Dear Folks, A memory popped into my head tonight. It had to do when Great-Aunt Annie Riley died in 1943. She was the sister of my grandmother, Lillie (Essick) DeWees. Aunt Annie lived in Westchester, PA, whereas my grandmother lived in Steelton, PA. It was some distance to travel. Grandma was the closest kin of Aunt Annie and it was up to Grandma to settle her estate. My mother told me that Grandma took the train to Westchester and eventually made her way out into the country where Aunt Annie had lived. The whole estate was advertised for sale and when Grandma arrived it wasn't long before a vulture of a buyer showed up ready to grab up every single item of furniture and the contents in the house. Grandma knew that she had to retrieve such precious items that she could pack into cartons to ship back to Steelton. WWII was on and she couldn't depend on any of the family to drive there to take back any of it. After all, gas was rationed at that time. Grandma slaved in the hot summer sun trying to salvage whatever she could. All the while the vulture buyer kept circling around. At one point Grandma went inside the house and removed her hot corset. She took it outside and placed it on a barrel or such. It wasn't long before she noticed the vulture snatching it up for him to sell! Now I've never seen Grandma mad at all but Mother told me that Grandma was furious at the indignity and snatched it right back. Now here's the heartbreaking thing of it all. Aunt Annie and Uncle Will had furnished their house with the most wonderful (now antique) furniture, glassware, etc. that the family would have prized to have inherited, even if it were only a piece of glassware. Let's face it, both of them were born in the late 1860s. But in my memory as a kid, the most precious thing they had in their front parlor was their player piano. Oh how my sister Norma and I were thrilled that on occasion we would be permitted to play it. One of us would pump the pedals to get the piano roll going and we were fascinated by the music and how the piano keys would jump up and down to the music. But I guess that's the sort of thing that happens in many families. In some cases the children/heirs view all that stuff as just old junk and toss it out or burn it, including family bibles. And when you consider the family value of that "junk" it just about breaks you heart. But in Grandma's case, she did the best she could do. vee