people named Dave. (Dave Whitver used to own the Connie book, and the Paper Welder & Jars belonged to Dave Forgothislastname. 

*That computer table is up for grabs, though.

A Simple Pen (or is it?)

So, we were digging through the archives, in search of something entirely unrelated to this particular post, when we came across this:

Hmmm...a non-descript (except for some kind of tape wrapped around it's barrel) PaperMate Extra Fine Plastic Point pen.

Well, the tape is on there for a reason...because the pen was used to sign an autograph and we wanted to keep it for posterity.

Yep, there it is, being used to sign a pamphlet of some kind...

Zooming out a little, we see that the autographer (is that a word?) happens to be Billy Crystal. And, if we zoom out a little more, you can see another reason that this isn't just a simple pen...

The locale might not be immediately recognizable, possibly due to the fact that it no longer exists. It's the top of the World Trade Center (South Tower).

And no, we don't have BC's autograph on display here because we didn't ask for it. Me 'n' Ed were either too hip (or more likely, too shy) to approach Mr. Crystal.  What happened is that the kids in the foreground didn't have a writing implement, so they borrowed one from my brother. Fortunately, we had the presence of mind to snap a pic of the transaction.

Somehow, having the pen and the photo is a little bit cooler than a mundane scribbled missive from the (then) SNL star.