Whoever she is, Annie gets a "thumbs up" from me for creating a great antique mall on Interstate 70 near Columbia, MO. I had a wonderful hour there today browsing, and it will become a regular stop on my journey when I'm headed east to visit family in Southern Illinois and Nashville.Today's jaunt yielded a leather-bound copy of the 1868 Arthur's Magazine, which is filled with the kind of information a historical fiction writer loves to find--fashion plates, homemaking advice, recipes, poetry, needlework patterns, etc. etc. There really is nothing like reading a magazine like this to familiarize oneself with a given era. How they talked, what they called things, what they were thinking about, what they were wearing and, in the case of a quick perusal of this volume in the car today, a homemade treatment for "chapped hands."
The bound volume includes some charming, frame-worthy ink drawings (although as long as I own the book those drawings will remain in place) and music ... one called the "Patchwork Polka." Since I'm such a quilt fanatic, I took that as a "sign" that this volume was calling me to come over and give it a home. It is, after all, fairly amazing that I found it amongst all the other things I loved but couldn't afford.
I also purchased a gorgeous post card of the Pont Neuf in Paris ... have no idea when it was printed (no date), but there are horses and buggies and not a motorized vehicle in site, so ... old enough for me ;-).
What did I leave behind? The oldest typewriter I've ever seen (dated 1890-something) and a beautifully quilted Mennonite quilt that was an Irish chain on one size and bars on the back ... "that" green, "that" yellow, and double pink. If money were no object, it would have come to live in Nebraska.
But I am content. I had a great time browsing the old stuff ... and now I'm really more excited than ever about the upcoming annual jaunt to the flea market in Walnut, Iowa.
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