On Tuesday, May 5th, 1999, tragedy hit Blackhawk Stables hard. The basement of which it has called home for just a little over a year became flooded. The water reached a depth of six inches, creeping up even to my first shelves in my bookcases and damaging old Breyer manuals, boxes, ribbons, pictures, and a lot of other memorablia.
Both Iron Metal Chief (signed by owner) and Secretariat (signed by Penny Tweedy) were on the bottom shelves, and in the path of destruction. Their boxes were damaged, but not entirely ruined. Toby's box that had his owner's signature in it was damaged heavily, being on the bottom of a stack of boxes.
Two by two (and sometimes in threes), the models were brought up the basement stairs from the watery grave. Soon, horses began to flood the house, if you will, and they completely took over the spare bedroom downstairs.
With horses and other heavily damaged collectibles overflowing in the living room, the house was hard to live in for a while. The smell of mildew hung heavy in the air, and the tattered boxes were a disheartening sight.
After much work and repair, the Breyers were restored to their home. New carpet was installed, most of the boxes were glued back together, and the manuals were all dried out and kept in order. True, even though some of the damage was extensive, I didn't replace anything. How can you replace a loved one? Instead, we now have three more greatly needed bookcases and some new models from BreyerFest! :~) Moral of this story? Never leave your best models on the bottom shelf, and if it rains, please check to make sure the drain isn't covered so it can back up into your basement.
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