My great aunt’s estate (my maternal grandmother’s sister, that is) is getting auctioned off in New Jersey this weekend. Boy, there’s a weird feeling for you. Seeing as both of us are from Chester County in Philadelphia, Kate and I share a Thomas ancestor here and there. (Mine: Anna Thomas, of the meek and Quakerly grand tour diary. Kate’s: George Thomas, Anna’s brother, who I’m convinced was sneaking out of the hotels to whoop it up in Khartoum.) The auctioneer’s indifferently-spelled history of the Thomas family is here, though it’s got me scratching my head about which aunt is which.

There’s likely to be a Young family/Smith family caravan to Morris Plains, New Jersey to bid on some items, like possibly this corner cabinet of my grandmother’s, or maybe these dessert spoons, or this bookcase, which has no sentimental value but is a great bargain if the estimate is to be believed. And I’ll probably bid on this Westtown School Sampler (from two years after the school opened!)

Missing is the cool suit of samurai armor that Dr. Chandler brought back from feudal Japan, and that used to scare the hell out of me when I rounded a corner in the attic. Just as well; I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. As it is, I don’t think I have the spondulix to get this smirking matriarch.