Antique stores receive their products from donations and estate sales, and offer a wide assortment of items. Some of the stuff they sell are incredible finds, and others can be quite odd. Antique stores have a Twilight Zone phenomenon to them, where you step into a conglomeration of the past century and lose all sense of time and reality. It’s quite similar to those homework assignments that disappear into the inextricable void at the bottom of your backpack.
Perhaps the pinnacle of this phenomenon is State Street Antiques, a quaint little shop right next door to the Library! at Collister. They sell everything from old records to typewriters to VHS tapes to postcards from the ‘20s. They have a very large display of tumble-polished stones and gemstone pendants as well. On a reporter’s mission to gather information about the store, I visited State Street Antiques, finding much, much more than I anticipated.
One of the first things that caught my eye was a Cheerios branded wristwatch (I was quite tempted to buy it). A clothing rack near one of the jewelry cases hosted a British Army wool overcoat, a firetruck-red leather jacket with a fur collar and trim, and a pair of train conductor-esque pinstripe overalls.
There was also an empty Barbicide jar, a Superbad DVD, and a display of Zippo lighters that were all right next to each other, indicative, I think, of the overall vibe that antiques stores have.
By the counter, in a large box of photographs and postcards, there was a junior high school student’s Class Autographs book from 1942—the early 20th century equivalent of the signature flyleaf pages in the front and back of our modern-day yearbooks. It was quite charming to see how kids have always been the same—the young girl who owned the book had filled in the insides of the letters on the first page with a crisscross pattern and doodled flowers in the margins.
The glass case behind the counter displayed a surprising number of Singer sewing machines, porcelain thimbles, and an Underwood typewriter. There was also a vast selection of semi-precious jewelry, although most of the pieces were old-lady tacky.
Another one of the glass display cases features taxidermied animals who have been… ‘repurposed’. Beyond the usual rabbit skulls and skunk pelts, there was also an entire set of rattlesnake vertebrae, two crocodile heads wearing fun hats, and a large selection of flint knives with taxidermy handles. Flint knives, the kind that are made by chipping off small bits of the stone until a blade is made, commonly have handles made of bone or antler. However, these ones had many more creative liberties taken into account regarding the design.
First, my eye was drawn to the knife with a rattlesnake skull handle, but then I noticed the pufferfish with googly eyes and a tiny wicker hat. Then, I saw the alligator head with an open mouth.
Overall, antique stores host some of the coolest, craziest, fantastic, and most ridiculous products you could ever want to buy. They’re super fun to explore, and you can easily spend hours in them while looking at old street signs and rusty door knobs and wondering why anyone would ever own Elvis Presley dinnerware.
