We went on a Louisville antique safari over the weekend. Unfortunately, even after hitting 5+ antique malls, we didn’t make any good finds. There was some neat architectural salvage type stuff that was fun to look at, but besides that, the experience was fairly underwhelming. I’ve head that, while the South is deep into its own historical legacy, it also fixates on the new, new, new (and often cruddy–like crappily built new houses and cars). This was reflected in the antique mall stock, which offered super-old iron pots and stuff, a seemingly limitless supply of 90s Pier One style home furnishings, and nothing in between. (My sweet spot, of course, is 1950s and 1960s toys and junk.)
One place, however, did deliver, at least a little bit: The South Louisville Toy and Antique Mall. There, amongst a bunch of 1990s Spawn and X-Men action figures, were some nice and reasonably priced buys. We got a copy of the infamous drinking board game Pass-Out for only $2, some neat pinbacks for my collection (The Monkees, a generic Happy Birthday, and a Smokey the Bear), and a couple of tin soldiers for shooting a BB gun at. Not a terrible haul, but I expected more.
The next day we stopped by the Ohio Valley Antique Mall here in town to pick up a chair I’ve had my eye on and just a cursory walk-through made me grateful to live in Cincinnati. We found this beautiful, pristine, unused record binder with quintessential teenage imagery. I also grabbed a sizable, plastic Q*Bert bank. I don’t usually go for 80s stuff, but the price was right and I just liked the look of it.
