Father's Day Finds - Great Treasures That Have Come Our Way

Not all found on Father's Day, of course, as we have to take a break sometime. But close enough.

You know that feeling you get when you walk in on something nice, perfect color and nicked in a nice way that lets you know it has been around awhile and lived an exciting life - and no one else knows what it is?

For that minute it's yours and you move to it as if you're in a dream, heart pounding, the light glinting off the surfaces in just the right way as the maker's hand begins to reveal more and more of itself the nearer you get.

Here was one of those, a nice plains Indian hatchet pipe, found in a local house one afternoon. We were just taking it easy, moving through the house and having fun, staying away from the shriekers and the shovers looking to shell out fifty cents for something they could sell at the flea market. A man ahead of us picked it up, snorted at it derisively and snorted again when he looked at the price tag.

"Reproduction," he said, moving off to the Depression Glass.

And then it was in our hand, warm and full, the haft just perfect and shaped 150 years ago, rocker engraving on the hatchet blade, everything just the way it should be. Paying at the door and looking up in time to see an Imperial German regimantal banner, hanging in a foyer wall.

"I'll take that, too," you say, heart thumping - and you know it's going to be a great day. Happy Father's Day!