Artefacts of an Ancient Civilization
And a Poem
I’m re-posting this, for those who might have missed it the first time around. It feels even more timely now…
[For those who were there, present or vanished, and those who cannot imagine what it was like.]
A doorman’s whistle, for hailing cabs
Roll of pennies, for playing games at the Flea Circus and watching the armless woman light a cigarette
Roll of nickels, for lunch at The Automat
Short-wave radio, for getting the news from elsewhere, with heavy static
St.-Louis Browns 1944 pennant banner
1942 recording, of “Mairzy Doats,” from Your Hit Parade
Pair of boy’s corduroy knickers
Pair of bobby sox, with saddle shoes
“I Can Hear It Now” LP: Lou Gehrig’s Farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1931: “today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth;” Winston Churchill addresses the British people on the BBC, “we will fight on the beaches;” FDR inaugural address, “The only thing we have to feah is feah itself;”” recording of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from Carnegie Hall, Sunday, December 7, 1941: “We interrupt this broadcast ro bring you an important announcement…” And the death of the blimp Hindenburg “It’s crashing it’s crashing… terrible terrible… Oh oh the humanity!”
Model airplane set, P-39 Bell Airacobra
Ticket stub from the Laff Movie on 42nd St., A Night at the Opera
Ink well, with Inkograph pen
Garter belt
Used paperback, James M. Cain The Postman Always Rings Twice, .35 list price
Ice tongs, for putting blocks of ice in top compartment of ice box
Copy of 1943 Russian film, The Girl From Stalingrad, found in the archives of the Stanley Theater
Tube of Bryl-Creem, empty
Trading card, St. Louis Browns one-armed outfielder Pete Gray
Chinese checkers set, board and pieces
Pair of roller skates
First edition of Guadalcanal Diary, by Richard Tregaskis
Drinks menu from Toots Shor’s Club
78 rpm recording from 1941 “Jolting Joe Dimaggio. Joe, Joe Joe Joe, We want you on our side.”
Polo Grounds baseball game program and scorecard, New York Police Department vs. New York Fire Department, firemen win, 7–4.
78 rpm recording of “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition”
Collectible poster for It Happened One Night
Short film of Frank Sinatra, singing “The House I Live In”
Sheet music for “Bei Mir Bist du Schon”
American Labor Party campaign poster for Vito Marcantonio, 1946
Tape recording, Don Dunphy broadcast, Joe Louis vs. Billy Conn, 13 rounds, 1942, “Conn is down, Conn is down…”
Crumpled carton for Cushman’s Cinnamon Buns, “delivered daily to your doorstep”
Wrapper, Baby Ruth candy bar
Used typewriter ribbon
One 33 1/3 stackable phonograph with automatic changer, and packet of phonograph needles
Tape recording, Gordon McClendon, October 3, 1951, “Pafko at the wall… The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant, The Giants win the pennant!”
Pair of penny loafers
Sweatshirt, Dodgers, number 42
Wheaties box, empty
Poster, Yvonne de Carlo and Bert Lancaster in Criss Cross
Menu, Avenue J Diner. Breakfast Special: 2 eggs bacon hash browns egg cream .35
Cover, Saturday Evening Post, 5–29–43, Norman Rockwell, “Rosie the Riveter”
Museum of Modern Art postcard, dated 1952, “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso
Photo copy, page from diary of Harry Truman, Juy 25, 1945, “We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark.”
Spindly-legged bridge table, with ten paperbound books scattered on it: Nightwood; The Thief’s Journal; From Flushing to Calvary; The Dragon and the Unicorn; Memoirs of a Shy Pornographer; Call It Sleep, Tropic of Cancer (Olympia Press); Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Olympia Press), The Invisible Man, The Stars My Destination; and a hard-bound copy of Johnny Got His Gun
Pink spaldine for ball-games on stoops
Bag full of marbles
Sign for “Nathan’s Hot Dogs”
July 1948 copy of newspaper P.M., “WALLACE FOR PRESIDENT!”
A Telephone booth, graffiti scrawled inside
45rpm record of Elvis Presley, “I Want You, I need You, I Love You,” b-side “Heartbreak Hotel”
Pair of tickets to Lost in the Stars on Broadway
Poster of Hedy Lamarr as “Tondelayo”
A pair of high-topped sneakers
Photograph from the New York Post, Eleanor Roosevelt visiting coal miners underground
A Poem
“Yesterday Hangs”
The wheel turns the wheel spins
The river runs into the heat of the sea
Yesterday hangs from the rafters
Clinging with claws as a bat
Birds of a feather are flocking
Bits of the feather are dropping
The hours flowed into the minutes
The minutes flow into the seconds
Who once loved the hours
Who rocked with the minutes
Who danced with the seconds
Where are they, the seconds
That dwindle that vanish?
What is it you see from the top of the stairs?
