For all you kindred spirits . . .

My junk-focused blog entries have spawned a spate of enthusiastic responses via comments on the entries as well as through email and letters.  What a fun-loving network of junkers we are!

Here is a bit that I wrote awhile back, for a fellow rummager.  It can apply to all of you kindred spirits out there:

To a Fellow Forager

For countless days of questing,
tracking county roads and off-beat trails,
seeking “gold” in worn enameled pots,
dented copper bowls and rusted pails . . .

For afternoons of sheer delight
in treasure flaked and faded over time . . .
clouded bottles, china chipped and crazed,
to cherish for a quarter or a dime . . .

For serendipity of junk acquired,
and troves of memories the years unfold,
I lift my coffee mug of battered tin
and toast the ecstasy of all things old!  

Margaret Longenecker Been, 2007

All Rights Reserved

P.S.  Remember the rules!  The stuff we “don’t need” and “don’t have room for” is most fun of all!  🙂

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A Winter’s Day Silliness–Plus the Answers!

Before I get into this entry, I need to state that I normally do not like doggerel!  As a lover of real poetry, I run from doggerel.

Having made that disclaimer, here is a bit of doggerel because I am feeling very silly today.  See if you can ascertain the characters or referenced literary works.  I have updated this entry, and included the answers at the bottom of the page.

1)  Medicine could never right

This one who wandered every night.

A wise physician knew the toll

Of sin upon a human soul.

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2)  A man of horrors, all amiss,

He was undone by just one kiss.

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3)  When Rhett wandered out at night,

This woman was his ‘love-o-light’.

Although a kind and generous lady,

She ran a business that was shady.

You’d know her if you saw her head.

Her hair was fire-engine red.

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4)  Frozen fingers kept the books,

Amid harsh words and brutal looks,

Till spooky visitors came one night

To deal out truth and make things right.

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5)  Spurned by love, she lived in gloom

With dust and cobwebs in her room.

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6)  The silliest “woman” anywhere,

She left her eggs in a “gentleman’s” care.

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7)  A homicidal pair for sure,

Yet dressed in vintage lace demure.

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8)  Gruesomely busy, this ruthless fiend

Knitted shrouds for the guillotined.

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9)  Dangerous with vehicles, silly, and lazy,

He nearly drove his friends plumb crazy.

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10)  This lovable, wayward little cat

Got rolled in pastry by a rat.

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11)  Robbing the rich, this legendary gent

Was philanthropic and well-meant. 

Now we don’t need him and his merry mob

Because our taxes do the job.

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Margaret L. Been–All Rights Reserved

Answers: 

1)  Lady MacBeth, MACBETH, William Shakespeare

2)  The Phantom, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Gaston Leroux

3)  Belle Watling, GONE WITH THE WIND, Margaret Mitchell

4)  Scrooge, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Charles Dickens

5)  Miss Havisham, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, Charles Dickens

6)  Jemima Puddleduck, THE TALE OF JEMIMA PUDDLEDUCK, Beatrix Potter

7)  Martha and Abby Brewster, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, Joseph Kesselring

8)  Madame Dufarge, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, Charles Dickens

9)  Toad, THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, Kenneth Grahame

10)  Tom Kitten, THE TALE OF TOM KITTEN, Beatrix Potter

11)  Robin Hood, English Folklore

P.  S.  The above illustration is courtesy of Dover copyright free clip art.

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