Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: main street (Page 70 of 104)

It’s a’ for the Hiney he’ll cherish the bee.

Of course, you recognize those memorable song lyrics, from My Tocher’s the Jewel, words from tha’ grreat Scotsman Rrrobbie Burrns, and sung to the tune of The Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre. (Drawing a blank? Here are the first couple of lines, to refresh your memory: O meikle thinks my love o’ my beauty, And meikle thinks my love o’ my kin… (join in now) But little thinks my love I ken brawlie, My tocher’s the jewel has charms for him!

Whew. Brings a tear to my eye.

You know those songs that keep rolling around in your head – do you suppose they are ones that your grandkids might sing? Or… flip it around. Can you sing all the songs that might have popped into your grandfather’s head? Does music have a shelf-life? Or can a song expire?

Do some tunes wither up and disappear?

Part of the answer to that question is sitting on the desk in front of me. But just part. And, even that is limited, because none of my grandparents were living in Scotland when this book was published. Might have some Scots in the family tree somewhere back in history, hopping in their kilts and belting out “The Birks of Aberfeldie” at the top of their lungs.

That’s one of the jewels in “Lyric Gems of Scotland,” Price: Two Shillings & Sixpence Net, Arranged with Pianoforte Accompaniments, published by Bayley & Ferguson (pronounced Billy n’ Fairgissen), Glasgow.

There is no date in this old song book, but a British dealer who owns a copy estimates it was published about 115 years ago. And what ditties do you suppose the young larks were perpetrating back then?

How about: In a Wee Cot Hoose Far Across the Muir. (Could be: In a wee cottage house far across the moor. I’m just saying.)

Or, Keen Blaws the Wind o’er the Braes. Doun the Burn Davie Love. Fareweel, Fareweel my Native Hame. You’ll want to remember favorites like, I Gaed a Waefu Gate Yestreen and – Gae Bring to Me a Pint O’ Wine. And many, many more! (Scots version: and Minnie! Minnie Moore!)

Remember, these are all English words. Just delivered with a wee bit o’ that fain Scottish brogue.

Here’s the thing. There are actually a few titles that I do know, songs that have survived a century or more.

Auld Lang Syne, for one. You remember that one from New Year’s Eve. Some of you will remember Guy Lombardo and his orchestra. (Most of you won’t.) Their version of that song is still the first song played at the stroke of midnight in Times Square, to kick off the New Year. Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and all that. Or as we sing it, Should OLD acquaintance be forgot…

How about – By Yon Bonnie Banks? (Although I always heard this song as being titled Loch Lomond): Sing along with me now… By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes. Where the sun shines bright on Loch Looooooo-mond. Okay. That’s enough singing.

Well, then. I suppose there might be another one somewhere that I could recall. I only WISH I knew the entry on page 104: My Heart is a-Breakin’ Dear Tittie. You know it has to be an innocent “sing around the hearth-fire with the children” kind of song. At least, it was when this book was published. These days, I don’t think it would make the cut for a Sesame Street performance.

I’m still wondering how many of these songs are still known in Scotland – whether these were “gems” that stood the test of time or if some became somewhat lagging in popularity outside the campfires of the sheep herders.

For my money (which it is, at this point – until someone else buys the book), the best thing to be found on the pages is the inscription from 1911. The recipient of the songbook knew who it was from, but unfortunately the giver did not sign his name. As you can see in the image, the book was given:

“Frae yer ‘Brither’ in Auld Reekie. August 17, 1911.”

That just makes me want to sing.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main Street, Broken Arrow, OK!

Different Kind of Big Mac.

Historically nice afternoon in the Rose District and here I am at the shop trying to restore order, sorting through a major collection, and finding a few treasures!

That always makes working on Sunday a little more satisfying.

Might have been the phase of the moon or the lower pollen count. Whatever reason, Friday and Saturday wound up being Receiving Dock days, with bags and boxes of books rolling in over the threshold.

Naturally, I don’t want to start the week out with stacks and stacks of volumes piled on every flat surface, so I’ve taken the price gun in hand and the book cart rumbling down the aisles loaded with interesting additions to the inventory. Trying to get the majority of them shelved before the weekend is over. Some interesting finds.

Case in point: First Edition, First Printing copy of David McCullough’s biography of John Adams, signed by the author.

The historian apparently favors signing with flowing-ink pens, which makes the autograph look almost suspiciously attractive. But, those old-school writing instruments also provide enough ink to partially bleed through the paper, authenticating the signature as the real deal.

If that wasn’t enough, the original owner of the book included a Tulsa Town Hall program from April, 2004 – when David McCullough spoke on “History as a Source of Strength” at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. And signed a copy of his book for a reader in attendance.

The dust jacket is now safely protected in a mylar cover and ready to make a spectacular addition to someone’s personal library.

It’s times like this that I wish it possible for me to be a collector of books, instead of a seller!

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow, OK!

Mr. Postman, look and see…

Here you are at the post office, holding a letter to your relative in Cleveland. Times are tough. Crazy tough. So tough that you’ve got to write and let them know what is going on. Crazy stuff. You just need some stamps.

The clerk weighs the envelope and looks in your direction. Intense eyes. No smile.

How much, you ask.

Four.

Four dollars, you respond, while reaching for your cash.

Suddenly, the clerk laughs.

Four dollars! He repeats. What a joker! He turns to his coworker. Frank! We got a comedian here! Wants to know if four is four dollars! What a hoot! Four Dollars? Hoooo-weee!

Well, then – you ask. If not four dollars, then four what?

The clerk leans into your face and replies – without a trace of humor:

Four Billion Dollars.

Oh. Now there is a number.

How many stamps is that, you want to know.

Depends, he says. I’ve got some 200s but not enough. You’ll have to double up on the 100s. Too bad you don’t have a larger envelope, he decides.

So you buy the stamps and start licking. It’s 1923, and there aren’t any self-adhesive postage stamps. You’ll have to apply the tongue to each of the 25 stamps. You decide it was a good thing he had the 200-million stamps or you’d have had to cover up your return address on the back, where half of those postage stamps have been applied.

The War to End all Wars is over, and it’s another decade before the unrest bubbles up enough to plant the seeds of World War II. For the citizens of defeated Germany, times are tough. Today, they call it hyperinflation. Back then, there were a number of words that described the economy and the buying power of Germany cash.

None of them are printable here. Even in German. (A very linguistically literate audience haunts this blog…)

To send word across the Atlantic to the relatives in Amerika requires International Postage. The 25 stamps in 200 and 100 Million Mark (German dollar) increments amount to 4,000 million, or what we would call – with all those zeroes – four Billion.
Four Billion Dollars to send a letter.

You just wonder whether what was in the letter was worth it. The German word was millionen. Million. You can click on the image to see a view of the high-dollar stamps (actually high-Mark, their currency) that were required to simply mail a letter. If you click, you’ll also notice that – even without zipcodes or barcodes – the letter found its destination simply addressed to “Cleveland Amerika.” 1923 efficiency.

Here is the often repeated anecdote about post WWI Germany in the hyper-inflation years, of which 1923 – the year the letter in the images was written – might have been the absolute worst.

Workers who wanted to make the most of their money, demanded to be paid every few hours, so the cash could be spent before it became worthless. One employee loaded up all of his cash pay into a wheelbarrow and rushed off to the store to buy bread for his family.

He parked the wheelbarrow beside the front door and dashed inside to see if any loaves were left. When he came back out moments later, he looked at the spot where he had left the wheelbarrow. His heart sank.

The results of all his hard work were wasted, so much more than the just the morning’s pay was gone.

The thief had dumped all the money on the ground and made off with his wheelbarrow.

Another illustration of the times involved another wheelbarrow. This pile of money was being wheeled to the shoe store one Friday morning to buy a new pair of boots. If he had wheeled that same pile of money to the same store on Monday, he could have bought the entire STORE.

Always surprising, the things that show up in a book shop. Would have loved to have read the letter that it took 4-Billion Marks to mail. My guess is, by the time this piece of postage hit the mailbox, the German monetary system was just about to hit its reset button.

And the currency of record became bananas. (Kidding.)

As we all know, the new legal tender became Reuben sandwiches.

Come get one! (…without the sauerkraut. Hey, it’s Irish without inflation!)

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main Street, Broken Arrow OK!

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