Nothing lasts forever

About a decade ago, my wife was regularly hitting estate sales in the hunt for treasure. One morning she called me to say she found a cannon and part of a gun carriage. We pulled the trigger, and I was excited to have bought a cannon!

We soon found out the cannon was a replica — and it didn’t go with the carriage frame. The wheels were likely from an old wagon. The carriage was already in bad shape and after consulting with a few individuals, I learned there wasn’t much value.

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” I was told bluntly.

Seeing that we couldn’t really sell it, I opted for a garden display. What military collector wouldn’t want an old artillery piece in the backyard?

After some research, we ended up purchasing a plastic gun tube from a company in New Zealand that makes replicas for movies and TV. It actually made for a nice display in the garden. For the first few years, with the aid of the neighbor’s sons, I’d move the carriage into the garage for the winter and then back out again in the spring.

However, it was eventually apparent that these wheels and carriage shouldn’t even be outside at all. The wood was dry and the hot summers outside and cold winters in the garage were doing it no favors. I made the decision about five years ago to just leave it out – knowing its days were numbered. It also meant we could park both cars in the garage in the winter.

It wasn’t just the snow, rain, and sun that threatened our faux cannon that sat on a small mound in the garden. Squirrels and other critters climbed over it, and the power company’s tree cutters dropped a branch or two on it.

But it somehow endured.

Then, this June after a heavy downpour, nature finally won. One of the old wagon wheels gave out and the cannon collapsed. It would have happened sooner, but the plastic tube lacks the weight of an original cannon.

It now resembles a destroyed field gun after a major battle — or at least what Hollywood might have us believe. I have already made up a story of how it was like that when we bought the house, and how it was the remains of some forgotten battle fought in the suburbs long ago. But it also serves as a reminder that nothing lasts forever.

In this case, this faux carriage was already in rough shape by the time it was in my garden, but eventually all of the items we collect will reach a similar state.

I’ve never been one of those collectors who took the view that I’m a temporary caretaker of history. I don’t want my collection to end up in a similar state as this carriage, and I do my part to preserve the items in my collection. But I also know that leather and cloth will degrade, and steel will rust. It is commendable to preserve these items, but time is going to win in the end. It is also doubtful — even with modern science — that any of us will live as long as the biblical Methuselah.

As the list of departed friends sadly grows, and will only continue to do so, I’m reminded again to enjoy these items. It has been suggested to me that perhaps my helmets shouldn’t be on shelves and instead should be packed away in bins, and my old uniforms shouldn’t be displayed on mannequins or least should covered in sheets to help preserve them. Yet, that would take away from my ability to appreciate what I admittedly paid a great deal of money to buy.

Moreover, it is unlikely that my enjoyment today will deprive some future collector of owning some obscure helmet, even if a few of us are unhappy that there are so many helmets from the Roman Republic out there that they’re actually affordable!

The fact is that some items are rare because there wasn’t really all that much interest in preserving those items in the past, and there might be no interest in the future by anyone to have a cannon in the garden or a shelf full of helmets. I display my collection for myself, knowing that it might shorten its time on this Earth a bit, but no matter what I do, it just won’t last forever.

And next time you’re in my neck of the woods, I’ll happily share the story of how I believe my cannon might have been used in a skirmish during the War of 1812!