Inspired by lines from T.S. Eliot's poem "East Coker," Richard Quinney contemplates in this memoir his family's artifacts and their final disposal when their generations-old farmhouse in southern Wisconsin must be vacated.
In the attic were the spinning wheel, high chairs, baby beds, quilts, the cradle scythe, boxes of books, framed paintings and photographs, sets of dishes and silverware, and, spread on the floor, and the rosary beads that served...