Story #15: Boat & Fishing Enthusiast Lawyer with a Locker Full of Family Antiques

This locker looked very dark in pictures. I saw some fishing poles and what looked like paintings stacked on the side, and decided to bid on it. It turned out to be a locker that belonged to a boat & fishing enthusiast, as it contained multiple antique boat photographs from museums, along with other boat paraphernalia, books & magazines. The person appeared to be a lawyer with his JD from Fordham diploma prominently displayed. In the back of the locker I discovered multiple family collectibles and antiques, including a rare racing trophy from 1929, multiple original oil paintings from listed artists, a fake Henri Matisse painting (a large oil portrait of a woman signed Henri Matisse), as well as antique mid-century modern furniture and other collectibles. The locker contained certificates and awards belonging to multiple people, mostly from France, and even included a rare signed photograph by the famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti. It occurred to me that what started off as a ‘weekend’ locker for fishing supplies turned into a ‘wrap-all’ storage for valuable items, just because the locker was there and paid for. The items were dumped without any order, with glass shattered all over the floor.

What struck me most was not the value of these heirlooms but their disarray. These curious objects had not been carefully stored, cataloged, or preserved. They had been dumped—valuable 1920s Era trophies mingling with shattered glass, like memories piled on top of each other until they became indistinguishable from one another. What began as a simple locker for fishing supplies had transformed into a catch-all, a place where things were placed not because they were needed, but because there was space to abandon them.

It made me wonder: is this not the way of human nature? To gather and preserve the tokens of our victories, our travels, our fleeting moments of beauty—and then, when the weight of them becomes too much, to set them aside, telling ourselves that someday we will return? The locker was not just storage. It was a mirror, reflecting the quiet chaos of a life lived, accumulated, and ultimately forgotten.