Monday, January 6, 2025
Recommended reading: "Around the Table"
For my first Saturday of the new year, I decided it was time to go antiquing in Marietta. What’s more, I decided to “face my fears” by visiting an antique mall I’d been avoiding for more than a decade. I used to love shopping at the Big Shanty Antique Mall with my mom, and even though she’s been gone eleven years now, until Saturday, I just couldn’t make myself go back to Big Shanty. Well, guess what? It’s not even there anymore! There’s a scaled-down Big Shanty in the area—I guess “Little Shanty” didn’t have a nice ring to it—and when I finally got there with the help of Google Maps on my phone, I couldn’t help grinning. I’d been avoiding something that existed only in my imagination! Isn’t that crazy? (Maybe you all have thought some crazy things too. I sure hope so!) At any rate, I didn’t find anything I needed there, but I had driven right by the Cobb Antique Mall on the way, and there, I found this $4 book that has been an absolute delight to read!
From the folks behind Reminisce magazine, this 2011 book is titled Around the Table: Fond Memories of Food, Family and Friends. It shares so many sweet stories of mealtimes past, and of course I was hooked as soon as I flipped it open and saw this picture of a little girl celebrating her eighth birthday on May 4, 1948. That’s my birthday! (Well, not the year, but the date is right.) A Suzanne Jones of Granbury, Texas, writes, “The girls were delighted with being served from the silver tea service seen on the counter at left and using the demitasse cups of ‘fine china.’” The author later owned the tea service, which was given to her daughter as a wedding gift. Isn’t that lovely?
LeeBerta Graham of Paso Robles, California, shared a charming story about Willard’s, the upscale restaurant that her parents once ran in Beverly Hills. There, she and her younger sister, Wilda, got dressed up for their “tea parties.” They didn’t drink real tea but had Kool-Aid instead! Yesterday, my little neighbor friends visited and had Swiss Miss hot cocoa in their “teacups,” so I understand. With lots of lovely stories, vintage photos, and period advertisements, this book is one that I think many of you would enjoy as well.
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I’d have bought that book after seeing that picture, too, and it isn’t my birthday! I’m sorry the place you shopped with your mother is no longer there, but I’m glad you found this treasure nearby.
ReplyDeleteThose are such sweet photos! Your finding that book is another example of serendipity, which you seem to experience very often. Unexpected joys are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThis looks charming! So glad you had a good experience getting over that hurdle...we all have things like that, it's hard but you did very well ☺️🙏
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