March 16th, 2008

The book signing I participated in yesterday at the Placer County courthouse in Auburn was well attended. I met many nice people and some of them even brought their own historical artifacts along. One kind woman brought an autographed photo of the famed child actress Lotta Crabtree and a pair of Lotta’s earrings. I’m always hoping that I’ll come across a treasure like that. I’d like to be one of those lucky people who finds a rare photograph of Wild Bill Hickock hidden behind a velvet painting of dogs playing poker. The closest thing I thing I have to a real historic artifact is an old bottle with a piece of the Donner cabin inside that dates back to 1846. I keep it in my Bobby Sherman lunchbox. If the piece of the cabin has no significant value I’m sure the Bobby Sherman lunch will be worth a fortune someday. And I keep that on a dresser underneath my velvet painting of dogs playing poker.