Now don't get me wrong. There is more than one stop light and we do have access to many modern conveniences, but to us city folk, this is a small town.
There's not a lot to do in this small town. We have a movie theater but the thought of paying $8.75 for a movie, not to mention the extra $3.50 for 3D, makes me cringe. Many people like to pass the late summer evenings perusing the aisles of the local Walmart. No thank you. I don't step foot in the place unless I absolutely have to. I also don't care to spend my evenings with parentless, bored teenagers so the mall is not for me. You get the picture.
However, it just so happens that this small town is located very near some other small towns that do offer something to do, namely, antique shopping.
I'm not quite sure how it started, but over the last year Will and I have turned thrift/antique store shopping into somewhat of a pastime. Sometimes we buy books or home decor items. Other times we just look. Often times we'll each take note of the weirdest item we see and report back to each other. I have to say the strangest thing to date for me was an astronaut helmet in a thrift store.
This last weekend we decided to take a trip over to Jefferson and have a look around, but we wanted to spice things up a bit. So, Friday evening we each took time to make a list of 20 items that the other would have to find....a friendly little scavenger hunt.
My list for Will:
1. blue glass bird
2. yellow Fiestaware salt & pepper shakers
3. oval picture frame
4. peanut butter fudge
5. horse and buggy
6. Stillwater Inn and Restaurant
7. Blueberry jam
8. neon sign
9. TN license plate
10. house with a red door
11. antique church pew
12. graveyard
13. pie
14. "B" to photograph
15. Dr. Pepper sign
16. wrought iron gate
17. cowboy boots
18. barrel of monkeys
19. cookie cutter
20. Jefferson postcard
Will's list for me:
1. a Nat'l Geographic from 1966
2. jar of blackberry jam
3. glass 7-up bottle
4. Nancy Drew book
5. tri-cycle
6. Santa Claus in non-traditional clothing
7. a hand crank mixer
8. cast iron corn-shaped cornbread mold
9. a 45 or LP on the Motown label
10. anything from Memphis
11. a purple chair
12. a book w/at least 2500 pages
13. can of Prince Albert tobacco
14. a church pew
15. a crab
16. salt water taffy
17. a pink Barbie car/jeep
18. picture of JFK
19. copy of "Joy of Cooking"
20. any toy one of us owned in our childhood
We didn't reveal our lists until Saturday morning during our drive over. At first glance I thought I was sunk. To me Will's list for me seemed much more challenging than the one I had written for him. Along the way we took pictures of our found items with our cell phone to serve as proof if there were any questions.
In the end we each had some that slowed us down a bit. I had the most difficulty with the crab, Barbie car and "anything from Memphis". We eventually did find a Barbie car but it wasn't pink, it was blue. I know, who would have thought, so we counted it. Also, the largest book I was able to find was around 2300 pages.
Will had an extra little wrench with those that weren't in the immediate town center, but I afforded him some time to drive so he could equal out a bit. He never was able to locate a TN license plate or a barrel of monkeys. I was certain the general store would have a barrel of monkeys as part of its vintage toy display.
I think I was named "winner" but I had some help along the way. We had agreed that winner got to pick a piece of pie to share for dessert but after our vigorous hunting we were ready to head back to our small town. We did eat lunch at Kitt's, known for their cornbread sandwiches. Very good! We also took home some local Blackburn's jam, raspberry and apricot.
A little creativity resulting in several hours of inexpensive fun and only a couple of questioning glances from shop keepers as we walked around marking things off our lists, I'd call it a successful Saturday.
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