Shopping At The American Museum Of Pop Culture & Kitsch

Also known as, “The Antique Mall.” 

For the past twenty years or so, several times a year, I have made a trip to one of several antique malls in about a two hour radius of here. The trips began with my wife and I going to Lewisburg in Pennsylvania for a Sunday morning breakfast at the famed ( and sadly, now closed ) Country Cupboard on Route 15. Over the years the trips down there have continued, as well as to new locations as they opened or were discovered in places such as Farmington and Salamanca. 

And don’t be fooled by the name, they’re not fancy by any stretch of the imagination. You’re not likely to find a priceless vase or a Chippendale carved mahogany tea table at these places. I mean, I guess it’s possible, but you’re far more likely to find a Chip and Dale plate mass produced by some knock-off Bradford Exchange instead. 

That’s because these antique malls are more like a museum of anything and everything people have had in their homes over the past seventy five plus years. They’re like a museum featuring all of those kitschy, sometimes tacky things that have been a part of the American culture. Except at this museum, you can purchase the exhibits, often marked down twenty percent, depending on the day. 

There’s no end to the various things you’ll find at these places. Not only have I found furniture for a great price, ( $50 for a set of end tables? Sold! ) for someone like me who collects vintage toys, they have been a pretty reliable source for something new to add to the collection. If your thing is drinking glasses, like those ones with Looney Toon characters that Pepsi produced in the 70’s, you’ll find them. Into comic books, beer advertising or board games? They’re everywhere and generally at a good price. Looking for Halloween or Christmas decorations from the first half of the twentieth century? They got ‘em, entire cases full of them in fact. Many of them will leave you wondering why anyone would have such hideous things in their home while others will have you thinking, “Oh man, I remember those!”

And even if you come home empty-handed, trust me, it’s not a wasted trip. More than once you’ll stumble upon something you haven’t seen in decades, setting off a quick trip down your own version of Memory Lane. 

Because the vendors and what they have to sell is always changing, I tend to follow a six month rotation meaning, if I’ve been to one in February, I won’t visit it again until October or so. Also, my visits tend to pick up more as the holidays approach because antique malls are an excellent place to get some Christmas shopping done, particularly for someone who may be otherwise hard to shop for. You’re bound to find at least one item that someone will love and chances are, it’s been previously cherished by someone else in the past and needing a new home. 

Which is something that only recently occurred to me while looking over one of the many booths of items. A lot of the things found in an antique mall, the pictures and plaid Woolrish coats, amusement park souveneirs, toys and tchotchkes from Lord knows where… all of them at some time were owned and valued by someone else. They were a gift for Christmas or someone’s birthday. ( Just last week I looked at an old children’s book given from one little boy to his friend from his birthday according to the writing on the inside. ) They were a small token brought home from a family vacation, a way to remember a happy time in someone’s life. 

I’ve been thinking about that a great deal lately. Suddenly these random items some would consider “junk” have taken on a whole new meaning. Someone’s grandmother set out that ugly ass Santa every year, and it witnessed decades of holiday revelry. That old children’s book from the 1940’s, now wrapped in plastic, was once held by someone’s mother as she read to her children before bed. The old paper Halloween decorations were packed away by a schoolteacher on her last day before retiring, taken home and forgotten. That Woolrich hunting coat cost ten dollars, a lot of money back in the 1930’s, but it kept a hunter warm while he fed his family. 

Now all of those people are gone, their memories laid out on a table for strangers to perhaps take home, twenty percent off, this week only. 

I can’t lie, that makes me a little sad. 

Then I return home and look around the room. I come to the realization that a lot of our things will likely meet the same fate. Not only the pre-owned treasures that I’ve brought home over the years, but the gifts given or received amongst my own family. The very things I have collected and treasure all my life. The furniture, the decor, all of it… It isn’t really ours, is it? It’s just here for now and when we’re gone, whatever our family doesn’t attach any value to will end up in a box in some flea market or antique mall. Or worst of all, the landfill. 

Which makes me more than a little pissed off, if I’m being perfectly honest. 

So I have to remind myself to not dwell on that, though it isn’t easy. I tell myself it’s just the way of things, circle of life and all that jazz. Someone else will come along, just as I once did, see my things on display and for sale in an antique mall. They’ll declare, “I’ve been looking for that!” and buy something, smiling all the way home where what once was mine will be enjoyed and cherished as much as I once did. 

That’s what I tell myself and it helps, I suppose. 

Which is good, because otherwise my final act, if physically able, would be to set fire to this place and all of it, myself included, would go up in smoke. You can’t take it with you when you go, you say? Sheeeeiiiiitt… watch this. 

After all, why not?!? I plan to be cremated anyway!