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This week's Question of the Week:

Does your collection have a family connection? Does it cross the generation gap or are you a “first generation” collector?

Post a reply here, send one to Sandra.Sparks@fwmedia.com, or post a reply on the Antique Trader message boards HERE.

In this week's edition of Antique Trader, we're running a story on collector Rick Weiner of Allentown, Pa. You might say Rick acquires his collection "the hard way"; he digs 19th century outhouse pits for his finds.

Click here to read the story Privy to history: Digging 19th century outhouses for historic glass

Digging in old privies for vintage items is kind of an odd hobby.

Do you, or someone you know, have an offbeat collection or hobby?

Post a reply here, on the Antique Trader message boards, or e-mail sandra.sparks@fwmedia.com.

Antique furniture is functional as well as beautiful.

How do you protect your prized furnishings from damage while they are in use?

Post a reply here, in the Question of the Week forum thread, or e-mail sandra.sparks@fwmedia.com and let us know.

Long before there was American Idol and Star Search and The Gong Show even, there was the Hedberg Family Christmas Program brought to you by… the Hedberg family, of course.

I’m not exactly sure how far back our family Christmas program dates, but we’ve been putting on a performance for my parents well over 30 years.

One of my earliest recollections was acting out the Nativity Story. I think I was about 4 years old. I was wearing a robe so I believe my role was a shepherd. I can’t remember exactly, but I do recall that my three oldest sisters portrayed the three wise men. Wearing dish towels on their heads, they marched in with the gifts of gold, frankincense and ... packages of graham crackers (see photo).

Each year for our family Christmas gathering, we either put on a play, share a reading or sing as a family unit or as individuals or small groups. Thankfully, this is not like American Idol. Mom and Dad do not judge us, merely enjoy the performances.

We also learned early on that there was no such thing as embarrassment. Check out the picture at right. My twin sister Raylene (the taller one on the left) and I dressed up in the elf costumes we wore for our grade-school program and sang a song. No one ever accused me of being shy (or tall, for that matter).

As our family has expanded over the years to add spouses and children, the format of the program has changed. Now, instead of the original family doing something together, each of us eight kids do a number, so to speak, with our respective families.

Many times, on the long drive to our family gathering, I have written a poem or something my family can read together. As a former elf, I always look forward to it. I just have to get my other “participants” to share the excitement. I mean really, they can’t be that embarrassed. It’s not like I’m making them wear elf suits!

Or am I?

Antique Trader would love to hear stories of your family holiday traditions  — whether it’s trimming the tree, caroling, participating in a program or watching the real holiday classics on television.

Drop a note in the mail box, my inbox (robyn.austin@fwmedia.com) or post a reply in our forums online at antiquetrader.com. Maybe your holiday tradition can become a classic for someone else.

Happy Holidays!

With the calendar page turned to December, Thanksgiving has come and gone – along with Black Friday.

Most of you know the reason they call the busiest shopping day of the year Black Friday is because it is considered the day retailers begin operating in the black (turning a profit) and, if the season goes well, will finish the year with financial books in the black.

This year, the black also symbolized death. When I heard the news story about the temporary store worker who was trampled to death by an overzealous crowd of shoppers, I was shocked. But not completely surprised. Sometimes people can be desperate for deals – no matter what it takes.

I personally don’t shop on Black Friday if I can avoid it. Oh, I consider it. I page through all the circulars to see what’s on sale, then ask myself, “Is there anything I can’t live without? That I’d fight the crowds for? Is this deal sooooo good it is worth setting the alarm for 2 a.m. so I can be in line somewhere by 3 a.m. for a 4 o’clock opening?” Pretty much without exception, the answer is no.

A friend of mine said he had wonderful shopping experience this year on Black Friday. That’s because he was hitting antiques shops instead of the big box retailers. “No crowds to fight there,” he said. Then we both realized that while it was good news for him and his bargain shopping mission, empty antiques stores are never a good sign.

Antique Trader would like to know what you shop and mall owners are doing to attract shoppers this holiday season? How can we as an industry convince people that purchasing an antique for themselves or as a gift is a far better investment than buying a silly gadget that could break by the time the Easter bunny comes hopping around?

Perhaps instead of focusing on offering the best deals, we should offer the experience. We have something those chain stores don’t have. We have history. We have nostalgia. Who doesn’t like to step back in time and remember Christmases past? Have you found a way to offer that this holiday season?

Please share your ideas via email at robyn.austin@fwmedia.com or comment in the Talkin’ Shop message board on our Web site. Let’s do what we can to help each other finish the year in the black.

Never mind that Halloween candy is barely polished off and leftover Thanksgiving turkey still lurks in the refrigerator, all of a sudden it’s time to start thinking about Christmas. Every year about this time the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge saying “Bah, humbug!” comes calling when I hear that first Christmas carol way too early and see stores putting out Christmas decorations as they remove the Halloween décor.

But before long, I get caught up in the holiday spirit. I start baking cookies and looking for that perfect gift. I send old Scrooge packing and welcome the memories and traditions of Christmases past.

Most families can say they have them – traditions that make the holiday uniquely their own. Traditions have always been a part of the Sparks family Christmas. The entire clan looks forward to chowing down on my famous garlic mashed potatoes and yes, another turkey, complete with stuffing made the same way as last year, and the year before that. The meal wouldn’t be complete without sweet potatoes with marshmallows and cranberry-orange sauce.

When it’s time to exchange gifts, someone is chosen to be Santa, a much-coveted role; Santa gets to hand out the presents in any order he or she chooses. Before Santa gives out that first gift, though, everyone – young and old – must relate a memory from a past Christmas.

Then gifts are handed out and opened one at a time. Sometimes that can take an entire afternoon! Many gifts exchanged are not fancy or store-bought. They certainly cannot be found in any catalog. One year my mom gave me a tablecloth, exquisitely crocheted by her mother. It’s nearly 100 years old now. Another year she made me a quilt using scraps of clothing I’d worn as a child. She’d kept them all those years. Seventeen years ago my husband made a potty chair for our first grandchild, and our daughter already considers it an heirloom that she’ll pass on to Kayla some Christmas in the future.

Some of our traditions have lasted for many years. Some have been tweaked to include new family members. As the family grows, some traditions have been added and some have gone away, but the longest-lasting is to try to get the entire family together at least for one day. I know that as the kids grow up and start their own families and their own traditions, it won’t always happen, but no matter where we are, or how much things change, I’m confident we’ll always be together in heart.

As you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Christmas and embrace old traditions or start new ones, enjoy family and friends who give the holidays their true meaning.

What holiday traditions do you look forward to each year? Have you been the lucky recipient of a family heirloom? Have you given someone a gift they will someday pass on to the next generation? Let us know about your favorite traditions or most memorable holiday by Dec. 10. We’ll share them with all our readers in a future issue.

P.S.: Visit the blog at www.antiquetrader.com to find out what happened on my most memorable Christmas. Nothing will ever top that one!

Our tradition: When it’s time to exchange gifts, someone is chosen to be Santa, a much-coveted role; Santa gets to hand out the presents in any order he or she chooses. Before Santa gives out that first gift, though, everyone – young and old – must relate a memory from a past Christmas.

It is highly unlikely my son, a fifth-grader, will ever have to actually dial a phone. Nor will he ever have a sneezing fit while cleaning the chalkboard erasers. Nor will he curse over jammed typewriter keys because his fingers were faster than the machine.

In fact, I’d wager his only exposure to typewriters is “history” articles like the one Martin Howard shares with us in this week’s Antique Trader.

Mr. Howard set out to collect something “off the beaten path,” and he certainly found it. I don’t know many people who collect the oh-so-heavy and clunky-to-handle writing tools of days gone by. Mainly because they are oh so heavy and oh so clunky to handle. But those who do, know they have in their possession one of the most essential pieces of machinery in history!

Although the shape, design and weight of typewriters have changed over time, and there was even some effort to rearrange the letters, one thing has remained the same: the keyboard is still an essential means for communication. In fact, as Mr. Howard notes, “The keyboard truly connects the planet.”

Look around you at all those businessmen and women typing on their BlackBerries. Look at just about every teenager out there “texting” their friends. Look at all the e-mails in your inbox.

Where would we be without those first typewriters and keyboards? How exciting it must be for folks like Martin Howard to track those down, buy them and, in his case, restore them.

I remember typing essays and reports in junior high and high school on my mom’s big Royal. Lifting that monster onto the dining room table may have been the start of my back problems! But it worked.

It typed. Not as fast as I’d like sometimes, but the letters went on the page and the papers were up to my teacher’s standards. So I really couldn’t complain. But I was a teenager, so I did – especially after we got electric typewriters in school and then, by my later high school years, computers with this “ultra-fast” keyboard.

Fast-forward 30 years and my 10-year-old already knows the “home row” and is typing with both hands poised over the keyboard. In his classroom, both the chalkboard and overhead projector have been replaced by what is called a SMART Board – an interactive, electronic whiteboard.

Let me tell you about this SMART Board. You can draw or write on the touch screen and save that info into a document. The teacher can display everything from class pictures to movies to Web sites. What an incredible teaching and learning tool!

But then again, that’s what the typewriter was and always has been. If someone hadn’t figured out a way to get type-written words on paper, you probably wouldn’t be holding this newspaper in your hands either. Those typewriters are pretty special to us writers and editors.
Perhaps I could start my own collection. They certainly would look a lot more attractive than that pile of outdated computer monitors and broken keyboards!

Antique Trader would like to know if you collect something that was significant to history (typewriters, telephones, radios, etc.) but evolved into something else we still use today — something that perhaps has transformed over time from something enormous to electronic. Use that new-fangled keyboard and send me an email at robyn.austin@fwmedia.com or post a reply here.

Until next time, keep your hands on the home row... asdf jkl;... asdf jkl;...

Driving around the neighborhood, seeing all the inflatable figures on front lawns, lighted trees and other decorations, a person knows a major holiday is just around the corner. But the trees aren’t green and red. They are orange, black and purple. Those aren’t snowmen and Santas I’m seeing. They are ghosts, goblins and jack-o’-lanterns.

Yup, it appears Halloween is becoming just as big as Christmas. But some of you collectors and dealers already knew that, didn’t you?

Be sure to take time to read Mark Roeder’s “spooky delights” feature on Halloween collectibles in this issue. You’ll learn what collectibles to look for, where to find them and what to do with them.

You’ll also find yourself thinking back in time to when you celebrated Halloween as a child. I know I did.

The first thoughts that come to mind are Halloween parties. This was back in the day when we could just call them “Halloween” parties and political correctness hadn’t’ been invented yet.

At 2 years old, my twin sister Raylene (“man” at right) and I made the perfect couple at this home Halloween party. I don’t know if I should be relieved I got to be the “woman” or embarrassed I was already stuffing my shirt with socks as a toddler.

My parents occasionally threw a party, inviting friends, neighbors and relatives. My creative mother always managed to throw some sort of homemade costume together — even if it was just an ensemble of items found in our “play box.” (See photo.) I think the box of clothes — complete with plastic wigs and “mink stoves” (stoles) — eventually was just called our “Halloween box.” Some pretty interesting costumes were created over the years, that’s for sure.

I also enjoyed our grade-school parties, where we had pumpkin-carving and costume contests, where we’d bob for apples, walk through the then-scary haunted house, and win yummy prizes in the cakewalk — usually cakes, cookies and cupcakes decorated with frosting and candy corn. M-m-m. Those were the days. 

At an even younger age, I recall putting together a Halloween puzzle at my grandparents’ house. The wooden blocks formed the picture of a little witch girl, stirring her brew in a pumpkin-shaped pot with little black kittens running around.

I know that if I flipped the blocks, they would form other pictures, but I don’t recall any of those. For some reason, I was enamored with that Halloween picture. I put that puzzle together countless times on each visit. I wonder what my grandma ever did with it.

Antique Trader would like to hear from readers who collect Halloween antique and vintage items (or other spooky delights), or have a favorite Halloween memory to share. Were they tricks? Or treats?

E-mail robyn.austin@fwpubs.com and let us know or post a reply here.

I cannot see or touch one of my most valuable collectible items; it is a memory from earliest childhood that involves playing cards.

My family – parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles would gather for their every-other-week card party held in my grandparents’ dining room.

Each family would bring their table and folding chairs and something to eat. After all the greetings and hugs, the adults got down to the serious business of playing Sheepshead or Smear, changing tables often, so everyone got to play and visit with everyone else. The dozen or so cousins in attendance played Bingo; Thimble, Thimble, Who’s Got the Thimble; I Spy with My Little Eye; or Old Maid.

I remember how lucky I felt when Grandma Schultz would let me sit on her lap at the table with the big people while she played. She sometimes even let me throw her card onto the middle of the table.

Even bedtime was fun, because we got to sleep in “The Parlor,” a very special room, never entered without special permission because it was only for important visitors. The lucky child, determined by drawing straws, got the “privilege” of bunking on the couch, which was scratchy (horse-hide?), narrow, and short, while the rest of the cousins were relegated to the floor.

I remember drifting off to sleep listening to good-natured table pounding, groans of distress, hearty laughter, squeals of surprise and phrases like “no schneider,” “don’t you have any trump?” “did you forget how to deal?” and “you know you can’t win with a red hand.”

Back then I didn’t recognize what I was feeling, but I liked it. Now, 50+ years later I recognize that what I felt was love and security. I was in a house full of people who all loved me, and each other, and who weren’t afraid to show it. And they knew how to have fun. Those card parties reinforced my feelings of belonging to a family that would always accept and love me. Maybe, someday, they might even let me join them around their card tables.

That’s why I enjoyed putting together this issue’s cover story. It made me feel as good as I felt on that scratchy horse hide couch listening to all the fun in the next room.

We’d like to know: Do you have an antique, vintage or collectible item that brings warm memories? Does an everyday item from today send you back – in your mind – to a bygone time?

E-mail robyn.austin@fwpubs.com and let us know, or post a reply here.


My son, Christopher, caught the card-playing bug early. Here I’m teaching him the rules of cribbage – has it been 30 years ago already?! He also plays sheepshead when the family gets together. He regularly beats me at both. Perhaps his four children will carry that same warm feeling when they overhear the conversations going around our card tables today.

My father, who is a child of the Great Depression, can recall with a high amount of respect, how critical President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was in terms of turning around the economy and providing jobs for the unemployed.

My mother, who remembers President John F. Kennedy with fondness and sadness, can remember her reaction the moment news of his shooting came over the radio. “He can’t die! He’s the president!” and her shock when she saw live, on television, Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald.

I, born in the tumultuous year of 1968, can recall 20 years later, working for the campus newspaper, having the privilege of shaking the hands of just about every presidential candidate from Paul Simon and Michael Dukakis to Al Gore.

Politics create moments in history – and history itself. That’s one of the reasons why so many people collect political memorabilia today. Each pin and banner not only represents a time and person, but perhaps a cause or movement as well.

I know I can’t look at a women’s “right to vote” badge without being very thankful there were women (and men) who cared enough to lobby, protest and fight for that right.

I bet you can’t look at a candidate pin for Thomas Dewey without thinking of that famous “Dewey defeats Truman” headline.

Can you look at a caricature of Carter without thinking of peanuts? Or study a family photo of Lincoln without experiencing empathy for the many tragedies in his personal life and challenges in his administration?

While some of the more frivolous items do find themselves abandoned on the convention floor, others are finding themselves in the hands of political collectors like author Dr. Enoch Nappen and James Warlick.

Be sure to read our cover story by Dr. Nappen, who shares insight into collecting trends and gives a sneak preview to his recently released book, Warman’s Political Collectibles Identification and Price Guide, published by Krause Books.

To see the real deal, make a point of visiting the Atlantique City fall show Oct. 18-19, where Mr. Warlick will display numerous items from this personal collection dubbed “The American Presidential Experience.” Warlick has had a love of politics from an early age and has opened six political memorabilia stores in Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Georgetown.

Check out our Atlantique City show section on the following pages to see what else is in store at the Atlantic City Convention Center. You won’t want to miss your chance to spout politics and feel like a winner yourself when you find a collectible treasure there.

As the election approaches, Antique Trader would like to know if you collect political memorabilia or if you have a memory to share about a historic election or political moment. We’ll share these before the nation chooses its new president next month.

Drop me a note, post a reply here, or e-mail me at robyn.austin@fwpubs.com. Hurry, before the polls close!

Back when I was a kid – and I’d like to think it wasn’t that long ago – I can’t recall many occasions where we had to lock the doors of our house or our car. Sometimes, during the deep-freeze days of winter, we’d even leave the old station wagon running while we popped into the store to grab some milk and bread.

We weren’t concerned someone would drive off with our car. Or sneak into our house and rob us blind while we were away at church. We trusted our friends and neighbors. We trusted people in general. We didn’t give it a second thought.

Somewhere along the line, that ability to trust became an exception rather than the norm. We want to give people the benefit of the doubt. And many times we can. On rare occasions, though, we get burned and the thought of trusting someone with our friendship, with our business, with our money, leaves a bad taste in our mouth.

Last week, a North Carolina woman named Patricia Jacoby was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for a pyramid scheme. Why do we care? We care because she represented herself as an antiques dealer and investor who bilked dozens of people like you and me out of an estimated $2.5 million.

The first troubling fact about this news story is that she was representing herself as a legitimate member of our industry. She lied to investors, telling them she purchased estate lots of antiques to resell them at profit and promised a 22 percent return on their investments within 30 days. The victims trusted her at her word.

The other troubling fact is that this latest conviction was her third offense. According to news accounts, Jacoby was previously convicted in two other schemes. She spent a year and a half in prison for bilking investors in an art scheme after a 2000 conviction. In 2006, she pleaded guilty to similar charges and paid $56,000 in restitution to victims.

Investigators said she used money raised from investors in the latest scam to repay previous victims, noting the antiques investment scheme was in the works as soon as Jacoby completed her sentence in the earlier case.

Fortunately, this brand of schemer doesn’t come along every day. For the most part, we can be proud to be a part of an industry of honest, hardworking dealers and shop owners. These rare exceptions, however, do raise some red flags. Whom can we trust? How do we know if someone is running a legitimate business? Can I trust that I am not buying a fake or reproduction?

Antique Trader would like to know how you determine a seller (or buyer for that matter) is trustworthy. Up to and including a police background check, what do you do to safeguard your investment before making it? Have you ever been the victim of an antiques-related scam? Please share your advice so other readers can learn from your experience, too. We’re all in this together. Let’s continue to watch each other’s back as we have been ... and pat each other’s back for your efforts to keep this industry clear of scandal.

Please e-mail me at robyn.austin@fwpubs.com, post a reply here, or drop me a line in the trusty old mailbox!