Crafts, Antiques and Lunch

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

As people who know me well know, I always enjoy poking around in craft and fabric stores and have been known to spend a considerable amount of time doing so.  When I would tell my late Mother that I was going to go to Hobby Lobby, she would always tell me, “Don’t forget to take your lunch, dear” as she knew I would be there quite a while.

What does that have to do with today?  Well, last week I walked into a store here in Kerrville called Hometown Crafts and Gifts to purchase some thread and told Ron I would need to return when I could spend some time.  Today was the day.  Ron dropped me off and took off for his favorite place, Starbucks, for some coffee and to listen to an online photography class.  I told him I would call when I had finished my shopping.  About an hour and half later I called to say, “come and get me.”

This store was quite a surprise for a town the size of Kerrville (around 23,000 population).  The store is as big or bigger than the largest Hobby Lobby in Albuquerque and includes arts and crafts supplies, fabric, yarn, party, scrapbook, cards, home décor, floral, furniture etc.  While they do not  have some of the dishes, baskets, ceramic décor items carried at Hobby Lobby, the store carries just about everything else and had a larger selection of items for any kind of craft.  The aisles are very narrow with just about room for a small grocery type cart and a body next to it. Needless to say, I had a good time and left behind some money for the many items “I couldn’t live without.”

After my visit to the craft store, we continued down to the historic district of town to take in my favorite antique store.  

We did some looking around, but nothing said, “buy me, buy me” so we left town and headed to “The Ridge Marketplace” located on a hilltop a short distance out of town.  

At The Ridge you will find some home cooking in the café and bakery, a gift shop, an event center and a native nursery.   All the food items are made from scratch daily and are family recipes. 

Being just past the lunch hour, we decided to try out the café.  We always like to try local owned restaurants and I like to try different items or similar items that include different items that are usually used.  Ron had his usual hamburger and onion rings and I ordered the “Green BLT”.  What is a Green BLT?  It was a fried green tomato, bacon, avocado, red onion and lettuce on a homemade sourdough hoagie roll along with fresh large cut sweet potato fries.  

Ron’s onion rings were large with a light seasoned batter and all items were absolutely delicious.  We purchased some fresh baked cookies (cranberry, macadamia nut and white chocolate cookies to take home for later dessert. 

Our sandwiches came in a plastic basket lined with the paper shown below.  The date of the paper is April 1, 1952.  

While I was not living in New Jersey until July of that year as an 8 year old, the ads and some of the information in the articles rang bells with me as things I remember about things in the New Jersey and later New York areas.   The cost of attending “Singing in the Rain” at Radio City Music Hall was 50 cents for adults, the cost of gas in New Jersey 13.9 cents, the cost of a room at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, $10 and the number of crates 350 and how long it took to put the Statue of Liberty together, 4 months. Too bad they don’t cost that today. 

A lot of shopping today, but fun to poke around in new places.