Here in Melbourne in the leafy suburb of Cheltenham, every Sunday, there is a "Trash and Treasure" market held in the undercover car park of the shopping centre. The market is run by the local Lions Club and although quite small, DB & I often walk along to see what treasures are there on offer. A few years ago, we wandered down and, would you believe it, there on a stall full of what looked like trash, and marked at only $3 was a basket full of ( you've guessed it) pegs. Well, as it happened, that particular day was 30th March 2003 .... or, if you notice numbers like that ..... 30-3-03 ..... quite obviously, a most auspicious day!
After haggling over the price ... well it is a market and we are expected to .. I bought the basket. When I returned home I tipped out my haul .... there was a total of 180 pegs in that basket and and of the 40 different types, 24 of them were completely new to me. What a success.
Later, we had friends round for dinner and as I showed off my latest acquisition, one of them said ... "Oh look - these are Russian". "How do you know that? " I asked. "Well, they have the price moulded into them to prevent profiteering". Well, I'll be buttered both sides, what will they think of next !!!
I would imagine most of the older pegs in the basket were made in the early 1960s and, no doubt, migrated to Australia with their Russian owner. I often wonder if the owner had died and a house clearing mob had come in to dispose of her possessions. What stories could those pegs tell? Would they, in their wildest dreams, ever have imagined being trophies on my hall wall?
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