Turn Back the Clock
Antiques? Do you like them?
That’s an early question to guests we’ll need to entertain. For me, going to the Chesapeake Marketplace and Auction House — located at the center of St. Leonard on our traffic circle — is an adventure. Housed in a two-story warehouse converted from an old lumberyard, it’s a maze of end-on-end interesting objects that hint at life in former times. My only chagrin is when I see my current kitchen utensils being billed as antiques: an ice pick, an all-in-one tool, a glass orange juicer worth $8!
My guests and I explore the 100 shops of antiques, gifts, crafts and vintage flea market collectables as we pass through plastic door shields, investigate rooms and climb back stairs to seek prizes there and at thrift stores next door.
I shop especially for my sister; she loves these things. One year I bought her old kitchen gadgets. She was ecstatic. My other great finds include an old toy piano that was actually in tune and sturdy for two grandsons, an old ice cream scoop, a wood-encased level for my engineer daughter and Happy Apples — my go-to gift for infants.
If my guest is a real enthusiast, then on Friday evening around six o’clock, we’ll join owner and auctioneer Larry Foreman for the weekly auction of furniture, treasures and boxes of discoveries pulling at me to buy them.
My classic story is about a Christmas that was only two days away when I had nothing special to surprise my husband, Charlie. Time was running out. I dashed to the Marketplace and came upon a ship’s wheel. Perfect, since he has his own boat, and it would look fantastic mounted on the wall. He was surprised, so it was a success. I was more surprised when, looking through family photos from the ’70s, I found that my mother’s Christmas gift for my dad was a ship’s wheel.