The Old Man and the Sea

Brenda and I made a stop to a Cape Town district recommended to us.  It was Mariner’s Warf in Hout Bay.  As soon as we stepped out of the car we saw the sign for “antiques” which is always appealing.

The old gentleman behind the counter hit the button to open the lock and let us in.   The sign said a maximum of 10 people could enter at a time, but Brenda and I were about the only tourists for several miles around.

The shop was much like a museum with stuff from around the world in jumbled heaps filling the smallish shop.  Most of it was related to seafaring.

In addition to seafaring sextants, hats, anchors, buoys, crab pots, and miscellany, he had some neat fossils.  Brenda really wanted some fossilized leaves, and I honestly tried to get her to buy them, but alas they were in a pretty big slab of stone, that would have eaten up a lot of our baggage allowance.

He also had scrimshaw for sale, which is now illegal for inter-state commerce in the USA.  Scrimshaw is blackened carvings in whale's teeth, usually of the sperm whale.  I bought some years ago in the Azores, when it was legal.

I asked the old fellow if I could take a photo of him but he decline "due to security", he said.  Despite the many interesting artifacts, the most interesting thing in the store was the man himself.  He had worked in many places around the world.  He was friendly, talkative and had a lot of stories.

And this is the way it really is.  People matter, stuff doesn't.  People are immortal, nothing material lasts.  People are more interesting, of far greater value than any possible competitor.

Now, to keep that in mind.