you could have knocked me over with a feather because this is something John would never do and I mean never - but he actually stopped the car in his suit and we dragged the dresser home - people do change you know. There was a time when I would not step into a second hand shop, can you imagine being that superficial? But there you have it, I simply would not do it and if I was out with someone who wanted to go into one I would mostly wait outside and pray no one I knew would walk by. NOW? I get excited to go to the Sally Ann - and second hand shops - it doesn't hurt that it's become a trendy thing to do ( save the planet ) I just love love love walking around and looking at old treasures but mostly I love the furniture - the beauty of the old pieces the bargaining with the shopkeepers but mostly I love the historical value that in my mind becomes priceless.
There was a time not so long ago when people retired from their first job - when they bought and lived in one home their entire lives - when spouses were forever - when appliances were maybe bought twice in a lifetime - when watches and pens were something people treasured - when people went to shoemakers to repair shoes ( are they even around anymore? ) When people wore Sunday clothes only on Sunday because simple cotton housedresses were fine for the rest of the week - when kids wore hand me downs and shared rooms - when there was only 1 T.V. in the house and everyone sat down together to watch it ( and it actually went dead sometime after midnight - nada zilch finished ladies and gentlemen come back tomorrow ) when there was only 1 phone and you had to stretch the wire into your bedroom closet for some privacy ( trust me I know - I stretched our wire out as far as it could go until I got my beloved princess phone ) when the milkman came every morning and replaced the empty washed bottles with fresh new milk, when furniture just got repainted when you wanted to change the decor in your room - it would simply be unthinkable to ask your parents for a new bedroom set. Life was uncomplicated and in my mind the 60's were an idyllic time to be a child - on the cusp of big changes for sure - but sill uncomplicated, still an innocent time in general. By the time I became a teenager in the 70's life was changing at a speed no one could have predicted and because I was a young teenager I changed with it - happily running where the changes would take me. Constantly buying buying buying - because everything had to be new and I had to have a lot of it. I look back now at 53 and do not see anything I had even 10 years ago never mind a lifetime - and I see that any precious piece I would like my kids to have one day are pieces I have bought recently - treasured heirlooms I have picked up at thrift shops. Priceless antiques that I have acquired for a steal and I wonder why on earth I didn't take some of my grandmothers pieces ( didn't want them at the time - they were old ugghhh ) what I wouldn't do for her piano today - or her antique glass cabinet with the cabriolet legs - instead I opted for chrome and glass - and then changed that for teak clean lines - and then changed that for.....................sinful isn't it?
Some of the pieces listed on CL tonight
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When I walk into these old shops or scour Craigs List they take me back - they've become my comfort food - they're the pieces I grew up with and they want to come home to roost. ( or at the very least someone's home )
XXX
Suzan
Oh how I wish you lived closer, we could go and scour the streets and the shop together! I also wish my husband would turn around like yours. I ask him to slow down when I see furniture on the curb and he speeds up, lol!
ReplyDeleteI get everything you say about getting excited going to the Sally Ann and all that and finding a neat item, it's a thrill like no other.