Would You Like a Side of Babies With That?

Antique & Collectible stores are amazing. So many treasures and lucky finds! Objects you might have owned, your mother, her mother, and stuff your ancestors way back several generations may have owned. The other day, my daughter and I took my shiny new credit card and ventured into this world of the impossible,the unknown, and the occasionally downright creepy.

There are a lot of pictures of other people's families. I do enjoy them, because I like to make up stories in my head about the people and their lives. Unless they were cast in soap operas or Downton Abbey, I don't think these people did those things. They certainly weren't having fun doing them anyway, you can tell because they never smile. If you did mount one of these pictures on the wall, you would have terrible nightmares from being scowled at by dead folks.

One thing you find out at such stores is that there are humans who will collect ANYTHING. A standout for me is the mugs with bizarre, grotesque faces. My daughter, perfectly soberly, told me that these are collector's items which can go for thousands of dollars at auctions. I am hoping they are strictly for collections and nobody is ever going to approach me with a cup of tea in one of these things. I know I would scream and drop their $3000 dollar face.

Some of the arrangements in antique and collectible shops don't make sense. Take, for instance, the display of tiny ceramic babies that was included with a bowl and an array of old spoons. I don't care what side of the abortion debate you are in -- I don't believe serving up babies with cream and sugar is ever politically correct.

At these stores, sometimes you don't know what things are.This occurred for mydaughter and me. At the third store we perused, we found her perfect item. It was a set of jadeite bowls. However, included with the bowls was a device my daughter identified as a urinal and I thought might be some kind of torturous douche machine. We took it to the counter and discovered it was neither of those things. It was a juicer/strainer thingy.

Our purchase came to $99.99.999, which is what items always cost at Antique and Collectible shops.

But of course the purchases at these stores are never complete. We must find attachments and the actual mixer to go with the $99.99.999 purchase. To be fair, I did get a discount of 9.99.99 and it seems most people do.

Thus we are lured back into this wonderful world of the collectible, the unknown, and the old and bizarre.