I was patiently awaiting some things to come around, and from amidst the rumble of dealers muttering about what they would or would not pay, I heard the word "shutters." I had not seen these. I had not known they were there. I knew nothing about them whether plastic, wood, short, painted, broken slats..nothing. My brain didn't have time to analyze or process what my emotions had just plunged me into before my hand shot in the air as I jolted into the front slot of bidders. I was 'smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy.' But still frantic. He saw me squished in the pile of elbowing arms and caught my flailing number to take over the bid. What am I doing? What! Am! I! Doing?!
I won it. I won what? Shutters. Of who knows what sort or state. My stomach dropped. They were under a table and I still could not even see them. I owned them and could not tell you what they were. I felt sick and wanted to retract my bid of foolishness. I went about my auctioning business and at the end for pick up, I almost forgot to grab them. Probably blocking out my foolish auction anxiety that had propelled my into a blind bid.
I bent down cringing every inch of the way till my knees clunked on the floor next to the heap of dark planks. I touched one and lifted it slightly.
Stars exploded in my blinking bulging eyes at what they beheld in a heap on the floor under a table. I didn't even breathe. But I smiled. A big, deep smile that went all the way across my bestilled little heart.
Let me tell you why. I have been searching for y-e-a-r-s for shutters. Antique shutters to hang inside my living room, bedroom, where ever I want. Yes, I wrote that right. Yes, you read that right. Shutters for inside my house. I have wanted to hang them by the windows inside just like if they were outside. Anyway, I went to an estate sale last year that had a bunch, but they were old and beat up just they way I like them, but they still didn't strike that gut chord which tells you you just struck junk gold. And as she wanted way too much for them. I got in my car sad and forlorn having to pass on them. I have been watching for them everywhere and have just not found the right ones.
Peering at the stack before me, I still wasn't completely sure what I had gotten myself into, but it seemed like it maybe, just maybe, may be a good thing. I hauled one pair to the van and went back the next morning to get the rest. When I got them all home I spread them out against my house and got my first real look at them. I turned out to be a great thing.
Glorious crackled, chipping wooden shutters. Complete with rusted hinges, clasps and an ancient bees' nest that disintegrated into a pouf of dust when I swatted at it. They are thin and long and a funky green and just perfect.
I am scrubbing them, surface sanding for extra chips, and then I will paint them to go in my family and dining rooms. Oh my shutter heaven. I can hardly wait to hang these. Oh, and not a single broken slat.
Here are my beauties...