Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

“I’m getting old.” The lugubrious tone was hilarious.
“Why in particular?” You have to remember that this is my son. If he’s feeling old, he must see me as ancient… I wasn’t giving him that opening though.
“I like Antiques Roadshow.” I tried, unsuccessfully, to restrain the smile. It could be worse. Apparently it was. He was watching the ‘box set’ of episodes and thoroughly enjoying them.

My own age nibbled at my heels… I remembered the show starting with Arthur Negus. Worse than that, I remembered ‘Going for a Song’ when that started too, with the avian automaton that heralded each episode.

“I used to hate it,” he said. “It was boring when you watched it.” Which I always did. My mother had a small antiques business for years and I had grown up surrounded by the old things in my great-grandparents’ homes. The personal heirlooms once owned by…