It's On eBay: Vintage Affton Church Cookbook

This week on our series on Affton memorabilia on eBay features an old cookbook printed by Christ Memorial Lutheran Church, which now sits on Lindbergh Boulevard near Baptist Church Road.

The 1983 cookbook is titled "Heaven Sent" and was compiled by "M*A*S*H" which stands for "Marrieds and Singles for Him." The cover says the 137-page book is the "9712th."

The item is for sale by Bernadette Fishburne of North Carolina. Fishburne said she has been collecting cookbooks at estate sales for years. She ownes 20,000 of them, and has sold 20,000 more.

"I only sell the vintage community fundraisers, as they are rare—usually only a few hundred were ever printed, sometimes only a few dozen," Fishburne said. "They are very interesting because they often have ads from the local businesses. And of course, almost always name the contributors. I guess many of those people never had their name published in any other book."

"For example, my cookbook from my home town of Pierre South Dakota in 1962 has my Grandmothers recipes. She died in 1967, when I was 7. It also has ads from the businesses that I remember from when I was little. So it is my most prized posession," Fishburn continues. "As a time capsule, nothing can compare to these community treasures. Every day I get thank you's from people telling my how thrilled they are to have recipes from their hometown or relative, so I find it very rewarding."

If you want to relive the memories this cookbook might hold, it is available for $9.95 plus $4 shipping.