From the Tool Shed to the Living Room

This old buffet, which I have loved since I was a child, has finally made it into the living room. If I had a dining room, it would be there in it's appropriate place....but for now it resides in the living room. It has a long history in our Van Laar family....one which each of us remembers in a slightly different way. When I was a child, 5 or 6 I believe, my Dad brought this home from the Modesto Cattle Auction. Just the thought of the auction brings about the memory of the sights and smells...from the auction ring with it's sawdust floor and bleacher style seating, to the auctioneer with his fascinating speed talk I could never understand, to the coffee shop on site where we got a treat! There was a huge Quonset hut there filled with antiques....mostly estate sale stuff. I am assuming that this is where Dad got the buffet. My love for antiques and anything with a history was in place already at that age. I absolutely LOVED going into the Quonset hut at the auction. People's lives were spread out there in the dust for all to see. Rich, poor, and in between. Lovely burl bedroom sets with marble topped side tables, old discarded wringer washers, and Formica topped kitchen tables accompanied by red vinyl and chrome chairs. The buffet came home in the cow trailer and was promptly placed in the tool shed. It had two drawers which locked (the top ones were lined in burgundy velvet) and seemed a good place for Dad to "lock up his tools". It had some nice storage space as well as another counter top to work on. Work bench space was a premium in the tool shed. With 4 boys who wanted to tinker too, there was always something spread out on the counter. I thought it was much too lovely a piece of furniture to be treated that way, but Dad was a practical man and the buffet served him well as a cheap work bench. If you look in the pictures, you will see where motor oil was spilled across the top and down the front and left side. There were bits of red paint dispersed all over the top and front..... International Red, of course. There was some green too, though I don't believe Dad ever had a John Deere! It was also known in the family for having the name my brother's teased my older sis with, emblazoned in red spray paint on the back! I won't write it here...she might come for me! I was living in Washington as a newlywed when the day came for Mom and Dad to move off the farm. "Dad, please, I want the buffet!" "That 'ol thing?" "Oh yes Dad, I'll fix it up!" The buffet journeyed to Washington and back again. It sat in the garage on N. Ripon Rd. for 8 yrs. being used in the capacity it had grown accustomed to....storing tools. Then it moved "home" again nearly 23 yrs. ago with lots of promises to "bring it in". Finally she's here...she shined up better than I imagined. Do you see the glow? Briwax and Formby's is all it took. The motor oil? Well, I just think of Dad, the auction, and good memories. Besides, it's great storage, don't ya know? When Mom moved to the home, I got all her "good" dishes and silverware. They're now stored in the perfect place. Dad's old tool box and Mom's good china....it fits doesn't it?