Pickers' Paradise

My sweet friend, Jessica, says you should give yourself a treat after working hard, or doing something that's not much fun. This week, I have been reading and studying really hard (leaving for UConn on Saturday), so I've treated myself to some afternoon excursions. Mom comes with, and we explore the area around Oatmeal. We love the hardware store in Bertram, the Sonic in Liberty Hill, the shops on the square in Marble Falls, the short drive to Inks Lake and Lake Buchanan, and the food at the Maxican in Burnet.

We are big fans of American Pickers, and haves passed many picker-worthy places, but haven't had the courage to stop in and ask to go through somebody else's junk. We kinda stick to the antique shops and flea markets. One really cool place is Pickers' Paradise in Burnet. I have been looking for a little table for one of the rooms at the ranch, so we stopped in. There is a big metal barn with lots of junk in it and outside of it, and a little house next door. The afternoon heat led us into the air-conditioned house. That's where we met Gayle. She is a pretty woman with short gray hair and beautiful skin. She offered us a cool drink, and we set off exploring the "packed to the rafters" house. Not much furniture, but tons of smalls - metal ice cube trays, old books, records, games, cowboy stuff, kitchen stuff, baby stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff. It would be overwhelming if it weren't sorted into groups of like things.

I spotted a corner table, and an old sewing machine cabinet, both priced really well. I wasn't sure about the dimensions, so I borrowed Gayle's tape measure. While Gayle helped me measure, she told us about how she and her husband had bought this place and its contents about a year ago. We told her we liked the name, and that we are fans of American Pickers. She said she had named her place before she knew about the history channel show, but that she had contacted them, and that they (our heroes Frank and Mike) were planning a trip to Texas. Wool hoo!

Gayle said she has been picking most of her life. She's 70' and her kids are grown, but when they were little, she used to make their lunches, load them into the station wagon, and drive onto strangers' properties and ask to look through their junk. She told her kids they were going "Christmas shopping." She said they used to Christmas shop all year. When her kids were old enough to figure out what was going on, they would lay down on the floorboard so no one would see them, just in case they knew the folks, or their kids.

As it turned out, the pieces wouldn't work for me, but it sure was fun meeting Gayle. I hope she gets to meet Mike and Frank, and that they get to go Christmas shopping together.