It was like walking back in time. We were in the Catskills, drinking wonderful coffee made for us by the proprietor of Cafe Devine (Lower Main Street, Callicoon, NY). Energized, we started to explore the 'downtown' when almost immediately, we found ourselves ambling past an alleyway. Always curious, we backed up and decided to explore, and glad we were, because at the end of the alley was none other than Jughead! But where was Archie? We didn't have to wait too long to find him, and when we did, we immediately asked him to pose with his friend for us, and if he did, we promised to write a blog post on his newly opened funky antique shop, a shop like the ones we remembered from the 1960's, a shop where you could still feel like you were exploring grandmother's attic. If you're ever in the Catskills, after you drink coffee at Cafe Devine, be sure to visit Jughead and Archie, better known as the Tin Can Trading Post, Callicoon, New York. (This is the blogpost we promised you, Archie!)
Because comic books were verboten in our household, having access to one or more made the moment that much more pleasurable. i can still remember some of the ones i use to read when trundled off to cleveland circle by uncle paul with johnny in tow, to hike up several sets of stairs in a building carved out of the landscape when trolleys were just being laid down. the tile on the walls and floors and the mahogany (?) wood walls provided me with a sensory trip back to the bustle and bustling of the late nineteenth, turn of the 20th century, life. these trips to a far off place, far off, because i was @6 years old when they began, were the result of a good hearted father and uncle who were willing to take payment of necessary electrical work done in the barber's home, in the form of haircuts for the two boys, and the one brother designated to collect said payments over a 7-8 year period. it was there, enveloped by the scent of shaving cream, mirrors which hawked your likeness, darkened by inadequate or too glaring a light, depending on the time of day we arrived, i would find a treasure trove of COMIC BOOKS. these were the forbidden fruit of our immigrant home whose every muscle and sinew was flexed to provide for the children a better life than the one that stretched back in their memories. archie and jughead were uncommon fare, but, more than that were the borderline horror comics, and the historical comics. if memory serves me right, the history comics had more accuracy and depth to them than the history taught in our public schools today. then, of course there was boy scout camp. two weeks of heaven in the white mountains, sleeping underneath the stars, gorging on mother's apple pies shipped to us on visiting day, Sunday, and every nite, Archie and Jughead. ahh, sweet fare, and sweet dreams.
ReplyDeleteMarko Pasha remembers;
ReplyDeleteMy parents were in the antique business and in the '60s and '70s I grew up going to "Grandma's Attic" antique shops across south Middlesex and Worcester counties. The shop in the picture is much too neat and tidy to bare any resemblance to the shops that I remember. They were chock a block full.Even the more high end, chi chi shops, if they were less dusty were also chock a block.There was one in Southborough on Rt. 9 that was actually named "Grandma's Attic".
One of my most enduring and fond memories is of "Lil" Colette's antique shop in the "haunted house",on Rout 85 across from the Stop and Shop in Marlborough. The building was a large Victorian house with a lot of gingerbread trim. There were at least three floors of antiques. The carriage house cum garage had been Louie Colette's battery shop.We spent many happy hours there while my mother chatted with Mrs. Colette. Mrs. C. would tell my mother about her buying trips "up country". That meant
New Hampshire and Vermont. I can still hear her saying "So I says..." For many years I had a wooden ship model that we bought in Mrs. C's shop.
There was another shop in Upton. One day when I was 6 or 7 seven we went there. There was a box of toy trains from the 1920s. My father bought it for me and his second childhood began. He became a train collector.He remembered the prototypes in the '20s. Also he had not had alot of toys himself in the '20s.
Another memory is Cella's shop in South Framingham. I bought my first mandolin there.
A friend tells me that Cella is still around.
If he is he must be at least in his '90s.
Well I could go on all night with memories of the antique business and the New England Collector's Association.
Achie.... One of my first comic books in the early '60 was an Archie. I had a collection of comic books. I had two boxes of them next to my bed. Archie is still around. Like Denis the Menace the strip still has its 1950's flavor.