Vintage

One of the best things about being a vintage dealer and store owner, is that I see the most amazing things come through my doors.  Vendors bring them in.  People call, and I buy things from them.  Sometimes I get to know the story, and can share that with a customer.  People really do love to know that the dresser they just bought was hauled out of a dusty old barn, and that before it was brought into the store, I had to relocate the world’s largest spider.  That’s the thing with new stuff - there’s just no story.  When I look through a pile of old photos from the turn of the century, I cannot help but think about the whole life that those people led leading up to that photo.  The transitory nature of life cannot be escaped when you look at a photo of a family who lived an entire life, and died a hundred years before I even set eyes on them.  My favorite old photos are the wedding pictures.  I always wonder if they were happy (people in old photos never really look happy), and if they enjoyed their wedding day as much as I did mine.  I ogle over the dresses, especially the ones from the 1920’s.  

Will I always be a vintage store owner?  I have no idea.  I know that I love owning and operating 1889 Salvage Co.  I am thankful that I get to come in contact with beautiful, patinaed, worn, and well- loved items that sometimes become part of my own eclectic home. I literally get giddy when I find something that I’ve never seen before, or anything that is so dang vintage that I can’t even stand it.  I love researching an item, and going down those rabbit holes to gather information about when it was made, or how, or where.  I can’t imagine ever getting tired of that.  Wherever I am, if I see a vintage shop or an antiques store, I am always drawn to it.  You’d think on vacation I’d want a break from my job as most people do.  But you see, that’s the thing about vintage for me is– pardon the pun – it just never gets old.