Sea Story

Once upon a time... That is how every vintage item's story begins. One such story is about a boy who went off to serve his country. It was 1940 and he left his sweetheart Betty, a blue eyed, strawberry blonde who was a second generation Swedish Lutheran. He had never left his town of Richfield, Minnesota except for that one time he went to Niagra Falls on a family vacation. He was not only leaving all he knew but he was going to the country of Churchill and Big Ben. He marched in the Fourth of July parade proudly wearing his perfectly starched sailor suit, blue wool with white stars and stripes. His mother dabbed her eyes with her kerchief in the crowd out of pride and terror as she realized this passing moment of glory would be replaced by days of painstaking waiting. I walk into a bedroom and look in a closet. It smells like mothballs and hanging in the closet forgotten for decades is that sailor suit. The boy who wore it, grew up, came home, married Betty and had a family and lived the American dream. Now he has passed. His legacy hangs in this closet, sad and forlorn for perfect strangers to examine and pick up at a bargain. I buy it. Not because there is any innate value in and of itself, but because I promise to tell that story.