Yesterday was another nice, if cloudy day. Great for trash hunting, even if it’s a slower time of the month.
I came across these trash bags on Cartier near Gauthier.
It looked like this stuff once belonged to an older person. There were fabrics and plastic bags packed away in little boxes. There were also some parts or tools I don’t recognize. I took these as I reckon that someone out there can still make use of them – plus, it’s a good way for me to learn about what these “things” are. Any ideas?
There was some of Catholic paraphernalia, including these small medallions and a cross marked as being sterling silver. I found two rosaries as well.
A cassette tape with a picture of Brother Andre taped to it. Brother Andre was the main force behind the building of St-Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. He was credited for many miracles and was recently canonized (made into a saint). He’s definitely a important figure in Montreal and Quebec’s Catholic history.
For the atheists and sceptics out there (from the Oratory’s website): “He usually encouraged people to see a doctor for treatment. At the same time he told doctors, ‘Your skills are awesome. Your knowledge is a gift from God. Show your gratitude prayerfully.'”
As an aside, I’m also related to him somehow. He was a Bessette, as was my Grandmother on my dad’s side of the family.
I found a few little trinkets (which I left around town for others to find)…
and some religious books.
I also brought home this little piece marked Birks Sterling Silver. It’s pretty tarnished but I’m sure it’ll clean up nicely! It’s not in perfect shape (you can see a dint in the middle bottom of the tray) but is definitely still a nice early 1900s piece.
I came across this 5-CD player sitting in this box. As I was trying to fit it in my bag a woman opened her door and informed that “ca marche bien!” (it works well) and that they just didn’t need it anymore. My french is a work in progress but it seemed like they left it out hoping someone would take it. These sell on Ebay for around 20-25$.
This church (and it’s little second-hand store) has been throwing a lot away recently. My friend texted me to tell me about a bunch of canned food they were throwing away. They have a free meal thing every week and I guess these cans (which a passer-by said were donated to them) didn’t make the cut. Some of them were old and some of them had a little rust on the outside, however that doesn’t mean the food inside is bad. I took a bunch of the nicer looking cans.
There were also a bunch of old books in the pile. This one is a record book / ledger that details the minutes from regular conferences of the Society of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul from the early 1920s to the early 1930s. All of the contents are handwritten (some of which is easier to read than others).
I brought home the ledger, along with similar ledgers dealing with the 1930s and 1940s. I wish I could give you more detail, but the combination of the handwriting and my mediocre French makes it difficult (at least within a reasonable time-frame). However, in general, these seem to summarize the discussions (much of which involves money) that happened at these meetings.
It seems like these could be of historical interest. Anyone got any ideas as to what to do with them?