Since we're all "staying home", it seems like a good time for a blog.

At the moment I’m laid up with a broken leg, and of course there’s that Coronavirus (I can’t even drink beer, now that I’m gluten free). I would drink a Margarita, but the liquor stores are closed. I’m not sure where this is going to go or how inappropriate it might get, but I’ve been in my head for about a week and a half. So, let’s see how it goes, shall we?

Did you ever see the click bait of “Photos of insane asylum patients at the turn of the century?”...

How many of you think this year went fast? Holy cow, look at all those hands. I believe its a consequence of time travel and the Mandela effect ( I watch conspiracy videos on my days off). Because I don’t want to get into quantum physics, so lets talk about clocks.

We’ll skip the sundial thing because everyone learned that in school. We’ll also skip over the water clock by the Egyptians and the candle clock created by the Saxons.

The first mechanical clock (its creator unknown) dates to the 13 century and the oldest working...

Retailers love the Christmas shopping season, but Antique Shop owner's thoughts turn to Spring booth vignettes. It’s a damp Tuesday and I’m trying to motivate myself to run errands before the heavy rain starts. So, to delay, I went down the Pinterest rabbit hole and ended up looking at patterns for pincushions, traditional tomato pin cushions. How did the tomato pincushion come about?

During the Victorian Era, it became common practice to give a family a fresh tomato which was placed on a mantle to ward off evil spirits and...

The day is quickly approaching that retailers speak about in hushed tones. The day when stores historically find themselves out of the red. BLACK FRIDAY! Or as non-retailers refer to it, the day after Thanksgiving. Or as the hubs refer to it time to leave for deer camp.

The whole red/black thing doesn’t apply anymore but the excitement of the day still brings a sparkle to this retail saleswoman. Back in the day, I worked for The Limited, some of you may remember that store. I spent more on clothes than I ever made, but damn...

Witches of Eastwick, I mean Morgantown Market.

It’s that time of year when we participate in the former Witches of Bethel Show, now the Witches Fly North Antique and Artisan Show at the Lebanon Expo Center. I love this show, and our store uses it as a team building exercise to show our dealers how to work together, accept help from others and put aside the old kernel, “There are no friends at auction.” or in this case antique show.

Let me fill in some details for you, cue Mr. Peabody’s Way Back Machine. As a kid I never had...

Those of you that have been to Morgantown Market know I mark the bathroom with an old bed pan that says, “Relax”. If you’ve ever used a bed pan you see the irony in that label. Where did the bed pan evolve from? Let's go back in time (cue Dr. Who Music)?

Chamber pots were used to relieve oneself at night in order to avoid a long walk to the outhouse and have been found as far back as the 6 century BC in Greece and the Edo period in Japan.

What we see now in antique shops are pieces and parts of sets that were calle...

I haven’t written a blog in a while, so as I sit on the porch on this beautiful morning, I find myself full of gratitude for the many blessings in the Thompson family and thought I would share them. The Hubs is back in school, working on his Masters in Organizational Design and Leadership. I see a lot of analysis in my future. Kelsey is still in Pittsburgh and loving it, and in a few short weeks, Best of the Batch (the non-profit she works for) will be breaking ground on a larger facility. My son Kendal is home for a coupl...

The hub is at spring turkey hunting camp, and I couldn’t sleep last night, I read the descriptions of Marie Kondo's book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up on Amazon and decided I needed to do some Spring cleaning. I didn’t read the book or watch the videos, but I feel I’ve read enough and spoke to people who did,  that I could implement it.

 I started small just after breakfast when I cleaned out the hall coat closet. It smelled of feet and old wool. After clearing out all the of my shoes, and everyone else’s I fo...

Recently we had o​ne of our older merchants pass away. It was unexpected and left the Morgantown Market family with a missing piece. Her family was devastated. She was the glue that held everyone together. Once all the good-byes were said the process of cleaning out began.

It is heart-wrenching to have to clean out a lifetime of memories and treasures. It’s especially hard when an antique dealer, merchant, crafter, or saver dies.

Many families don’t share the enthusiasm for the ”stuff.” Consequently, details about booth spac...

Did you see the news that Nike has self -lacing sneakers? At a price of $350 per pair. To quote the Kia guy, “That’s crazy!”

So, I have to ask myself, did people have the same conversation when we switched from button shoes to laces?

Let’s toss in a little Jeopardy trivia; modern shoelaces were invented in 1790.

in this case, Modern being defined as having the aglet on the end which means needle. Aglet is Latin by the way. I feel like I have to footnote some sources, so I’ll add them at the end. Another Jeopardy tidbit, laces...