I've written about the Hoboken Thrift Store, which is also known as St. Mary's Advocates, in these pages before and about the wonderful things I've found there over the years. Now that I have YES Gallery to go to, I try to stop by the thrift store on my way on days when they're open and I have time because although it's a few blocks out of my way, it's just a few blocks away. Taking the extra time to go there is always so much fun, for the people I meet and see and speak to there and for the wonderful treasures, sometimes clothing or shoes, sometimes decorative items, and sometimes things I wasn't expecting at all but that are so wonderful that I have to bring them to the gallery.
On Saturday I stopped by and the first thing I saw when I walked in was a woman speaking with children outside. She was giving them directions on how to behave in the store around adults and giving them the opportunity to choose one thing each they wanted as a gift from her. When I heard her words and the way she was speaking, it reminded me of me with my own Mother when we were going to a thrift store together or to another place where she was letting me choose something, just one thing, that she would give to me. I told the woman at the counter about how overhearing the conversation reminded me of those times with my own Mother, and then I told the woman when she came into the store. The woman behind the counter knew the woman with the children and I overheard as they were talking that they were her grandchildren. As I started my own shopping, I heard one of the little girls saying, "Excuse me," to people shopping as she tried to go by them just as she had been told to do by her Grandmother. There was something so sweet about the whole thing and it made me feel so happy, my own memories mixing in with these new moments of joy.
Almost immediately when I began looking at the shelves that have homewares and decorative items on them, I saw what looked like an antique clock. It was on a lower shelf and not easy to see, but I didn't want to get it out myself in case it was fragile so I asked the woman behind the counter about it and she got it out for me to look at. It was a beauty and of course it had to go back with me to YES Gallery. When I got there I dusted it off carefully and tried to figure out how it worked and if it was still working. It didn't have the keys to wind it and set it, but I was able to move the hands and when I put it to just a hint before 3pm, it began to chime. Then I noticed there was a place where it could open in the back, and it was very dusty inside. As I was cleaning that part of it, the minutes started ticking. I set it to the correct time and after a few moments I heard a single chime because it was at the half hour.
Finding this clock was such a wonderful dream come true because I've always loved them and I think somewhere back in my memory someone in my family, a grandmother perhaps or maybe a family friend or other relative, had one. I remember someone showing me how one worked once, distantly in my long ago childhood days, and I've seen them over the years and always thought it would be so lovely to have one.
I made a short video that I'll share here, with the antique clock on top of the antique dresser that I wrote about a while ago when a dear friend helped me bring it to the gallery when I'd found it around the corner and didn't know how I'd get it there. They're both from around the same period of time and the dresser is where the Souper Dress from the 1960's hangs, so it seems the treasure of time has found a place it can pass the hours in where it can feel right at home.
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