snapshaught sphoto number 13

          When I saw this 1¾" (45mm) sphere in a Portland, Oregon, antique mall I thought it might be a vintage "feathery" or "leathery" golf ball.  The tag said: Antique ball, $39.  I doubted it was a golf ball because of its size (slightly too large, compared to modern ones) and its price (too small for a nearly unused stitched leather 125 year old ball); I bought it anyway.

          Although commonly confused with golf balls (by the unscrupulous or ignorant) this was actually used to play Fives—a type of handball game involving hand-made soft leather balls of this size, weight, and style of stitching—between the late-1800s and early-1900s mostly in Britain.

          The memories this sphere instigates are about the period in my life between the summer of 2014 after receiving my new car, exploring antique stores with Pam, sitting in the sun at my desk in the dining area of my apartment, and walking in local city cemeteries with my cat, Cecil, but before 2016 when Cecil (for no reason I could determine) stopped wanting to explore cemeteries and, instead, skulked back to the car and hid under it.

          Also, it reminds me of the Monticello Antique Mall in Portland's Montavilla neighborhood, where we would regularly eat at The Observatory, a great restaurant (lifetime best: cheese plate and charcuterie plate and fry bread as a full meal for two or three).

similar essays:

Sphere Series (ongoing)
Whatz the Story Behind That (series)