By Jordan Rosenfeld

“ I go to these sales looking for specific items and [ one time ] came across a cast iron pan with a lid on it . I touched it and I felt an energy , I don ’ t know how to explain it . It just felt really cool . I could tell it was old ,” Parra said .

He paid seven dollars for that first pan and tried to research its value and provenance . Reaching out to another collector alerted him that he was on to something .

“ It turns out the first pan I came across had some value . Then I started looking for more . People have an attachment to something that ’ s old and has history .” Of course , money is not what drives him . “ I think I ’ m drawn more to the hunt . I don ’ t think it ’ s specifically cast iron … it could be fishing lures or cars , it ’ s the hunt ,” he said .

Though he laughingly shared that his five kids and some of his friends think he ’ s “ lost it ” for his sudden collecting habit , to Parra it feels perfectly natural , and brings his life meaning . The father of five , who retired last year , realized he need to find a way to keep busy , and the cast iron pan obsession came along at just the right time .

When he cooks in one of his pans that could be dated anywhere from 1892 — his oldest pan — to one from the 1960s , he feels connected to history and the people whose hands graced these pans before him .

Though many of the pans he collects come to him a mystery , occasionally he gets to know the details behind it , making it that much more precious . “ If it comes with a story , that ’ s even better .” He received one pan from his cousin who told him it had been in the family since the 1930s . “ That pan has a history . I keep it in my kitchen and will never get rid of it ,” Parra said .

What he doesn ’ t know , he envisions for himself . " You can imagine the people that have used each

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GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN SPRING 2021 gmhtoday . com