Book with local ties to be featured at Good Samaritan Society this Sunday

Sunday, January 28, a book with connections in the Waukon area will be featured at an event being held at the Good Samaritan Society-Waukon and open to the public. "BECAUSE OF ADELINE: My Life With Antiques," written by John Haltmeyer, will be featured at a program of reading selections from the book and discussions with the author that will take place beginning at 2 p.m. at the Good Samaritan Society, located at 25 First Street SE in Waukon.

Haltmeyer is known to many in the area as a knowledgeable collector of handmade furniture and carved work by early immigrants from Scandinavia. This book tells the story of how Haltmeyer, as a college student at Platteville State Teachers College in Wisconsin, needed some old wooden duck decoys for a display case at the college. He heard that a collector named Adeline might have some, and from her he learned about collecting and marketing antiques.

His story takes the reader into the excitement of household auctions where a special ale bowl might be for sale. The reader also follows him as he nervously knocks on the doors of farmhouses, especially those with windows decorated with lace curtains and plants, and tries to speak Norwegian to the folks who might have “old things” they would consider selling.

A number of the pieces that he found in those ways are now in the collection of the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah. During the 30 years that he and Adeline (who became his wife early in his story) had an antique showroom, many interesting characters entered their lives. Haltmeyer’s humorous accounts of these folks and of buying and selling a variety of collectibles make this story an enjoyable read.

"BECAUSE OF ADELINE: My Life With Antiques" was edited by Dean and Geraldine Schwarz and printed by Anundsen Publishing Company, Decorah.