Eat Your Heart Out American Pickers!

At the very bottom of this stairwell is the entry to my very own version of American Pickers.  A friend that owns a very old, and now semi renovated, building on the square of the pristine city of Sweetwater, TN, called and asked the ultimate question..."would you like to come up and go through some of the junk on the third floor, we are starting to clean out the entire building and I thought you might want some old junk?"  This question is comparable to asking a fish flopping on the sidewalk, if he would like to get back in the water?.   With a minimal attempt at humility and "I would love to"...we set a date.  Had she been in the room with me at the time, she would have been scared of the raging eery look in my eye that reeked of a insane rat ready to set up housekeeping in new digs.  

I knew the renovated portion was stunning and I felt the un-renovated portion would be riddled with junking goodness.  My friend is quite in tune with my ephemera habits, and preferences for the remains of others.  She was inviting me into what I will infamously call a Den Of Love! (secretly I was beaming to the gods of junk....eat your heart out Mike and Frank...I have some how managed to freestyle into third floor heaven!)

The top of the third floor steps had this sweet little safety sign should their be a fire.  My friend said it had been years since many of the boxes had been moved...opened....and gone through.  The first room on the right was once the Masonic Lodge.  

This was where the "going to be Masons" gathered prior to the Masonic ceremony.  Look at the stuff!

The doorway led to the great meeting room of the Masons.  

But before entry into the "big" room this pre-monocle styled peep hole was the key to going further.  It made me wonder, how many times had this simple mode of protection held many a man back from entry?

Upon walking into the room the windows were my favorite!  They were big....beautiful....waffley glasssed windows!  Much light was pouring into the room.

 This is what I coined the "alter" area.  It clearly was a focal point of the room.  Slightly raised stage with a double stairway, framed with this beautiful wood arch.  Bead board surrounded the room.  Even the dilapidated ceiling had its own beauty.

Turn the corner and this was a small room of potties...I think they only provided aesthetic value, for no plumbing was attached...and I don't think water has cascaded down their walls in a long time.

This room said, "woo hoo, I'm full of old goodness, come seek and you will find!"  

Great aged, painted, chippy wood!  

A pile of OLD, clothing... it was like "Little House On The Prairie" clothes.  If only they could talk.

I feel certain this bonnet is saying, "I'm going down to the crick....I'll be back later Paw!"

This is some of the loot!  Great dark green pitcher, odd little art glassy tumblers and a perfect Toby mug.

Great Notre Dame Football book, Menorah, jello molds, ginormous cookie cutter, and meat gauges!

But the creme de la creme....a polaroid camera with flash and these ever so simpleton LSD designed interior inlaid red flowerette white pumps.  

Still trying to imagine how Laura Ingles and Company bonnets were in the same room as the Project Runway whack-a-doo shoes...but, thus the beauty of the hunt.  No explanation....no reasoning.....just a cool union of unrelated stuff.

Eat your heart out American Pickers!