Sunday, February 23, 2014

Saturdays on the square


Some of you may remember that I work at the local antique store in this little town on Saturdays. Well, all but the first Saturday. Plus I pick up occasional other days when I don't have any work.

Before this last Great Recession, it did OK for itself with buyers from other antique stores coming from the city and a small 'shop Wharton antiques' billboard on the highway before the first exit to town but the last hurricane blew it down and TxDoT won't allow it back up. The store hasn't really recovered. Same story for most the other shops on and around the square.

Wharton residents don't exactly support the small businesses in town, not with a Walmart in town and a major shopping plaza 30 minutes away so most our business comes from day trippers or from the other small towns around us.

During the week there are days when no one comes in. Since I work on Saturday, that doesn't happen to me very often though I do have days when just a few people come in. The owner sometimes talks about closing Miss Hattie's as she is supporting it with her day job but so far it's just been talk.

Mostly Saturdays are a day of forced inactivity for me. I play a lot of spider solitaire, shell pecans, read. Sometimes I bring other stuff to do. I chat with the people who come in.

The shop is on the courthouse square which is the center of activity for a lot of events. I got to work one day last month to see the Martin Luther King Day parade was assembling but by the time I got the shop open and came back out to get some pictures, they were already marching on down the street so all I got was the tail end.


Across the square from us is the veteran's memorial and so I see ceremonies going on over there sometimes too.

Also on the square is the gazebo which is not directly across from the shop but a little caty-cornered and it is a popular place for weddings and photography. I've seen several weddings and lots of photo sessions for weddings or quinceneras or proms.


I try to sneak my own pictures, shooting from the door or through the shop window on zoom but occasionally I get caught like during yesterday's Quincenera photo shoot.



This bride was wearing cowboy boots.


It's a nice window on life in a small town.



16 comments:

  1. i hope it stays open, but the billboard loss really would cut down visitor traffic.

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  2. Town squares around here are failing in some towns unless the city really works on them. I enjoy being on one when there is activity like this.

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  3. Sounds like a great place to be.

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  4. Reminds me so much of Monticello, the county seat where I live. So very, very much.

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  5. Without the billboard it's future is pretty bleak. I've worked in three shops in town, all gone now. One was antique dealers, one was collectibles, the last was local produce. Sometimes they would call each other up and ask if all the customers were up there.

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  6. love the vibe your photos gives. I envy you this small town life. So many Mom and Pops near us are gone and I mourn that as well. But then you know how I feel about Big Box stores...errrrrrrr. Happy Weekend.

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  7. That amount of human interaction is right down my alley - if not in the best interests of the shop owner :)

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  8. I love that first orange dress photo!

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  9. Town squares are so important and lacking in most places now with strip malls and regular malls.

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  10. Those cowboy boots with the wedding dress are just way too cool!
    That picture captures so much truth about small towns in the midwest.

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  11. LOL -- love the cowboy boots! That's so Texas.

    It would be a lot of fun to watch the goings-on in the courthouse square. That's what people in small towns have been doing for hundreds of years, isn't it?

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  12. I love the Town Square photographs. Just as a point of interest is black the normal colour for wedding guests to wear? I know it's a terribly formal colour but it just seems a bit grim at a wedding - love that the girls over there wear the same crippling blocks on their feet as over her. I also think the orange dress is fab!

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  13. Fabulous pictures!

    Your days at the antique shop - Ira Glass should interview you.

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  14. Pity about the lack of customers but you do see life from your window, don’t you.

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  15. Too bad about the lagging business but your eagle eye captured so many fine street scenes. Frank's nephew is getting married next summer and the whole wedding party is to wear cowboy boots. Fun stuff.

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  16. The shoes in this pictures made me smile. Love the red heels (or are they orange?). And those cowboy boots for the bride are perfect!

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.