The Thrill of the Hunt

I first wandered into my local (very) small town antique shop when I was just a little girl. Like, seriously…in elementary school, maybe 4th or 5th grade. Maybe 3rd grade now that I think about it. I was all by myself on a mission to find something really special for my mother’s birthday. It was summer so usually I would’ve been roaming around town with one or more of my girlfriends, going to The Donut Shop then on to Sterling’s. Not sure if anyone else except our little town had a Sterling’s but it was like today’s version of a Target. Only about a quarter of the size but still a very large store. It had everything from a big candy section to a makeup section to a large toy section to a clothing section. They even sold baby chickens & ducks right before Easter (which my cousin & I always got and took to our grandparent’s farm as our own personal pets…all good fun until I ended up with a mean rooster one year). What’s not to love about a place like Sterling’s? We’d wander all over downtown (one street, being Main Street) waving at all of the storeowners as we walked by their big picture windows. Everyone knew everyone! It was just like Mayberry RFD. It REALLY was.

It was a VERY different time then when little kids wandered all over town unattended. I always explored around town with my girlfriends except when I walked to our local library. There I didn’t want distractions. I LOVED our local library and felt SO grown up when I first got my library card. I’d stay for hours, check out an arm load of books then head home. But on this one day, I headed to the library and returned the books I had read and decided I needed to go look for something for my mother’s upcoming birthday instead of spending a bunch of time looking for books. Even though kids back then were sorta’ like free-range chickens…I still knew I had a limited time before my mother, father, grandparents, aunts, uncles & the whole town would be looking for me. So with no books in tow, I headed to a new shop that had just opened. Our very own antique shop.

I will never forget how I felt walking into that shop. The lady behind the counter greeted me, asked if I was looking for someone (like maybe I was lost or something) and I quietly told her I’d like to look around for a gift for my mother’s birthday. The lady was SO sweet and welcoming. She told me to look around as long as I’d like and to let her know if I needed any help or had any questions. She treated me as if I were a grown person I thought, it was AMAZING. Her attitude towards me AND the actual shop! I felt so at home.

I remember walking around and very carefully looking at everything. It wasn’t a fine antiques store by any means but they did have antiques and lots of vintage too. I FELL IN LOVE THAT DAY. I wanted to ask about every single thing I saw but was smart enough not to want to bother the nice lady. I have no idea how long I stayed that day, it seemed like a long time and I knew the “search parties” were starting to circle the wagons because I could tell by the change in the light outside that I needed to get home. Sure enough, when I got home…it was clear that my mother was both mad & relieved. Then I showed her what I had found for her birthday and she melted.

I wasn’t trying to get out of trouble by giving her the gift several days early…I was just so excited about what I found. The gift AND the shop! My mother to my knowledge has never been in any antique or vintage shops unless she was with me or in one of the many I came to rent space in many, many years later. She never went to yard sales or thrift shops or auctions. Same with her mother, her sisters or anyone else I knew growing up. My family had/has antiques (some very, very good ones) that were passed down but they didn’t go out seeking them like I did (and still do). This was something I found all on my own. It was my “thing”.

My dad who I loved dearly (for sure a Daddy’s girl) never could understand my obsession with antique malls or thrift shops. He did go with me on occasion when he would come to visit after I moved away (my mother usually had some excuse & would meet up with us later, HA). He would always get creeped out and say it was dead people’s stuff which always let me know we’d better go. I tried many times to explain that it just wasn’t (necessarily) the case. He just didn’t get it. He’d say…let’s go to a “real” store and I’ll buy you something. SO funny! Not sure if that was a generational thing or what but my folks were not into any of it. I felt like I had found a whole new world. Antiques & vintage shops, thrift stores, auctions, yard sales, estate sales…you name it, I’m there! Stuff on the side of the road, SCORE!

So what was that very first item I bought way back when for my mother’s birthday? With my own money from my allowance! A precious, little green glass oil lamp (may be where my obsession with green started too now that I think of it, although I do love me some blue too). My mother had that little lamp for years & years and displayed it proudly in the kitchen on one of the built-in shelves on either side of the kitchen window. Even after it got a small crack in it, she kept it (until a house fire finally took it out…another story for another time).

This little green oil lamp (spotted in a local antique mall) is very much like the one that was my first ever purchase in an antique/vintage store. For my mother’s birthday. {Spruce-us.com}

I started reading books about antique periods & furnishings at our library soon after finding my mother’s gift (a bit strange I guess for an elementary school kid). As I grew older, I never missed a chance to pop into antique shops when our family went out of town and especially when I went away to college then came back close to home to what was “the big city” to me growing up…Memphis, TN (which was full of amazing antique shops of all levels price wise). It just so happened that my best friend worked in a very upscale antique shop for several years. We both taught each other a lot over those years and every single weekend we hit our favorite antique shops (that were more inline with our budget), along with yard sales & the occasional estate sale (usually a bit steep for our blood in those days but fun to look & learn).

I say, unless you are a very serious collector or are buying with hopes that your purchases will go up in value or at least hold their value (which is never a sure bet anyway…like many things, they are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them),…buy what you like and of course, can afford. Buy what works for you and what speaks to you. As long as you love it…it’s priceless. Don’t be put off by antique stores that seem a bit uppity either. If you want to learn & see what’s in a shop…go in! Ask questions, look around. At the same time, don’t forget to visit your local antique malls & large venues (usually outdoors but not always). These places are so much fun! Lots of great stuff to look at and learn about and the dealers usually love telling you about a piece (or at least what they know or were told about it).

These huge antique fairs are held throughout the US and all over THE WORLD. They are well worth a weekend pilgrimage if you don’t have one near you. Just Google ‘Antique Fairs’, you may be surprised that there’s one or more very near you. What’s your favorite antique fair? Is it Round Top? What about Renningers?

Happy Treasure Hunting!

~Scarlett

PS) I’ve been very blessed that my grandmother did give me her mother’s (my great-grandmother) antique china cabinet and my grandmother’s collection of cut glass cake stands & fruit salad serving bowls and all of her large (serving) Fiesta Bowls and her china and her silver and her biscuit jars and her McCoy Pottery collection and her set of steel nesting mixing bowls and her favorite cast iron frying pans and her family photos (which I insisted on making copies for all of my aunts & my mother) and several other items such as several of her prized pieces of jewelry (she did love a good brooch & nice earrings). She insisted that I take these things over a number of years. She would never take no for an answer. I would tell her maybe her 5 daughters may want these things and she would just say…she wanted me to have them while she was still alive. My dear, dear Nana lived to be a few months past her 100th birthday.

These items may all sound like a collage of “stuff” but to me…it’s all priceless. These were my grandmother’s most prized possessions. The one thing she had that had been her mother’s (oak china cabinet) and items that she either used most every day or things she brought out for special occasions or family dinners. I miss her every single day.

PPS) Many, many years way after I was grown, my parents came around a bit about visiting antique/vintage shops. I. collected vintage books (used for decorating & some for reading too) and my mother wanted to restyle their very large built-in bookcases on either side of their fireplace. I was home for a visit and must have caught them in a weak moment and suggested we go “hunting' for books” for them. My mother had come around and was surprising very much into it! My dad was still pretty leery but he got in the game. My dad was an All American Football Player who landed himself on the cover of the New York Times (quite the feat for an ole Southern boy from a (very) small town in Arkansas. He went on to play in college ball too so he was nothing if not a team player. He was also quite the hunter of wild game for many, many years (a great golfer too, club champion several times even but I’m veering off here…) so, when he knew the play book was to find certain types of books, certain colors & also good leather bound books to fill their bookcases…he was in!

The three of us found loads of amazing books. We hit one location, then another. We went several days while I was home. It warmed my heart that after I flew back to Florida, those two non-going antique hunters became quiet the pickers! It became a weekend thing for them for awhile and they really enjoyed it. After their bookcases were properly stocked with just the right amount of old books and everything was styled, they gave up the “hunt”. They always said it was fun but I guess the bug just didn’t stick with them. They would go on occasion when I’d go home just to look around and I’d even point out a few items that I thought would look great in their home but for them it was just about the books and the occasional walk around an ole’ shop when their daughter visited, which was nice. Very nice! Life seemed to have come full circle. Books & antique shops.