November 19, 2006

• Mini Vacation

  Well I got away for a mini few day vacation and its just been lovely and as usual I don't wanna go home LOL.. My sweetie is sleeping and I have a few minutes to type away ..with none of the pull of household chores to take my time !

  We spent the day at the Quakertown flea market - it was cold so there was a lack of outside vendors which is really my thing, I love buying old treasures..new stuff leaves me cold. I also saw that this would be a place in the warm weather my parents would love !!! But it would have to be an overnight thing because 3 hours each way is a lot to ask of someone driving and of course getting on and off the island can be grueling at best !!

  We came across a lovely old store on main street, it is an old fashioned five and dime on the main street. It is called Sines and it has been in business since 1917. Sad thing is it looks like it will barely make it through the holidays. Towns in their ultimate wisdom ( not ) allow anything and everything to come into their areas now .. and Quakertown is no exception . There is a huge Walmart, a Kmart and I heard a huge mall moved in a while back and that had to seal this charming stores fate.

  The store is still run by the grandson of the founder. All around the store they have displayed old wares they used to sell and old toys. Hanging from the ceiling are hundreds of planes that are strung up that someone lovingly and carefully put together. There is a train that runs around the ceiling in the middle of the store . It has the old wooden displays and the ramps leading up and down - and the wondrous display of Christmas decorations. I am hoping they are open today because I would just love to get in there and take more pictures..

  Walking around this store brought back so many memories of the Kresges and the Woolworths and the Grants stores that are all a part of my memory now . Everything changes, things progress.. but there is something magical about stores like these to me . This store was run by a family. A family who sacrficed nights before holidays and worked on their birthdays. This was a store that to a child who got maybe three things for Christmas, that child would go in and gaze at all those toys and use their imagination and see themselves playing with each one. When my parents and I would go to Kresges in Bay Shore I would run right to the toys section , half of an aisle, with things like pick up sticks, jacks, marbles, super bouncing balls, paper dolls, imitation barbie dolls, little plastic toy soldiers with plastic parachutes .. the ones you could drop on your brothers head when sleeping . My favorite thing to buy was the tiny little tube of magic bubble maker .. it came with a little plastic straw and it smelled awful. you made a little bubble and pinched the end shut. You would play with this bubble until it was flat, and then you would take the little straw and try to blow it back up.  

  My other favorite thing to buy was silly putty, I loved that I could make a copy of a picture from the sunday paper funnies. This was back in the day of no copy machines, scanners, digital cameras etc. It was amazing to be able to do this. My other favorite thing to look at was the display with the little girl bracelet with the ring, the set had the matching birthstone. It looked so fancy and beautiful and in the display it sparkled and I always wondered how it would look on my chubby little wrist. I also used to always buy my mother the perfume with the beautiful spanish lady in black with the red fan

  SO without further ado - also because sweetie is up yapping in my right ear about all the noise the maids are making LOLOL .. here are pictures and a trip down memory lane. When I was walking around, taking pictures, I was overwhelmed with this terrible sadness that brought tears to my eyes. This is a store that is almost gone, this is an ideal that has been tossed away like yesterdays news, this is a part of Americana that has gone the wayside of the wild wild west, silent movies, and Ozzie and Harriet ......so reminisce with me and walk down memory lane and right click the pictures and save them. Once in a while when you are feeling homesick for what used to be, take a look at them and have a good cry for things gone by .. I know I will.. because I am such a sentimental old fool !            xoxooxoxoxoxoo c xoxooxoxoxoxo

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   

   

  • 9:27 am
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