Small Town "Antique" Shops

One man's junk is another man's treasure.  At least that's what I've always heard.  I think for the most part it is really just recycled junk.

Today we made a circuitous tour of Northeast Texas small town antique shops.  I know they were antique shops because that's what was on the signs.  I think sometimes we are a bit loose with our definitions.  Most of them should replace the word "antique" with "old junk".  But, truth in advertising is not what we are used to seeing.  Just watch a little television and you will know what I mean.

There might have been a few "gems" hidden among the piles of stuff that we saw.  I doubt it.  All of it looked to have been thoroughly picked over and little was left but junk.  Yeah, I repeat myself.  I can't think of a better way to describe it.

Perhaps a more descriptive name for many of the shops would be "Fleece Market."  No, not "Flea" market.  I think some of them were out to "fleece" as many ignorant people as they could dupe into buying a 50Cent item for $10. 

OK, enough of that.  Perhaps it is because my interests are pretty narrow when I enter one of the aforementioned establishments that I have such a narrow view of them.  I'm looking for two different kinds of things.  Old books (preferably Texas or Western U.S. History or collectible science fiction) or maybe an odd-and-end Western collectible such as a Roy Rogers memorabilia or a Hopalong Cassidy coffee mug.  It is rare that I find such anywhere east of I-35.  But, I'm always hopeful.

I'm sure there is a "Life Lesson" somewhere in today's excursion.  But, my mind just isn't really tuning into what it might be unless possibly that it doesn't do much good to go digging around in the past for rare treasures.  All you end up with is the leftover junk.  Real treasure is something that is stored up in the future.  It is something to look forward to rather than to look back to find. 

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  Matthew 6:19-20