Ah, yes! That enchanted land of wish fulfillment. I've been there many times ... wandered into darkened, musty, rooms somewhere in an abandoned house ... dusty cardboard boxes lying in a corner ... I open the first box ... it's filled with golden-age comics, never mint, but gently aged and with that faint pulp aroma ... I inhale the aroma and am transported into a sub-dream of myself as a kid reading those same comics. Are there more comics in the other boxes? I wake up with an ache of longing in the pit of my stomach!
I actually went through a similar scenario twice in real-life, in two different neighborhoods; first in the 1970s and again in the 1990s. In the '70s I lived in a summer resort area - sparsely settled & kind of run-down. Over the years I noticed that one of the cottages in the neighborhood never seemed to be occupied. One summer afternoon my curiosity got the better of me and I tried the front door. It was unlocked! I stepped in! What I found was a furnished, dusty, cob-webbed, but perfectly preserved interior. A telephone book & telephone from the 1940s were lying on a side-table. On the kitchen table were dirty plates. It was as if the owners up-and-left the house in a hurry way back then, closed the door behind them - but didn't lock it ... maybe because they expected to return soon. In a tiny storage shed in the back I found two cardboard boxes, partially rotted. Inside were stacks of magazines: Life, Coronet & others. But alas! No comic books!
In the second incident in the '90s, I was living in a very old neighborhood in the city. Over the years I noticed that the house behind mine seemed to be abandoned. One summer afternoon I noticed that cats were going in and out of the house through the back door. I wandered over and found the door ajar. As a 'responsible neighbor' (my excuse to myself) I entered the house to investigate. The two-story house was furnished, but everything was in turmoil. Cardboard boxes were scattered in most of the rooms - upstairs and down - too many boxes to open in one day. The ones I did open downstairs contained stacks of sports cards, music cassettes, magazines (all of recent vintage), and photo albums. Again, no comic books! It was now close to evening and getting dark. I chased the cats out and closed, but did not lock, the door behind me. I expected to go back to the house again to see what was in the boxes upstairs, but never got the chance. The house was sold and locked - leaving me to wonder to this day about those boxes in the upstairs rooms.
In partial compensation to my collector urge, I did find some antique items behind the walls of my own house (built in the late 1800s) during a remodeling project: Letters in stamped envelopes dated 1900; a pair of granny eye-glasses; newspapers from the 1900s; children's toys; empty glass containers and boxes of patent medicines and soaps from a famous retailer - the Larkin Company, buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
None of the above compare with the dreams of finding a stack of golden age comics!
