My daughter, Jane, has a thriving re-purposing business. She hunts up rusty old discards, buys them, changes them a bit and resells them. Like tiered locker baskets from a high school gym….. folks love those for sorting kids’ toys or for a mud room.
Take this old bedsprings I spotted in a salvage yard in Tacoma. “Carman’s Guaranteed for 20 years” with Carman Manufacturing Company in Tacoma, Spokane, Portland and Seattle. WELL! Spotting this was cool enough but then I Googled those words……… and found out that back on 12 June 1907 in the San Francisco Call (newspaper) a headline screamed: “Portland Furniture Magnates Plead Guilty!” The “Carman Manufacturing Company of Tacoma” was one of 20 members of the furniture trust who appeared in court charged with conspiracy to monopolize trade.
There is history everywhere!! Even in salvage yards in Tacoma!
And why was this notice in a San Francisco paper, I wondered?
Perhaps their furniture business was far-reaching!
On another note, I still have one of those old bedsprings that is covered in a velvet fabric (probably purchased cording with the cord taken out, then strung on the spring). It is a very handy earring tree!