Friday Musings

Hi Again -

I am setting behind my counter looking out of the large plate glass window in front of my store, watching the Friday noon activity. Fridays are different around here...you can feel everyone beginning to relax, except for us shop owners, because the end of the work week is near...in addition to others, I've two regulars come in so far...a young student with a very sweet demeanor (I'll call her Maya) and a man in his 30's (I'll call him Marcus) who has been coming in since I opened two years ago. He's lived in the Pasadena/Altadena area most of his life and has a very close and strong family...when he came in I noticed that he had lost weight in the few months since I've seen him last and then found out that he father had passed in May after a long illness...although bittersweet, it was a pleasure to hear him talk about his father and his life...it made me think of all of the fathers that don't realize how important and irreplaceable they are to their children's lives...and how much THEY themselves miss out on when they are not around...

Another customer came in looking for a trunk; she's moving to Iowa in a month and thought that would be the most sensible way to pack - just throw everything in a trunk and go...alot of the things I sell here are like that; items that have become so-called obsolete but actually have more utility than their more modern counterparts...when I look at hand egg beaters, for instance, I wonder, just how much do we really whip things so that we need an electric appliance (that takes up room, uses electricity and more time to clean) to do the job?

Mostly my customers are very agreeable people and great to talk to...every once in a while someone wants me to lower a price because of a scratch or imperfection on an item, which is a little amusing...I sell old stuff and old stuff has been used...on the other hand, I will practically give things away to people that fall in love with the craftsmanship or age of something. I figure things that stand the test of time deserve respect and I love it when other people feel that way as well.

Duty calls...must get back to one of the 20 things I want to try to get done before I leave today...