Ernie and Lorna Retiring

Ernie and Lorna are retiring from the antique business at the end of this month.  You may or may not know them by name, but you probably know their merchandise. Lorna had all the wonderful jewelry near the checkout counter.  Ernie had coins, military stuff and other similar things.  In preparation of this, Lorna is selling her jewelry at 50% off.  There is still time to come in and take advantage of this.

They have been in Antiques on Main for 20 years ago, making them among the first dealers in the store.  They were involved in several enterprises prior to this, which included operating an ice skate shop and a metal detector shop.  They were avid treasure hunters using their metal detectors.   And before that, Ernie was a captain with the Minneapolis fire department.

I should note that they will not be retiring 100 per cent.  They will keep a case in the store where Ernie will continue to sell coins and Lorna will continue to sell jewelry (still at discount prices).

Unusual Things

You expect to find odd things in any antique store and we have our share.  The picture frame made out of a double outhouse seat is right up there at the top of the list.  In fact, if you give it some thought, a double outhouse seat is unusual enough all by itself.  But the unusual things I thought I would write about in this post are a couple of sticks of gum.

The gum is Wrigley's Doublemint ... and they look really gross! So why are they in the store at all?  Here's the story:

I bought an old gum machine that once sold Doublemint for a penny a stick.  It didn't come with a key so I took it to the local locksmith and when they opened it, they found these two sticks of gum beneath the cup that the pennies dropped into.  The copyright date on the wrappers is 1935, which is about right for the machine.  It makes me think that the machine hadn't been opened since sometime in the 1930s.  I was tempted to throw the gum away, but then figured that since they had been with the machine for 70 years or more, they may as well stay with the machine.