The Remains Of The Day, The Antique Adventures

THE SHOPKEEP WHO HAS TO PLEASE ONE AND ALL - WITH A DIVERSE COLLECTION

HUSTLING UP A LITTLE BIT OF THIS - AND THAT, HAS SOME ADVENTURE ATTACHED

     THE ANTIQUE BUSINESS FOR ME, HAS ALWAYS MEANT ONE ADVENTURE AFTER ANOTHER. THESE ARE NOT BIG HONKING ADVENTURES, AS COMPARED TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE TITANIC, OR THE MONTY PYTHON QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL. I'VE HAD A LIFETIME OF POCKET-SIZE ADVENTURES STARTING FROM CHILDHOOD, AND YES, MOST OF MY FINDS BACK THEN DID FIT IN MY POCKETS. HOCKEY PUCKS, CHESTNUTS, SHINY ROCKS AND CRICKETS.

     I DON'T THINK MY LIFE WOULD HAVE FLOURISHED, AS I FEEL IT HAS, UPON PERSONAL REFLECTION, IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THIS DAILY DESIRE TO DISCOVER THINGS I'D LIKE TO SEE, AND RELICS I'D LIKE TO OWN; AND AS AN HISTORIAN, FACTS I DIDN'T PREVIOUSLY KNOW. MY MOTHER MERLE SENSED MY WANDERLUST WHEN I WAS ABOUT FIVE, WHEN I HEADED DAILY, WITH MY MATES, DOWN TO THE BLACK SNAKING, BRAMBLE BORDERED "RAMBLE CREEK," AS IT FLOWED TO LAKE ONTARIO, UNDER THE LAKESHORE BRIDGE. I BUILT A RAFT EVERY SUMMER THAT I LIVED AT 2138 HARRIS CRESCENT, AN APARTMENT OWNED BY THE NAGY FAMILY OF BURLINGTON. AND EVERY YEAR, THE RAFT COLLAPSED INTO ITSELF BEFORE I COULD GET PAST THE FIRST SMALL RAPIDS. THE WATERCRAFT WAS TOO BIG ANYWAY, BUT IT WAS MY OWN POETIC JUSTICE, THAT MY PROPORTIONS WERE OFF THEN, AS THEY ARE TODAY. RAY GREEN AND I, WOULD BUILD THESE INTERESTING LOOKING RAFTS, WITH FOUND LOGS LASHED TOGETHER, BUT THERE WAS NO WAY, UNLESS WITH THE HIGH WATER OF EARLY SPRING, IT COULD POSSIBLY MAKE IT DOWN TO THE BRIDGE, ABOUT TWO FOOTBALL FIELDS AWAY. BUT THEN IT WASN'T ABOUT ACTUALLY SAILING THESE POORLY CONSTRUCTED RAFTS, BUT RATHER, WHAT WE IMAGINED OF OUR EVENTUAL ETHEREAL ESCAPE INTO THE CURRENTS OF THIS GREAT LAKE; AND ONTO THE ENDLESS PULSING WAVES, AND ENGAGING WINDS OF THE OCEAN. ALL RAY AND I HAD TO DO, WAS STAND ON THE RAFT, HOLDING UP THE MAST, WITH AN OLD HOLEY BED SHEET ATTACHED, AND IN OUR COLLECTIVE IMAGINATION, WE WERE OFF AND SAILING. THE FACT IT MIGHT HAVE GOT CAUGHT UP ON LIMESTONE OF THE FIRST CRYSTALLINE WATERFALL OF THE SHALLOW CREEK, DIDN'T MATTER WHATSOEVER, AND THE FACT WE WOULD BOTH ARRIVE HOME WITH SOAKERS, MEANT WE HAD FULFILLED AT LEAST ONE (TWO LEGS) ASPECT OF THE ADVENTURE. I WOULD HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED IF WE HAD COME HOME WITH DRY RUNNING SHOES, FOR ALL OUR EFFORTS TO SET TO SEA.

     I WAS THINKING ABOUT THOSE DAYS, THIS AFTERNOON, AS WE WERE TRAVELLING DOWN THE SUNNY HIGHWAY, TO ORILLIA, FOR OUR REGULAR SHOP-ABOUT, AND HOW NICE IT IS, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, TO ESCAPE NOW AND AGAIN FROM THE ENTRAPMENTS OF THE "SAME-OLD, SAME-OLD." I REALIZED, WHILE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE VAN, WAS LOOKING OUT AT THE STILL SNOW-LADEN FIELDS, THAT THIS VEHICLE, TRUNDLING ALONG, WAS MY MODERN DAY RAFT, AND I WAS MAKING IT PAST THE BARRIERS OF ONCE……AND BY GOLLY, THIS WAS THE SYMBOLISM ATTACHED TO THE WANDERING-GENE MY MOTHER IDENTIFIED EARLY IN LIFE. SON ROBERT SHARES THIS GENE, FROM WHAT I KNOW OF HIS NECESSITY TO ALSO GET A REGULAR CHANGE OF SCENERY. ANDREW AND SUZANNE ARE MUCH LESS COMPELLED TO HIT THE ROAD. IT DOESN'T MEAN THEY DON'T ENJOY IT……JUST THAT THEY WON'T GO STARK RAVING MAD IF THEY GET STUCK AT HOME FOR A FEW WEEKS, WITHOUT LEAVING THE NEIGHBORHOOD. I CAN TOLERATE STAYING IN ONE PLACE, AS LONG AS I HAVE A ROUGH IDEA WHEN I'M GOING TO BE ABLE TO ESCAPE. AS MUCH AS I LOVE BIRCH HOLLOW, AS A WRITER'S SANCTUARY, I CAN, AFTER AWHILE, START THINKING OF IT AS "STALAG 17," AND BEGIN MAKING COPIOUS PLANS FOR TUNNELING OUT. YUP, IT CAN BE THIS BAD. I WENT THROUGH A LOT OF GIRL FRIENDS WHO FOUND THIS ADVENTURE NECESSITY A LITTLE UNSETTLING. SUZANNE LIKES TO TRAVEL AND COLLECT, ALTHOUGH ADMITTEDLY, SHE HAS HAD SOME PROBLEMS WITH THE ANTIQUE DEALER ASPECT…..WHICH IS SO CLOSE TO GAMBLING, IT CAN MAKE MUTUAL DECISIONS A LITTLE TRICKY. NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT ANTIQUES AS A PROFESSION, YOU HAVE TO INCORPORATE THE GAMBLING COMPONENT. WHILE ANY RETAIL OPERATION MEANS DAILY GAMBLING WITH INVENTORY CHOICES, THE ANTIQUE PROFESSION IS DIFFERENT, IN THAT WE'RE NOT BUYING QUANTITIES OF THE SAME ITEMS OF INVENTORY. FOR THE GENERAL DEALERS, LIKE US, WHEN YOU COME BACK AFTER A DAY'S ADVENTURE, HITTING FROM SIX TO TEN VENUES, LOOKING FOR INVENTORY TO SATISFY YOUR CUSTOMERS, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO RETURN WITH TWO OF THE SAME PAINTINGS, OR FIVE OF THE IDENTICAL VINTAGE WOOL BLANKETS. WE TAKE CHANCES ON EVERYTHING WE BUY, NOT ON PRODUCT LINES, AS TYPICAL RETAILERS. ALTHOUGH WE GET VISITS FROM PICKERS, (TRAVELING ANTIQUE DEALERS SELLING THEIR WARES FROM A TRUCK), OUR INVENTORIES ARE ACQUIRED PIECE BY PIECE. WITH OF COURSE THE EXCEPTION OF BUYING ESTATES, OR LARGE COLLECTIONS.

     I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS A LOT LATELY, BECAUSE I'M GETTING ASKED MANY MORE QUESTIONS THESE DAYS ABOUT THE BUSINESS, INSPIRED BY THESE BLOGS. I'VE BEEN ASKED QUESTIONS RECENTLY I'VE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT BEFORE, AND PERSONAL QUESTIONS THAT HAVE STUMPED ME……AND THAT IS TOUGH TO DO, CONSIDERING MY VETERAN STATUS HUNTING AND GATHERING ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES. I'VE TRIED ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS TO EXPLAIN MYSELF, AND WHY I DO WHAT I DO! I'VE HAD SOME PRETTY PERPLEXED FOLKS LOOKING AT ME, WONDERING WHY I HAVEN'T RECEIVED TREATMENT FOR MY MALADY YET. I CAN WRITE AN EXPLANATION BETTER THAN I CAN STATE IT PUBLICLY, WHICH USUALLY HAPPENS, VERBALLY THESE DAYS, IN THE AISLE OF A SECOND HAND OR CHARITY SHOP; WHEN MY MIND IS WANDERING WAY AHEAD OF MY FEET. I CAN USE THE EXAMPLE OF MY EARLY "RAFTS," THAT I BUILT TO CARRY RAY GREEN AND I, ON TO WORLD ADVENTURES. I'M PRETTY SURE I WAS CUT OUT TO DO THIS STUFF, BECAUSE IN MANY WAYS, I'M STILL BUILDING MINDFUL VESSELS, TO HASTEN MY EXIT FROM STATUS QUO. AS I WAS DRIVING ALONG TODAY, I SUDDENLY REALIZED, THAT I MADE THE RIGHT DECISION, WHEN I BEGAN BUYING AND SELLING ANTIQUES BY MY LATE TEENS. I WOULD HAVE HAD A MISERABLE EXISTENCE IF I HAD CHOSEN SOMETHING THAT WOULD HAVE CONFINED ME. I WOULD HAVE MADE A LOT OF YOUNG LADIES VERY MISERABLE INDEED, IF I'D FOLLOWED THROUGH ON MARRIAGE INTERESTS, WHEN THEY COULDN'T HAVE LIVED UP TO THE "GO ALL THE TIME," PHILOSOPHY. ALWAYS ATTACHED TO THE ESCAPE, WAS THE EVENTUAL DISCOVERY. I NEEDED TO HAVE MY TRAVEL ADVENTURE, BUT IT WAS A HOLLOW EVENT, IF I DIDN'T FIND SOMETHING TO HAUL HOME. SO HERE I AM AT FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS OF AGE, AND IT FINALLY DAWNS ON ME, THAT GOD, OR MY GUARDIAN ANGEL (THAT I MET DURING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE) SET ME LOOSE AS A COUNTRYSIDE "WANDERER," AND "SEEK AND FINDER," IN LIFE. THERE ARE A LOT OF MESSAGES I GET FROM THE OTHER SIDE, BUT THIS REVELATION WAS VERY EARTHY AND NATURAL……LOOKING OUT OVER THOSE SAME SUN-SPARKLING FIELDS BETWEEN GRAVENHURST AND ORILLIA, NEARING THE CUSP OF THE OFFICIAL FIRST DAY OF SPRING. IT WAS CLEAR. I WAS MEANT TO DO THIS TRAVEL-ADVENTURE THING, AND I SUPPOSE, THAT IF I WAS TO LOOK BACK AT SOME OF THE MORE INTERESTING DISCOVERIES, I'D FIND THEM TO BE PUZZLE PIECES; PROBABLY MEANT TO CONNECT INTO SOME MORAL OF EXISTENCE. I'M NOT VERY GOOD AT PUZZLES, BUT I HAVE ALWAYS FOUND SOME NEAT COINCIDENCES THAT I COULDN'T EXPLAIN. NOT SO MANY TODAY, BUT THEN IT USUALLY TAKES A FEW DAYS FOR THE OUTCOME OF THE ADVENTURE TO SINK IN…..AND MAKE SENSE IF IT HAS TO…..BECAUSE ON THE SURFACE, I'M HAPPY WITH THE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE ON ITS OWN.

TRYING TO MAKE GOOD FINDS TO FILL TALL ORDERS

     Today was a pretty typical Sunday antique hunt…….that lately, seems to end up in a corner booth of the Mariposa Market, in downtown Orillia; a wonderful eating establishment we have been taking the boys to, since they were toddlers. We would go to Orillia early on Sunday mornings, for brunch at Mariposa, but these days, being a little older and slower, we don't make it through the door until mid afternoon. It's one of our antique hunting traditions, along with the regular stop at the Highway 11 New York Fries. I'm on a diet so I had to settle for a quiche today, and a small St. Pats chocolate filled pastry, with a whipped green topping. The boys had beaver tails and they looked fabulous. Point is, the drive, the hunt, the traveling shop to shop, venue to venue, and the finds, are wrapped up with edible treats…..explaining why we Currie's have food addictions. We're always treating ourselves for a job well done. Well, it is hard work out there, and after four or five hours of pawing through flea markets, pawn shops, charity shops and antique stores, we're exhausted and in need of sustenance. It's the way we relax and compare notes about the finds of the day. These finds will go back to our combined Gravenhurst shop, and be offered to our customers. We can only hope that we've covered a good swath of customer interest, because that's the true measure of our success. Come back with stuff no one wants, and you've just gambled away family resources. But considering we've been doing this forever, the gamble is a minor one these days.

     This afternoon, we returned home to Gravenhurst with some small but interesting treasures, including a good quantity of vintage vinyl and Frank Zappa collectibles. Robert is a "Zappa," nut, and is always on a quest, to enhance his private stash of his music memorabilia. He did well today with two concert posters and a back stage pass, from a Dweezil Zappa concert. He likes the whole Zappa family and would one day like to own one of Frank's art works he used to paint for recreation outside of the music industry. Andrew got some great jazz records that he sells by the dozen from the store each week, and assorted music memorabilia he collects for some of his hard-to-please customers. We meet up in that corner booth, after they exhaust themselves at a nearby vintage record shop, and love to talk about their big finds, and the records they're going to pick up on the very next visit. We are all very budget conscious, which limits the risk of any gamble we do take.

     Suzanne, bless her soul, came up with the final large, yellow stacking pyrex bowl, like the late 1950's set my parents had (see a blog a few days back, about the significance of these bowls), and she got them one by one out on the antique hunt. No easy feat but she is good at hustling through these second hand venues…..and has a long mental list of what we need to complete sets…..whether dishes, flatware sets, cups and saucers, china patterns and much more. I'm not so good in this regard, and often forget to keep a watch out for evasive items, we need to complete these small collections. She picked up four first edition cookbooks, for our upcoming cookery resource collection, and found some other collectable kitchen gadgets that we sell regularly from the shop. I arrived at the Mariposa Market show and tell, with a really nice original, and signed watercolor of the buildings of University of Toronto, and two commemorative bowls……and yes, from a pawn shop. One was an 1885 china plate, with "Happy New Years," stenciled on, from a Stratford, Ontario, china company, and another, a faded but still visible "1902 Coronation" bowl with the images of the new "King George and Alexandria," positioned inside a floral wreath with cherubs flying about the outside. Some colors of the portrait of the royal couple have faded, which is typical, but overall it's still an interesting conversation piece, for those who collect Royalty memorabilia. I was also able to pick up a wonderful little illustrated guidebook on the art history of Manitoba, and a first edition of the english translation, of a French recipe book for "chocolate," which is very, very tantalizing to a lover of all things sweet. I also picked up a nicely framed period needlework picture, that is perfect for our customers who collect nostalgia sewing pieces from the 1950 to 1970's. To complete the small but interesting haul, on today's hunt, I picked up a small 1950's table or cupboard-top shelf with doors, and nice enamel pulls. Oh, and did I mention the really swell period barometer, that I've included a picture of, posted above. This is a strange thing…….but we sell a lot of 1920's to 1970's barometers, so for our collector friends, it was nice to pick this one up for about six bucks. I don't know why barometers are all of a sudden a big deal, but we've sold several dozen in just over eight months. So we always have funky barometers on our want list.

     We didn't arrive back home with hundreds of acquisitions. But we did arrive at Birch Hollow, as we have many times before, fulfilled that we will be able to satisfy at least some of our customer base, with our latest discoveries…….from yet another regional adventure. It's quite a rush. Just like it was, standing on those loosely lashed logs, on those childhood rafts, that while not seaworthy in the least, were templates for things to come. I know that now. It was an epiphany. Better late than never. So it's true. For all these years I really have been following my heart. I just didn't know it!

     It was beautiful out there today, and if we hadn't found even one antique or collectable to purchase, the sightseeing at this turn of the seasons, in our fair province, was worth the miles travelled. Thank you for taking a few moments to visit with me today. We've got some cold and snowy days yet to come…..but we all know the end of winter is upon us. Drive carefully out there. Slow down and enjoy the view. It's magnificent. Gads, we live in a beautiful district on this planet, don't we?