And so it began...

 

The birth of my lifelong obsession with collecting things started with this place....

 

..." The Dime Store" or Ben Franklin Five-and-Dime, that wonderful place of my childhood. The bell ringing when you opened the door, the squeak of the hard wood floors, and the smell....an odd mix of candy, mothballs, and rubber toys. Admittedly, that last part might have just been me, because all I cared about were the toys. Which leads me to the first thing I ever "collected"....

Strawberry Shortcake miniatures! I blew my meager $2 weekly allowance on these wonderful little dolls with the (literally) unforgettable scents.

 

 

     Recently I found one, still on the card, at one of my favorite shops. It's Strawberry Shortcake herself with her broom saying, I keep my house "berry" clean. I love her for it because I aspire to that as well, but sadly, I fail most of the time. Clean? Perhaps. "Berry" Clean? No.

    The back of the card shows all of them to collect. For me, as a kid, the holy grail was Sour Grapes. My family traveled a lot and no matter in what store I looked, in any town, I just couldn't find her. Thank you ebay! Nope, not as exciting as running into the dime store to find her hanging among the toys, but a childhood dream came true nonetheless. Isn't that what collecting is about anyway? So what if it takes 30 years?

     This is why I'm so passionate about my store and other small online sellers. In many ways, we are just like the old locally-owned dime stores. I get great satisfaction from my own collections and also from finding treasures and sending them to their rightful owners. Helping them to find something when, no matter in what store they look, in any town,  they just can't find it.

     I am fortunate enough to live in a place that has more thrift stores than Starbucks, (which sometimes makes me sad because I LOVE salted-caramel frappuccinos), and many flea markets, antique malls, and junk shops. All of my life, I have been a lover of old things; their history and the stories they tell. I am a researcher by nature. When I discover an item, I must find out when it was made. What was going on in the world that contributed to its design or use? And how can I best use that item to evoke its sense of history and nostalgia? Or to simply look pretty in my home! 

     This blog is where I plan to share the items I find for myself, or for others, and information that I gather from my research pertaining to all things antique, vintage, retro, kitschy, or just plain old.

And the oddities part? Well, let's just say that one of my collections is rats. Fake ones of course! That is definitely a post for another time....