Old ladies' man

(1968 August 1)

Betty was here yesterday and we were taking our beds apart, washing the slats, vacuuming mattresses and restoring broken buttons - in other words, working our heads off - when the doorbell rang, revealing a short, aggressive man whom I finally took to be an antique dealer. He said he was from Kansas City, Missouri, and was looking for old furniture, and did I know any old ladies who might have a quantity of Bavarian china or Carnival glass stored in their basements which they were not using but will sell cheap. What really got me more tho was the statement that Wisconsin had so much more in the antique line than Kansas and his state did. Bringing to mind the grand auctions you attended, I was amused. But I was anxious to have him leave so I could get back to work, so I just told him where some shops were and let the argument rest. His wife sat in the car and wrote down such odd names as Muscoda, Boscobel, and Boaz which fell from my lips.