Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message
...

stuff snipped

It was winter, so the roaches were pretty slow...had my pants tied shut
around my ankles so's no roaches would be tempted to run for cover. I
was young and foolish, still furnishing my home and got some real
bargains that day ) Farm auctions were more fun )

I had heard about these ladies from a doctor who cared for them. His
complaint was that they never bathed....they had a houseful of cats and
the cats used the bathtub. Owner told me they used buckets for toilets
and tossed it out the window ) I would not have bothered with the
furniture if it had not been really good stuff...painted, so I covered
it with bleach before I put it in my car. Made a final check of the
house before departing, along with my brave and loyal friend who had
dibs on the table. At the top of the basement stairs there was a pile
of stuff and what first looked like an antique teddy bear ... not a
teddy bear but a dead cat!!!!!

Gack! I couldn't have lived with that furniture. Ever see the Macolm in
the Middle where Hal, after finding an antique chest, opens it and says "Who
would hang all these bowties upside down like that?" Yes, it ws BATS!

The owner of the condemned house was a work buddy who lived next to the
condemned house. He kept me up on the blow-by-blow struggle to get the
elderly ladies out (to a nursing home) and condemn the house. Finally,
he came by a couple of days before demo was scheduled. Being a
dedicated antiquer, I knew there would be "stuff" left behind; I was
also interested in whatever old light fixtures or whatever might be
there. He said "There is just an old built-in cabinet with holes in the
doors." What else? "Oh, an old table." A cabinet with holes in the
doors is a pie safe; it had many coats of paint and was "built in" in an
alcove off the kitchen with molding around it. Because of the trash, it
had not been opened for years and years...the trash was knee deep. I
just had to rake away the trash, pry off the molding and haul it out.
It was entirely covered with paint, so there was no nasty stuff that
could have soaked into the wood. Most old pie safes with punched tin
doors are trash because they get stored in barns and the tin rusts away.
Mine was perfectly preserved ) The black walnut table was a little
dirty, and full strength bleach didn't harm the wood at all.