These pieces of junk have been with me
for about 40 years. They’ve somehow avoided getting pitched
during the course of about 10 moves. They are just cheaply made
little plastic statues of Handel and Bach. Nothing really
valuable or outstanding about them, but they’ve been sitting on a
shelf in my house (or lurking at the bottom of a junk bin) for four
decades. I got them at a time in my childhood when I had a
strong interest in classical music. Between my participation in
orchestra and my private oboe lessons I played a lot of Handel and
Bach. I remember Handel being my favorite composer during that
time because I found his musical phrases predictable enough to be
easy to play and easy to memorize, yet not too boring.
The amazing thing about these statues is their survival. How in the world they have managed to not get lost or ruined or pitched in a household that sheltered four “active” (i.e. “hard on things”) kids, and four dogs (some of whom had bad chewing habits) is a mystery. (To a dog, Handel and Bach much look remarkably like nylon bones.)
It’s just funny how you can try so hard to preserve some objects and despite your best efforts they end up meeting an untimely/unseemly fate, yet other objects can be ignored, tossed into toy boxes, lost under couches, within reach of pets, etc., and yet manage to survive for decades.
I confess, I almost pitched Handel and Bach this summer when I was cleaning out my basement. Yes, they almost went into the trash can. (Plan B was to donate them to Goodwill, but honestly, who would want them? They’re really not worth anything.) I think I actually did put them into the trash can, then felt so guilty seeing them there that I had to put them back on the shelf. That’s how you end up with Junk in Your Basement!
I have a whole set of them. I use them at school to teach the kids about classical composers. I say donate!! I got mine from a thrift store. I originally used them to theme an Allison in Wonderland tea party. One man's trash is another man's treasure.
ReplyDeleteI have a whole set of these too!! There are at least 20. My husband, a musician, came across them at a yard sale. Having no idea what to actually do with them, they have taken up storage space in various places around the house. We are military and have two moves just this year--we weeded out a ton of stuff, but the composer busts made the cut.
ReplyDeleteI would like to buy some of those. My daughters piano teacher used to give them to her when she finished a book, we dont go there anymore but I would like to keep up the tradition.
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