They Sneak Quietly in the Night

We don't usually see them--but I caught a glimpse the other morning when I was putting the trash bin out at the road.  It was particularly early and barely light outside.

First I heard the vehicle--A van that travelled quite slowly and should probably have a check up at The Muffler Man soon.  It passed by me while I was positioning the bin.  As I was walking back to the garage I heard it pull up to the bin.  Now the bin was stuffed with lots of bags--and the lid would not fit down.

Nobody got out, nobody did anything--but stop at the bin for 5 seconds.  Then move on.  I watched.  It stopped at every rubbish pile on our side of the street-went to the end of the street and did the same on the other side.

In the meantime--I was going out for seriously early coffee with A Dear Friend. I found myself trailing Mr. Noisy out of the lane.  He turned north and then turned in to the next street in our subdivision.

People do throw good things away sometimes.  I will not write the litany of things that I have collected from residential refuse piles over the years.  (I even jumped head first once into a Kohls' department store dumpster salvaging a display rack for a church rummage sale)  Mr. Muffler must drive our area on early Thursday mornings looking to see if our described by some "shabby gentile" town has good antique pickins'.



Recycling is not new--antiques lovers and sellers have been doing it for all time.

Freshen Your Look

Freshening the look of a shop or show booth is the number one rule that a successful dealer needs to follow.

We do not live near our antiques space at Odana Antique Mall in Madison Wisconsin--so when we do get up there we need to do an almost complete reset of the booth.  The number of customers is great--and spaces can get to look messy pretty quickly.

I still visit some shops where I have seen the same inventory in the same place with the same grubby tag for sometimes years.  Not at Little Bohemia Antiques.  Our fresh look is due in a large part to Dear Husbola.  He is constantly harping that we need to thin out the booth and not stuff it with inventory.  I am listening, oh Yes I Am.