So today I did my annual Christmas walk through downtown Marietta. It was either today or Monday, and the last thing I feel when it's almost sixty degrees is Christmassy.
I parked on South Park Square in front of the Australian Bakery Cafè, but left stopping there until later, and instead headed toward East Park Square. The Corner Shop (the British store) wasn't open until 10:30, so I skipped it and went into the candy store. This carries loose candies (what we used to call "penny candy") in bins around one edge of the store, and then shelves of rare and not-so-rare candy bars around the edge of the rest (underneath the candy shelves are specialty bottles of soda in so many flavors, including banana, and in mixed hues of labels). There are also different candies on "floating" shelves in the middle, plus they sell metal signs with funny sayings on them. I saw something that had a recent nostalgic memory and kept it in mind.
Next door is The Local Exchange which has souvenirs, some books, and food gifts; I tasted some local honey, but decided not to buy my favorite pretzels, since they give me bad reflux. Then onto the combination antique store and audiophile shop where Luke the white standard poodle usually hangs out; I found him asleep in the little office at the back. I looked at all the cool memorabilia they have, including old cameras, typewriters, and phonographs, checked out their bookshelves (swelp me, I never knew Wally Cox wrote a book based on Mr. Peepers), and then heard a familiar piece of music playing in the section of the shop set up as a little den with phonographs and speakers. Checked out the phonograph, and sure enough it was George Winston's "December" album.
From there I crossed the street to check out the little decorated trees in Glover Park; each is decorated by a different elementary school in Cobb County. Passed by "Santa's" house, and gazed in happiness at the bright blue winter sky over the sketched leafless trees and the fountain bubbling at the center of the park. The bandstand was empty today, and two inflatable "wooden" soldiers stood guard at the other end of the park.
I crossed North Park Square to give a wistful look at Shilling's Restaurant; they finally closed after so many years. I remember Juanita always talking about her and Johnny going to Shilling's for special occasions.
I crossed to Church Street to go into The Keeping Room (gift and food shop), but it was closed (how odd before Christmas!), so just crossed back over to West Park Square and walked past the Dance Company, Piastra (the Italian place), the kids' store Lollipops and Lizards, Hemingway's Restaurant. Dropped in at the Tea Room but they had much fewer items for sale than usual, so ducked out again, and instead crossed Whitlock Avenue, went past the pizza place and Theatre in the Square and ended up at Park West Vintage, the new (well, before last Christmas) name for what used to be DuPre's old hardware/feed store now antiques shop. I love walking through here at Christmas to see how the various stall owners have tinseled up their areas to make it festive: sometimes it's just a tinsel garland, sometimes it's more vintage stuff.
I can't even describe what's in here: old furniture, vintage clothing, old radios and clocks, vintage artwork, old magazines (or pages torn from old magazines to make "art" to hang up), kitchen items, sets of china, vintage jewelry, old light fixtures, old bedframes, silverware sets, a few books. Mostly there are china knicknacks: cows, dogs, cats, other little animals, children, angels, bells, cups, and more. And to add to the fascination, the bones of the old hardware store, with the metal beams above and the old wooden floor below, a wooden floor polished smooth not by endless coatings of shellac and floor wax, but by the dozens of feet that came through the store over the years, farmers' boots and businessmen's shoes, ladies' sturdy Oxfords and pointed-toed heels, children's hobnailed shoes, and even the barefoot country kids who got sent for a few pounds of chicken feed while Mama was busy with the preserving and Daddy was out doing the harvest. So many people, so many years, you almost think you can hear them talking.
Anyway, I spotted a nicely illustrated book about King Edward VII for not a lot of money and picked that up (it's been vetted by Antonia Fraser, which should lend it verisimilitude) and very reluctantly skipped a couple of Shiny Brite ornaments, then went back to the corner and turned down Powder Springs Street. When we drove through here the other day I spotted an antique store I'd never seen before. It's called the Marietta Mercantile, and I climbed up the steps and grinned at the note about the door with a mind of its own, and was greeted by the two attendants.
This is a lot bigger store than it looks from the street because it goes way back and has a small ell in the rear. Nothing I couldn't live without, but one really simple and cute Christmas idea: resting red Christmas balls in "silver" candlesticks. Very festive.
Now I started heading back for the car (as you can only park free for two hours and my timer was running down) and did stop at the Australian Bakery. Last year they told me that close before Christmas they were expecting gingerbread boys. Either not so this year, or they didn't get them last year either, but none today, just sugar cookies in Christmas tree shapes with icky frosting. Instead I saw the Union Jack outside the Corner Shop and went in there. Lots of goodies, but nothing I really wanted to take home. The Doctor Who items must have sold poorly, because I found none in the store.
Finally I went back to the candy store and bought the nostalgic item I was looking at; will save it for Christmas Day.
And then, more prosaically, I had to hotfoot it home because the exterminator was due for his quarterly visit at one. But it was a nice time, nevertheless.
(Previously on my "walk" I had also gone to the antique mall on Cobb Parkway near the Big Chicken. But they moved at the beginning of 2018 and when I went to the new place on Canton Road last Christmas I was so disappointed, as a lot of the vendors didn't make the move, including the person who sold the old books who usually had a bunch of vintage children's stories, and almost no one had bothered to perk up the place for the holidays. Sad. I love the brightness and the color of Christmas; the world seems washed out after it is gone.)
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