The Little Rolltop Desk

Pam and I went to a huge flea market at the Washington County Fairgrounds in nearby Greenwich, New York yesterday. There were countless vendors there selling just about everything you could imagine, from antique furniture to chatsky.  As we passed by one small booth, I noticed a small child's rolltop desk with a tiny swivel chair among all the items on display, just like I had when I was a kid. When we moved from Schenectady to Waterford in 1955, my dad put the desk in the basement and screwed a pencil sharpener to the top right hand corner. That was to be my homework desk.  

I never knew what happened to that desk. When we moved in 1965, I got a new homework desk.  Most likely, the little rolltop was passed off to relatives, who also passed it around or gave it away over the years. 

I looked it over.  There was an antique desk lamp sitting on the little desk's right hand corner. I moved it. There were screw holes. For a pencil sharpener?  Was this desk mine?  The middle drawer was always stuck closed on mine and I could never get it open to put anything in it.  I reached for the middle drawer and pulled.  It was stuck.  Even as an adult, I couldn't pull it open.  

When we got home, I got out the baby book my mom put together for me starting in 1950. The last photo taped in it was Christmas of 1953. This is me sitting at that desk, bottom photo, at Steinmetz Homes in Schenectady.

Pam is going back to the fairgrounds on Sunday.  She thinks we should buy this desk if it's still there.  I think I'm too big for it now.