Creating Authenticity from Estate Sale Treasures
By Monica Bhide | December 11, 2016 |
Some priceless items found at estate sales (Photo by Monica Bhide)
Please welcome our guest Monica Bhide whose first novel Karma and the Art of Butter Chicken released earlier this year! Monica’s work has appeared in Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Saveur, The Washington Post, Health, The New York Times, Ladies Home Journal, AARP The Magazine, Parents, and many others. Her books have been published by Simon & Schuster and Random House (India). The Chicago Tribune named Bhide one of the seven food writers to watch in 2012. In April 2012, Mashable.com picked her as one of the top ten food writers on Twitter. Connect with her there and on Facebook.
***Monica has generously offered to give one lucky commenter a signed copy of her novel Karma and the Art of Butter Chicken! To be entered in the contest, please leave a comment and we will select a winner at random.***
Creating Authenticity from Estate Sale Treasures
Disclaimer: I have not revealed any personal information here or in my book from any materials I found. Even the words in the letters mentioned below have been altered a bit to respect people’s privacy.
One of the things I always look for as a writer is inspiration to create an authentic sense of place, time, and character.
My most recent book, my debut novel, released earlier this year. That book is set in a monastery in Delhi, and for that I traveled to Delhi and was able to go to several monasteries and talk to many monks. While this endeavor cost time and money, it was doable since monasteries are public places and I could go inside and ask questions quite freely.
My current novel is based in Washington, DC, and the suburbs of northern Virginia, where I live. I am currently working on creating characters who were born and grew up in this area. I have lived here for many years and know much of the area well, but the locations I selected for my book aren’t those I am familiar with. (This was deliberate, to force myself to learn new things.) I was really struggling with trying to get a deep sense of what it must have been like for families living here in, say, the 1960s through now. I did not want to use Google or the libraries – I was looking for something more firsthand. I wanted to find a different way.
Of course, one easy way was to talk to people who live in the places I was focused on. So I began to visit the areas regularly and talk to owners of stores, people walking their dogs, and so on. Then, quite by chance, I was invited by a friend to an estate sale in one of my places of interest. Visiting the house where the estate sale was being held, I felt like I had hit the jackpot. I found amazing things in the house: old letters dating back to the 1920s, beautiful postcards from that time that the person had collected. The house and its contents revealed so many stories.
Here is what I learned from visits to various estate sales as ways to create an authentic sense of time, place, and person.
Papers: So many estate sales sell boxes filled with old letters, postcards, and photos. For me, this was the BEST thing about visiting the sales. I picked up a box filled with over two hundred such pieces at one sale. There were letters from the 1920s from Paris, from the 1940s from Ohio, from the 1950s from Morocco. It was fascinating to read the language – “I had muggle and crackers for breakfast.” (I don’t know what muggle is, other than the current Harry Potter reference, but it gave me food for thought. Maybe the family had their own “food words.” We certainly do. Maybe muggle was milk?) To understand the angst of teens was different and yet the same: “Mother, the hairs on my legs are back and wont go away.” The mention of political events of the time: “Mother, I still cannot believe that Roosevelt is dead,” stated one letter from a college student. “When we were first told, I thought someone was talking about a pet who had died.” Added bonus: the feel of the lined envelopes, the purple 3 cent stamp on the envelope – all terrific details I can embellish and use in my book. Cost: box of papers, $2
- Clothes: The estate sales I visited had closets full of clothes, from fur coats (one woman had 19 of them) to shawls from around the world. I took furious notes, since I could not afford to buy the coats! I touched, I felt the fur, I wondered if my character would ever wear it. Oh, and then there were the hats. It was like a dress-up playdate for me and my characters as I wandered from closet to closet wondering what they would wear and why they would choose that. Cost: shawl, $3
- Dishes: So this is interesting. I discovered, at some of the older homes, that people loved to collect dishes, which is nice but pretty mundane. Then I stumbled onto one home that had a collection of intricate crystal salt cellars, and I just knew that my character could collect these. It was not something that would have occurred to me otherwise. Cost: salt cellar, $5
- People: No, people are not for sale at estate sales. What I mean here is that I talked to a lot of collectors who show up at the fancier estate sales. They know so much. I talked to one woman who was appraising lamps, and she told me how she thought one of the lamps was a rare one from Europe. Again, it is a detail I can easily add to my story, even if the actual lamp was beyond my dollar budget. Cost: conversations, free
- Books: Of course, many estate sales are filled with books. While I love buying books, I was more interested in the inscriptions in them. I found one from a graduating high-schooler (dated early 1970s) to her friend: “friends and music are the only two things in life that are a constant” Cost: reading inscriptions, free
“…breakfast of muggle and crackers…”
- Photographs: It really amazed me to see how many of the sales included old photos. I found pictures that were decades old. One in particular stayed with me: an image of a nurse holding a newborn. It is a black-and-white image dated 1922. There is a small cut on the nurse’s hand. The light from the window gently lights up the face of the baby. Just so much inspiration in one photo. Cost: photograph-filled box, $1
- The setting: Walking around the house, at one particular sale, I took notes on the unusual layout (kitchen on topmost floor), the style of garish-golden furniture, the paintings on the walls, the style of cabinets, and so on. All this really helped me decide what kind of a house my character would live in, how would his bedroom look, what would the view be from his window, etc. Cost: ambience, free
Finally, at one estate sale, I found an unopened letter from the 1920s. It was in great shape. Not a rip or a tear. To say that it provided me all kinds of inspiration for the week it remained unopened would be an understatement. It was a letter from a college kid to his mother. Why had she not opened it? What would I find when I opened it? What did it all mean? I did open it. What did I find inside? I will let you use your imagination to fill in the blanks.
For me, going to estate sales has proved to be a boon to creating believable places, settings, and people. The cost has been a few dollars, as documented above. The experience and rewards, priceless.
PS: If there are no estate sales in the area you want to research, try going on realtor.com to see if there are houses for sale there. I have used the photos to create a sense of place as well. If there is an estate sale but you cannot attend, go to Google and see if they are offering pictures of what is on sale. Many sales are quite good about this, and it helps you get information as well. One last point: not all estate sales are worthwhile. I have been to a fair share that offered little of use. But then, I have had futile search days at the library as well! This is just one more tool for your research arsenal.
Have you used estate sale items or similar for inspiration in research? What are some other research tips you can share?
***Please leave a comment to be entered to win! Monica has generously offered to give one lucky commenter a signed copy of her novel Karma and the Art of Butter Chicken! A winner will be selected at random from comments.***
Monica Bhide is an award winning writer, literary coach, poet, storyteller, and educator. As a bestselling fiction and internationally renowned cookbook author, Bhide is known for sharing food, culture, mystery, and love in her writing. Having roots and experience in many places, Bhide inspires readers everywhere with present day stories which transcend cultural, chronological, geographical, economical, and religious borders.
Bhide’s short story collection, The Devil in Us, topped the list on Kindle as a bestseller in its category of Literary Short Fiction. Her memoir, A Life of Spice, was picked by Eat Your Books as one of the top five food memoirs of 2015. Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi picked Bhide’s Modern Spice (Simon & Schuster, 2009), as one of the “Best Books Ever” for Newsweek in 2009.
A respected writing authority, Bhide appears regularly on NPR and conducts sold-out workshops on writing, food, culture, and scheduled speaking events at prestigious venues as the Smithsonian Institution, Sackler Gallery, Les Dames d’Escoffier, Georgetown University, and Yale University. She has taught all over the world including conferences in London, Dubai, US etc. She has also been the “Writing Coach in Residence” for the annual conference of the Association of Food Journalists.
Thanks for this article. I am working on my first novel (as I’ve been for about 7 years! Yikes) . The storyline is based partly on an old album and follows genealogy of a family. I’ve been trying to research mostly in that area but these ideas are fantastic. Can’t wait till yard sale season comes back–even if I happen to be done this novel by then. Also, of note, as a scrapbooker, I have a small collection of old photos and always say some day I’ll write a story about my “found” relatives. This would be a cool way to add to that. Can’t wait to check out your novel now! Thanks again.
Oh boy can I relate to this! I work at a pawn/antique shop and the stuff we acquire is fascinating. Tools we don’t know what they were used for like a pill roller (it took a week before someone came in who knew what that was), photographs (I have one on my fridge of a young woman from the late 1800’s and I know exactly who she is and what her story will be when I write it), furniture like fainting couches, and old farm tables, paintings, toys, and of course books. Among the latter is one of real estate from the 40’s or 50’s of estates (I adore old large houses) and another called Life on a Medieval Barony which inspired a whole host of ideas. As you may imagine, I love my job not only because of all the interesting stuff that comes in but also the people who range from those pawning (usually stuff that they absolutely cannot lose and WILL come back for but often don’t) and the other pickers and people who know about stuff we don’t. Honestly, it’s the funnest job I’ve had. And yes, I know funnest isn’t a real word but that’s what I tell people about job.
Your PS is invaluable, thank you. Never thought of estate sales as a resource, and this allows me the freedom to benefit even if I cannot attend a sale.
I love these suggestions, thank you! Getting to touch and feel period clothing is the best way to be able to describe what characters are wearing. I also try to keep an eye out for maps and travel books at sales/antique shops–understanding how people got around and how long journeys took can be another entryway to characters.
Love this post and love the title of your book. I hope the recipe for Butter Chicken is included! Recently my husband went through a box of letters and postcards his mother had passed on to him. He read from the letters and we looked through his family album to find the names mentioned. I loved hearing of a new son-in-law who ordered his MIL to have a “to-do” list ready when they would come to visit, and how the letter writer was sending her sister a bag of shelled pecans from her best tree. Best wishes with your book!
This is so fascinating! I loved reading about the estate sale “finds,” especially that unopened letter from the college student. Imagining what it said would be a wonderful writing exercise for a small group. Best wishes on your new book!
Wonderful article. Im going to try going to some estate sales.
I go to cemeteries for inspiration. Some of the tombstones have epitaphs that are dated from long before I was born. Sometimes there are relatives or spouses buried close to each other. One ancient headstone dated from the 1800s had a man buried next to an epitaph that gave the birthdate of his wife. There was no date for her death, and she wasn’t buried beside him. What happened to this woman after her husband’s death? I answered that question with a character in one of my stories.
Thanks for a muse awakening post.
Although I enjoy finding antiques, I never thought of going to an estate sale. The letters and photos would be a treasure! Thanks for a great article. Congratulations on your debut! My mouth watered immediately upon seeing Butter Chicken and the cover. Please put my name in the hat.
My husband and I also like to attend estate sales and find all kinds of things that set my imagination on fire. It’s interesting that throughout our lives we cling to our possessions, but once we are gone strangers may paw through them searching for their own treasures. I find that a little unnerving. It’s kind of undoing a life, isn’t it? But for us writers lots of juice for stories. Thanks for sharing.
Love these ideas — thanks!
I used real estate listings in Seattle to create the fairy tale home that wasn’t quite so magical for the murder victim or his daughter in Assault & Pepper, and info from the houseboat owners’ assn website and real estate listings, along with our own walk around the area on a visit, to create a recurring character’s home. In cities, look online for a neighborhood assn website and blog, and check out the shops and restaurants! I get so much flavor (sorry!) from the menus.
For the WIP, set in a city where I used to live but can’t visit until spring, I wanted to remind myself what a particular hotel looked like. Turned out it had been featured on a recent “Hotel Impossible” episode, and watching that helped me get a good feel for how a visitor new to the city would see both city and hotel. All online, not live, but I’ll have new eyes when I visit.
I’ve also gone to furniture and antique stores, browsing as if I were one of my characters — all the fun with none of the bills! And if you can’t take photos — sometimes prohibited — sketch!
What an interesting idea, I would have never have thought of using this as a way of researching. Not sure how many estate sales there are in the UK, but there are plenty of antique shops that sell old letters and photos. Will definitely be using this in the future.
I loved this post. Practical advice for making your writing come alive.
In my previous life, I was an auctioneer’s wife…so I have worked my share of estate sales. When you are looking at the items, look closely at what people keep going back to look at before the sale starts. Then ask them what makes it special. Often there are family members in the audience and the pieces have a story that only they can tell.
Great reminder of where to find the story, thank you.
LOVE the estate sale idea–I may have to check some out. For the last 2 years I’ve been attending marble auctions for research and am always suprised by how exciting they turn out! Always that one item that goes for waaaay too much…
Thanks for the article. I found it helpful.
Monica- I just finally got to reading this post and it made me grin. I am a junk shopper and find similar inspiration in antique barns, thrift stores and the like. I’ve always wanted to check out estate sales in the area where we go, in the sticks, in the summers, and I think you may have just provided the excuse that I need. THANKS!!
What kindred spirits we are…I can get so lost in boxes of old photos. Letters and other things most people at sales don’t want…I am a chronic lifelong writer, journal keeper and when “my estate” is up for an estate sale I hope someone like you finds my journals and writes my story, I have tried but it is way too complex…thanks for great post!!