It's All About the Story

A lot of people were surprised when I jumped into vintage shopping with both feet.  It's true, I had never been much of a shopper in my younger days....even at Christmas, most gift-buying trips were performed with the precision of a military strike.  But the signs were always there.  My kitchen was already decorated with framed concert posters I had pulled off of telephone poles.

"Flea Market Flip", the HGTV show starring Lara Spencer was certainly the game changer.  It captured my imagination in a way no DIY show ever had.  One of things she emphasized when the teams went out to look for their items was to get the story behind the item...and there you go...I ALWAYS love a good story. 

I think we'd only been to one actual flea market when we made our way to Dixieland in Waterford, Michigan.  Antique stores, boutiques, thrift shops, they all cross paths with the others.  You will often see one booth where there is already restored furniture, another with the raw goods and then a third booth that just looks like shit stacked to the ceiling.  Dixieland was and is such a place.  Some booths are filled with cheap, imported goods and their pricing is firm.  It's overwhelming at first...we were desperate to look like we were at least a little savvy to the flea market customs and protocols.  We walked in with a faux confident air and were immediately called out.

There will be lots of booths where you will only take a cursory look and some you won't go in at all.  Most tend to have a focus, a specialty, like vintage toys or depression glass.  Very few that have variety are well run or organized.  Pete and Maya had been doing it a long time...and Maya immediately knew we hadn't.  "Have you ever been here before?" she asked, cutting right to the chase.  We admitted we hadn't.  Maya never forgot a face and she added us to the database.  We bought several things from her and Pete that day, while they told us of emigrating from Russia forty years earlier.  They were so kind to us, gently bringing us along in a business they loved.  They gave a little on their prices and held firm when they reached their limit.  We didn't leave anything behind on a price objection.  Later in the day, we found another booth that had a large assortment of goods that was pleasing to our eyes.  Imagine our shock when Pete walked in behind us.  "This is our booth too," he said.  It so happens Kathy and I had much the same taste in curios and collectibles as Pete and Maya, so we bought more of them.

Once I decided I wanted to write an antiquing blog, I knew I had to go back and interview Pete and Maya, to find out about a journey that began in the former Soviet Union and ended up in a flea market in southeastern Michigan.  Alas, by the time we returned, they and their booths had vanished.  No one seemed to know where they had gone.  It might be the only truly sad moment Kath and I have had on our flea excursions.  We so wanted to compare notes and learn more from the masters.  It roughly paralleled that moment when you pass by an item you're interested in and find it sold when you loop back, a mistake everybody makes at least once.

Early this spring, we found an unbelievable pair of salt and pepper shakers at a pop-up flea in Monroe, Michigan.  We have friends in Texas that collect shakers, the kitschy-er the better.  Kath asked for the discount but the vendor was only offering a story.

"Everybody in my family has a picture with these shakers," she explained.  "When anybody gets married, the new spouse gets their picture taken."  We decided to take the shakers.  We shared the story and the resulting pictures with our friends in Texas and they responded in kind, with some crazy googly-eyed snaps.

I wish we could have told Pete and Maya about it.