Tattered Blog

I really do not believe in spirits or ghosts.  We have had some interesting things happen in the Tattered Suitcase that we have rather jokingly attributed to Joy.  (For more about Joy, click on the menu item "Story of Joy") For example, I have had the door securely fastened and have actually heard the handle turn and then the door open - no wind - and I heard it turn.  So, sure there is probably a natural explanation, but what is it?

Then there was the rocker that would start rocking.  Again, no wind, no obvious natural cause.  Who knows why it rocked, but it rocked until I sold it.

So all has been quiet for quite some time, but then this past week, I kept hearing a little electronic tune from the vicinity of my office which is on the opposite end of the shops from the Tattered Suitcase where the other "events" occurred.

I couldn't quite tell where it was coming from so I stood there and waited.  No sound.  I gave up and started back to the other side, when it started again.  I walked back by the office and nothing.  It was quiet again.  I waited for it to start again but after a couple of minutes I gave up and started back out of the room again.  As I got to the doorway, it started again.  Back to the office.  This time I waited and waited.  Nothing.  Still waited and finally there were a few notes, then it stopped.  Unlike before, it just played a little instead of the whole tune.  I waited and then it played again.  It was hard to tell exactly where it was coming from.  I waited some more and then it played.  I could tell it was coming from the storage rack.  I went there and started looking for something electronic that may have made the noise.  On the top shelf was a little poker machine and it was on.  I picked it up and looked at it.  How it had turned on, I didn't have a clue.  I know that thing was sitting there for over a year.  Never once in that year had it come on.  There was nothing near it that could have turned it on or bumped it somehow.  Yet it was on and making the sounds that it made when someone pushed the buttons and played it.

I took it over to the checkout counter and told the dealers there what had happened.  They knew about the other events with the door and rocker, but had not heard the game going off before.

The game sat there quietly without playing again (no one was pushing the buttons then) and after a couple of minutes it turned itself off as it does when not touched for a while.

So how did it turn on?  How was it being played?  When it turned on over in my office, why didn't it time out and turn itself off?  It should have unless someone was playing it.

Joy, was it you?  Have you taken up wandering in other parts of the shop now?  Are you playing poker?

I still don't believe in spirits, but this is a little strange.

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Wow!  It was hot, but we had no choice.  The day was set by the calendar - 1st Thursday of the month is when we have our outside sale and stay open until 9 PM.

Of course, we made it a little better with a quick trip down the street for Mimosa "makings" and that made everything turn out super.

I should make note that Calder has been open for quite some time now.  I haven't been doing too well with blogging here, but it has been super busy.

Sales have been great.  Having Calder open and looking so nice has really brought the people out.

Come see us.  There are tons of things to see: new dealers, new stuff as always.

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Any day now, Calder will be open all the way from downtown to IH-10.  The last little holdup has been at IH-10 and now it is almost done.  The concrete is down and the stripes are in place.  Looks like just a l little final prep and it will be open.

That is a big deal.

Even though our business has been great lately, I know it will be even better when you can come straight off the freeway and go straight down Calder.  Oh, boy.

We have had a lot of customers in the shop lately and so many of them are new faces.  That is really a lot of fun.  The word continues to spread.

There are a lot of changes in the shop, too.  There are upgrades in almost every area.  On the Antique Mall of Beaumont side, with business levels up, we have been really working at moving in a lot of antiques, particularly furniture.  We had gotten away from some of the antiques while the contstruction was going on, but now we are definitely living up to higher standards.

Come check us out.

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OH, what fun!  The brick sidewalk is done as is the wonderful brick driveway.  It is so nice.  Of course, it is nice to be able to get to the shop so easily too.  Now you can drive up on Calder and turn right in across the beautiful brick driveway.

They are working on the railroad crossing at Calder and 2nd.  The rumor is that it will be done in 2 or 3 weeks.  Then Calder will be open between MLK and 11th Street.  Not too far behind that should be the rest of Calder to IH-10.  At last.

We have a lot of changes going on in the shop, too.  Longtime dealer, Shirley Patxot, has moved to Georgetown. With her leaving there has been a virtual moving frenzy as different dealers have moved from spot to spot in the store.  It has been a lot of fun and now there is LOTS of new things to see.

Come see us.  Join the fun.

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We had an interesting thing happen today.

Early this morning, just after we opened, dealers, Sharon Childerss, Linda Martin, and I, were in the checkout area "visiting". We had one customer wandering around the shop. After greeting her, she wanted to just look around so we told her to "Let us know if you need help."

The customer had been in the shop for about twenty minutes, going from one end to the other, checking out all the little nooks and crannies.  She walked by the checkout, looked at us and said "I could hear you laughing all throughout the store.  It must be a fun place to work."

We really appreciated and enjoyed that.  It is true, we do have a lot of fun: fun with each other and fun with our customers.  I have worked hard to ensure that we have terrific dealers who get along with one another, have a good time at the shop, have great merchandise, and do everything we can to show that we treasure our customers. It was nice to have a customer appreciate the atmosphere we have worked hard to establish.

Come see us and join the fun.

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Big steps!  They just opened 10th Street and now Calder is open between 11th St and 3rd St.  That means you can turn off of 11th Street and come down Calder to the shop.

Things are moving fast now.

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After just over 4 months, 10th St is finally open.  Calder is still closed but it is not that far away from opening as well.

What has been amazing has been our business levels.  Yes, business has been a little down, but really not that much.  Over the four months we have been close to where we were for the past two years (ignoring Hurricane Ike time).

What does that mean to our customers?  It means that things have been flying out to the shop as usual so the dealers still have to bring new things in all the time. We always have new and exciting things for you.

Come check it out.

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(Note from April Joy to Michael)

To My Nephew and his Beautiful Daughters (my last surviving kin),

I'm too old to get maudlin now so I'm not about to start some dreary crap about my long life and how I've made the clubhouse turn & am racing to the finish line.  You'll have plenty of time to read my attempts at prose and poor tries at wordmanship.  As you'll soon see.  But more about that later.

There's a will somewhere.  That old hippie, Joel, has it.  Actually hippie isn't quite right for "hippie" was after his "time".  He was more a beatnik, if you know the term; a coffee house weirdo long before the first hippies found sex, drugs, and rock & roll.  By then he had already cleaned up, was in three piece suits and had somehow become a lawyer.  By the time hippie days came, it was too late for him, but not for me.  I fell into those times as naturally as can be, though I wasn't no spring chicken.  But I could damn sure hold my own with those little dopehead hippie girls.  Gawd damn.  Those were good days, but then, I've had plenty of those.

This isn't supposed to be a roll down memory lane.  I just wanted to tell you what I left you and why.  And maybe what to do with it.

Of course, I left you all my crap - all the usual worldly possessions stuff. But there's a couple of special things, too.  I just wanted to tell you about them.

In my old wardrobe there's a small walnut writing box.  Inside is a small brass key.  That key will open the old cedar trunk at the foot of my bed.

Inside are some treasures that no knows about.  Well, no one with any sense would call them treasures but me.  You'll understand.  They are treasures to me and I know at least one of them will be a treasure to you.  I'll let that one be a surprise.

You'll find a foot high stack of old notebooks that are the journal/diary that I began writing when I was 16 years old and in love with that no good bastard Harold Wade.  They go through WWII, the Fabulous 50s, my hippie days in the 60s, thru the boring 70s and worse 80s, and on to the turn of the century.  All glorious days I didn't expect.

I'll warn you now.  I told it like it was - sometimes in detail.  I flipped thru some of the pages a few years ago and read a little.  I read about Ralphie Torn and I sneaking into a Baptist church one night.  The blue ink was so old on those pages it had turned brown.  But the memory of Ralphie and me in the ice cold water of the baptismal is still in living color.  Whew! But I don't need to be thinking about that.  I started to tear those pages out and many others besides those, but then I said to hell with that.  I've shown my ass plenty of times and in plenty of ways.  No need to stop now.

So it's all in there for you.  In a way it's my legacy.  Oh, there's plenty of antiques and stuff with the old house to say nothing of all the things I collected thru the years.  But that is just stuff.  All those old book have my life in them.  And my memories.  They're family memories, too.  I want to leave them with you and I hope you can find a way to share them with your girls.  You may want to rewrite things here and there.  Maybe the real adventures ran a little raw in places.  Lord, Lord, did I have some times...  I want your girls to know me like I was when I was young and full of ginger - when I was the prettiest girl in town, not this old hag they see now when they come to visit.  I want them to know the glory and to know that once I was just like them - young and beautiful with all of life's adventures ahead of them.

Well, crap!  I guess I got maudlin after all.

Share my words and life with your girls.

Love,

April Joy

P.S. I almost forgot your real treasure.  In the trunk is a beautiful ebony box.  It is locked and I lost the damned key years ago.  Break it open.  The treasure is not the box.  It is what is inside.

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Well, it finally got to us.  The huge yellow cranes feeding dozens of dump trucks have rolled past the Tattered Suitcase and across 10th Street.  For over a year we have watched as it slowly headed our way.  We heard the wails of dispair from other shop owners and businesses as they saw their sales and activity drop to next to nothing (and sometimes to nothing).

On Thursday, April 29th, they closed 10th Street.  We had a record sales day.  Of course, there was a bit of a bonus due to a huge online sale of a rare book, but the instore volume was approximately 4 1/4 times normal.  Great sales were repeated on Friday.  Saturday was nearly double the norm.  And so on for the next week.  WIth the exception of one day when sales were dismal (about 18% of normal), we have been at or above normal sales levels every day.  Makes no sense at all.

If you are headed our way, you will need to skip Calder and come down McFadden or North.  We are just one block from 11th street, turn right and come right to our parking lot.  While there you can grab a bite at Rao's, watch the construction work (it is interesting) and come on in for a treasure or two.

There's lots of new stuff to see including a new batch of Yellow Box shoes and a couple of new Angels from local artist, Shirley Patxot's "Angel's Among Us" series.

Hardly a day goes by that at least one dealer if not five or six is bringing in new merchandise.  We always have something new to see.

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Just in case you have missed it, one of our dealers, Shirley Patxot, is also an artist.  Is that ever an understatement!

Shirley is a VERY talented artist who is really just "coming into her own".  If you have not seen her "Angels Among Us Series", you are missing out on a very special treat.  Everyone who sees them is just blown away.

Shirley offers both original acrylics on canvas as well as prints in various sizes.

If you want an original, you should get one fast as they sell quickly.  They are just wonderful.

Come see us and check out her work.  Both her originals and the prints are very affordable.  Then not only will you have a terrific piece of art, but years from now you can say that you knew Shirley long before she became famous.

All her artwork is also available in our Online Store.

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Just a quick note about all the new stuff at the Tattered and about more coming soon.

With the new addition, we have several new dealers and merchandise including:

• Yellow Box shoes
• antique clocks & clock repair
• new trendy shirts, more jewelry
• more artwork
• T-Shirt printing
• movies (VHS now, but DVDs are coming)
• and lots more.

Coming soon are more booths with:

• fine antiques
• wonderful china
• used computers
• TVs, cameras
• electronic & computer parts.

More services are also on the way including:

• web site design (15 years of experience)
• estate sales services
• antique & other personal property appraisals.

There are rumors of a service to convert your record albums to CD and a service to create DVD movies from your photographs (weddings, anniversaries, graduations, parties, etc).

If you haven't seen the new addition, you sure need to pay us a visit!

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Our friend, George Wentz, died on Saturday. Even though his health had been bad for a long time, it was still a bit of a shock. I was over visiting him just a couple of weeks ago and he was in the shop a couple of days later.

George was absolutely the sweetest man I have ever known. It was always a treat to be around him and see the joy he found in everything.

He was still painting up to the very end. Of course, that isn't surprising. He loved his art and well he should.

I am really at a loss for words right now. I have a lot of his art in the shop and a few pieces at home that will always be a reminder of him and the good friend that he has been. Like everyone who ever knew him, I will miss him. . .

---

George I. Wentz George Irvin Wentz, 64, of Beaumont, passed away Saturday, March 6, 2010. A native and resident of Beaumont for most of his life, George was born September 27, 1945, and was a well known artist and poet. He also worked as a florist in Beaumont, Nederland, Austin, Texas and California. George was a graduate of South Park High School and studied art at Lamar University under the late Jerry Newman. He was a long time member of The Art Studio, where he taught art classes. For many years, George was an active member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Beaumont. He was an expert on antiques, and during the 1980's, he wrote a regular monthly column on antiques for the Antique Collector's Guide. His parents, Esca Ray Wentz, Sr. and Annie Wentz preceded him in death. Survivors include his brother, Ray Bubba Wentz and his wife Jennifer of Ben Lomond, California; aunt, Bertha Morgan of Wildwood, Texas; numerous cousins; and many friends in the Beaumont and Southeast Texas Arts Community. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 1:00 p.m., Saturday, March 13, 2010, at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church with interment to follow at Forest Lawn Memorial Park under the direction of Broussard's, 2000 McFaddin, Beaumont. A Christian Vigil will be held 7:00 p.m., Friday, March 12, 2010, at Broussard's. Memorial contributions may be made to The Art Studio, Inc., 720 Franklin, Beaumont, Texas 77701. Tags: Untagged Read More

My memories before I was seven are all fuzzy and a bit out of sequence.  The earliest are at about age five.  I read somewhere that we don't have selective memories of childhood or they would all be happy.

We lived in southeast Texas in the country about a mile off the main road.  That meant walking two miles each day just to get the mail, and going into town, which was ten miles away, every Saturday for groceries.  I always got a special treat on Saturday, a box of Cracker Jacks, which cost four cents, and once in a great while we got to go to the movies.  They were always westerns with Hoot Gibson or Tom Mix, but that didn't matter. They were magic to a little girl before the days of television. We worked until noon on Saturday before we went into town, so Sunday was the best day of all.  That was the day we belonged to ourselves.

We all went into the fields to work.  I was too small to work, but I couldn't stay home alone, so Mother took a quilt for me to sit and play or sleep.  The work was hard and the days were long, even to a child who had nothing to do.

I was five when Mother and my two older sisters went into town one day and, in one of the dry good stores, we were watching a woman try on shoes. When Mother had what she wanted, they left the store without realizing that they only had two little girls, instead of three.

When I looked around and didn't see them, I just stood there for a few seconds, too scared to do anything. I started to cry, but not aloud, and I didn't say a word to anybody. I began to walk around frantically looking for my family and then started out the front door. One of the sales people stopped me and told me to wait there, that someone would be back for me. She didn't ask why I was crying. She just looked at my face and knew. I didn't believe her for a minute, but she held onto me so I couldn't leave and that scared me even more. I could just see them driving away leaving me all alone forever. It seemed like a long time before they came back. Mother laughed and said there wasn't any reason to cry. I should have known they would come back, but I didn't.
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Well, I just finished the new web site.  It does not have all the features yet, but they will be coming soon.

For those of you who have not visited our shop, you are missing out on a really fun experience. We are a unique blend of antiques, collectibles, architectural, artwork, shabby chic, vintage jewelry, primitive, and definitely of the unusual.

Some of the finer shops in the area have been known to turn their noses up at the mention of our names, which makes me smile.  Most of them would kill to have our customers and our sales.

Most people LOVE our shop and often go on and on about it when they visit.  We have been featured in the local papers many times due to our fun and eclectic nature.

Our clientele ranges from the usual antique & collectible enthusiasts, to students looking for a bargain, to artists, to the trendy/fashion conscious, to the "upper crust" who pull up in their Mercedes & BMW's, and everything in between.  We love them all and have so much fun with them.

Come see what everyone is talking about.

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Everything Changes

I am old.
I say the words
And know that they are true.
But I don’t remember them.
I feel the same as yesterday
And forty years ago.
Somehow I cling to youth
Without a conscious effort.
And, then I see my own reflection
In a stranger’s eyes.
I’m still a bit surprised
To find the marks of time
Upon my face.
And harder still to count the ghosts
Of family and friends now gone.

Everything changes.
The girls who envied me
The men who loved me
Are dead and gone.
I have outlived them all.
No one remembers now that once
I was the prettiest girl in town.
My beauty, too, is gone
And once it meant so much.

Everything changes.
And with each change we close a door
Knowing we can never again
Cross its threshold.
But for every door that closes
Somewhere ahead another opens.
And life goes on.
After snows have melted
From barren trees and dead brown lawns
The gay, young daffodil
Will raise its head
And little sprigs of green
Show us that there will always be
A new beginning.

And so I face tomorrow
Unafraid.
I fill my time
With memories, bright and clear
Colored by the warmth of love.
Without impatience, I await
The bright new dawn,
For it may bring to me
My new beginning
For everything changes

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