I did little chores around the house while Justin got ready, and then got ready myself. The day was put on a still-more fortuitous footing by the receipt of an email from Lady Beth, acknowledging my Kindred petition, and basically telling me that it would be accepted, while not acting as the Official Acceptance. The email made me feel even better than I already did. I had been looking forward to today ever since we made the date.
So around 11am, we set off in Gracine with all our books to do some serious collecting. We had decided to do the 95 corridor out to Pickens. The first stop was the Easley Goodwill. Nothing there. Next was a junky place that Justin and Amanda found. As usual, we found nothing there (barring one refrigerator dish lid that was there the last time we went). We were getting ready to leave when the owner of the place told me he had some glass he wanted to show me, and led me back inside to his office. It was a very uncomfortable situation. He was a nice enough guy, but if he’d had anything I recognized he was the type to be convinced it was worth a fortune (if only because most of what he had was unidentifiable refuse). Secondly he had this gi-normous yellow-capped boil on his face. It was bright red, irritated, and looked as if it might go off at any moment; spewing over any hapless by-stander. I didn’t want to be that by-stander. But I am nothing if not intrepid, and I have seen some treasures in some surprising places. Plus, I just didn’t know how to tell the guy no. So I went.
His office was cluttered, stuffy and too hot from a kerosene heater. When we got in there, he couldn’t find whatever it was he wanted to show me. He proceeded, instead, to go through an itemized tour of the dubious treasures he had accumulated through his years of selling. Needless to say, we were pretty much under-whelmed. Justin tried to do a subtle Bugs Bunny creep out the door, but our swollen captor was having none of it. “Tell that boy to come back in here.” he demanded. “And tell him to close the door he doesn’t let all my heat out!” Justin, collared, slunk back in, and we reluctantly made the appropriate noises over his prizes for as short amount of time as was humanly possible under the circumstances. Eventually, we beat a hasty retreat under the most tenuous of excuses and drove gratefully the hell away from there, thankful that the angry boil was still intact.
Next was a small thrift store across the street. I have never scored there, but it’s a promising-looking place, and they had some interesting things coming in the door when we were there today (albeit nothing we actually wanted to purchase). Justin was a wee bit discouraged at this point, but I reminded him that these were just warm-up places, and that we had yet to get to some of our most favored and reliable haunts. My optimism proved well-founded. We ended up having a red-letter collecting day today.
Next was Mountain View Hotel Antiques. Usually, for me, this is really more of a museum tour than an actual store. They have some lovely things, but most of them are outrageously priced. Many of them have been there so long that the price stickers are completely illegible. But it is a beautiful store in an actual old hotel, and well worth looking around for entertainment if for no other reason. They also have a piece of Mosser glass that I’ve been visiting and studiously not purchasing. I did so again today. But they also had an elusive blue Bubble Glass flat soup bowl. These are pretty tough to find, but this one was priced at $15 - $3 over book. Although I rarely pay full value for anything, I have decided to use this for everyday, so I could justify a kind of need for it. Plus I was just in the mood to buy some stuff today. The owner of the store turned off unexpectedly charming. She’s never been mean or anything, she’s just usually not chatty. Today she took a shine to us. When she found out that we were also glass/dish hounds, she told us all about meeting Gene Florence (swoon), and showed us some unusual pieces she had in stock that we had missed (which were aggressively priced, but really cool nonetheless). She also marked my bowl down to $12, which was at least book. So I bought it.
That set the tone for the day. We were apparently irresistibly charming to all dealers, and there was glass everywhere. Maybe it was the fates paying me back for not being able to do any antiquing on my vacation. Maybe God was just smiling on me for some reason. Maybe Gracine is blessed with Glass Luck (we discussed the possibility – this was her maiden voyage antiquing). Maybe it was just one of those days. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t going to argue with it.
After that, it was around the corner to Uncle Sam’s. This is one of Justin’s favorite places, but I hadn’t heard of it until he took me there. The owner there is a nice guy, and the store is also a great place just to poke around. He has several dealers who specialize in Depression Glass, and one ultra-complete set of pink Adam in the front of the store, on sale today for only $3,000.00. I forewent. But he did have a Bubble dinner plate there that I had seen the last time. Again, I hadn’t purchased it because it was priced over book. But book on a dinner plate is only $5. I decided I could pay the $8 they wanted for it today, and did so. I also got a little more Christmas for Amanda (I felt I had kind of short-changed her a bit), and a surprise for Lisa (for her Christmas next year). Justin found a beautiful hand-painted teacup and saucer that he fell in love with, and bought it.
On the way out of town, we stopped at the former Jesus Saves thrift store (now very un-colorfully re-named as something I can’t remember), and the Miracle Hill thrift store across the street; but there were no scores in either. That was OK; the best was yet to come.
By this time we were both getting peckish, so Justin used his GPS to find a local watering-hole for a quick lunch. I was dying for some cheese sticks. Fortunately they had them. They were small and expensive, but they hit the spot.
On the way in to Pickens, we passed the thrift store that we always mean to stop at, but always seem to skip. We vowed to stop on the way back, and soldiered on. Next was ABC Antiques, another favorite haunt of Justin's to which he had introduced me. The woman that runs this place is very sweet, but she doesn’t take cards of any kind. That has been a problem for us both before, but we had forgotten. We went through the whole store without finding anything, but as luck (today) would have it, at the front of the store there was a good selection of Bubble Glass. It was a bit aggressively priced, but since it was on sale for half price that wasn’t really an issue. I got a dinner plate, a saucer, and five berry bowls in my Sapphire blue; and also picked up two berry bowls and the creamer in white Bubble for Russ. While she was writing all that up, I picked up a crystal Colonial “Knife and Fork” bread plate. It was marked $5, which was too high, but I got it for half price so it wasn’t too bad. I also picked up a 9oz Queen Mary pink tumbler, on sale for $4 – that was a find. After she wrote everything up, I realized I didn’t have enough cash to cover it all. Yikes! Fortunately, Justin had some and covered me.
The next stop on the tour was the Stockade Antiques – the old Pickens jail has been made into a really cool store. Once again usually more of a museum than an actual purchasing point, although I have scored here before. I looked again at a Colonial Block water glass that I had looked at in there before, too rich for my blood at $10. They also had a pink Adam plate marked at $22; down from $32, but still too high. As we were walking out, the owner came over to ask if we wanted to ask her about anything (she had told us to ask about anything we were interested in that wasn’t on sale). The owner of the place is a neat lady. She’s in her 50’s, well preserved, and has a vague air of suppressed senuality – a kind of sexy librarian thing going on. She reminds me of a cross between Anne Margret (as she looks now) and Sarah Palin. But this woman is no Sarah Palin. There’s no way she’d be a token to the white male establishment. I suspect the man unwise enough (or fortunate enough) to take this woman on will find he has a tiger by the tail. But I digress. I asked her about the water goblet. “How much would you like to pay for it?” she asked. “Well,” I replied, “I’d like for you to give it to me, kiss me on the cheek, and wish me well; but I’m not going to ask for that.” She walked over, took me by the arm, and started leading me back over to the goblet. She purred, “I’ll take the kiss on the cheek, but how does $6 sound?” I told her that sounded just fine, and we concluded our business on very good terms. I was well satisfied, and she seemed flattered. She’s a cool lady.
The Stockade is usually the furthest point for Justin, but I’ve been in to Pickens downtown before, and there was a place that I wanted to have a look round in again. Unfortunately, it is now closed. But we drove downtown a bit anyway, just looking around and seeing what was there. No dice as far as antique stores go, but as we were preparing to turn around, Justin spotted a building with what looked like turrets on it. Out of curiosity, we turned down the street to look at it. It turned out to be the town hall, but just a door or two up from it was a grungy little thrift shop. Thinking that while we were there we may as well have a look, we turned in.
Junky and dingy as it was, this place was a treasure trove. I immediately found an Iris & Herringbone candlestick; it was chipped all to pieces, but a promising sign. Justin walked over to a rack of glass and pulled out a beautiful silver-etched tray ($3), and over his shoulder I found two Royal Lace berry bowls marked for $2.50 each – in pristine condition. Nosing around a bit more, Justin found a Lorain crystal divided relish, again pristine, for $10. I knew it was worth twice that. The problem was we still had no cash. For whatever reason, I hadn’t stopped after the Stockade; but fortunately they took checks. I guarded the purchases while Justin went for his checkbook. When we got to the register the woman checking us out held up the relish dish. “This is marked $10!” she exclaimed incredulously. I thought she was getting ready to double the price. But she rang up $6 instead, Justin’s tray at $1, and the berry bowls at 0.50 each. We barely got out of the door before Justin started laughing uproariously. That was the highlight of the trip, and the relish dish was the find o’ the day. It was book at $23, and the berry bowls at about $16 each.
On the way back through Easley, we stopped at a little place I had been to once before. They have glass there, but I didn’t score the last time. Today I bought a Buttons and Bows pitcher (this pattern always makes me think of Granny) for $8! That’s less than half book!
It was about 5pm by this time, and we were flagging, plus the antique stores were closing. As we were heading home though, I speculated that the Friendly Antique Man (aka Antiques Plus) might still be open. Justin called, and it turned out they were open until 6pm. I needed plate stands anyway, and we’ve bought them there before. We went in for a quick look around.
I found a little Radiance dessert/bread plate marked $4. They book for $1 each, but they are hard to find. Justin is collecting a set also, but said that was too rich for his blood. I picked it up. I also looked, again, at the vintage Fire King Sapphire Blue trivet; a piece I have long wanted to add to my collection. But book on it is $18, and this one was priced at $22.50. But it was marked 20% off. After some debate, and after Justin telling me he had never seen one any cheaper on any of his travels (he’s been looking for one for me), I went ahead and bought it. It rang up for $18 even. The dessert plate was on sale for half off. I didn’t feel bad about paying $2 for it.
At long last, we turned towards home. Justin had been acting as librarian while I drove, so we already knew about the fantastic deals we had gotten today. We still unpacked all our stuff and had a good gloat though. That is always a great part of the trip. I started soaking labels off and deciding where things would be displayed, but we were hungry for supper by this time.
I was dying for she-crab soup, and I knew they had it at Liberty Tap Room, so we went there. On the way we had the only real down note of the day. I hit a cat on the way over. It was just out in the headlights all of the sudden and I had no time to react. I have never hit anything before except a bird and a butterfly. I was pretty upset about it, but Justin did a good job of distracting me. There wasn’t anything to be done but lay it down.
Supper was good, although the soup wasn’t as good as some I’ve had. But it was served with fresh-baked sourdough bread and butter, which makes up for many deficiencies. I also had a big Caesar salad. We split a piece of Key Lime pie, and I got a side of that fabulous blue cheese cole slaw to go. I wanted it, but just couldn’t hold it tonight.
On the way back, Justin said he would get back home just in time to see Jeff and James when they got off work. I would have loved to go and see them, but I was completely whooped. I wished him safe journey, sent them my love, and went to BED. Gratefully. It had been a wonderful but very long day, and I was feeling it. And I have another full one tomorrow. Russ texted me about going to Duncan tomorrow, and of course I couldn’t say no… Plus it is Dan’l and Jim’s holiday party tomorrow. I need to rest up!
The spoils, laid out: (left to right, top to bottom, front to back) Radiance dessert/bread plate, Anchor Hocking Sapphire Blue "Bubble" flat soup and dinner plate, Bubble dinner plate and saucer, 5 Bubble berry bowls, Fire King Sapphire Blue trivet (center front), Holiday "Buttons and Bows" pink pitcher, Colonial "Knife and Fork" bread plate, Lorain divided relish, two Royal Lace berry bowls, the Queen Mary tumbler in pink, and Colonial Block water goblet in green at far right.
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