The fact that the heavt wave killed business it not shocking, but the number of phone calls for me to buy things from people moving.....is!! People are running away in droves from NJ, the state with the highest property taxes in the nation...and that makes it harder for small businesses to stay afloat...and Bergen County....has one of the highest tax rates in NJ..which makes it the highest of the highest...
And if people arent selling because they are running away to a cheaper place to live....or their chidlren leave them with the empty next and they are down sizing...or people are dying.....and that is really going far away from NJ....or people are getting divorced......or, and the least reason people are selling is that theya re redecorating..and of course people who need money....and i hate when people come and tell me this....It makes me feel sick...and sad...and often, they have nothing that is worth anything, and for me to tell them that, when they are so very down.....is difficult for me emotionally. I am supposed to be this shrewd antique dealer...well, I am not!! What kept me in business all these years are two things. I do have a very good eye for things to buy.....and always have had an excellent staff of people around me who are loyal and work hard....and the store...its reputation, image and survival is important to them. They take pride in the place.... I am so blessed.
Today we brought in some fun stuff. A pair of chairs in the shape of a maple leaf c 1940s and a carved bed with the same ROYAL PURPLE VELVET....the chairs and bed are fit for a QUEEN, or maybe two QUeens.... Also we got oil paintings, one Victorian and one a lady with a bulldog, all kinds of white painted furntiure from the 1950's a Great Crystal Chandlier, all kind of tacky lamps and brick brack, a set of fine china that looks like limoge, and some signed LIMOGE cobalt dishes with gold banding, some crocks, sillouittes in Civil War Frames, a pile of great mirrors...(there were no vampires in that house..and since they were Italian, there was a string of dried garlic there to ward off the vampires and evil spirits...tomorrow we are getting the contents of an apartment in the CITY...all french marble top furniture....and other goodies.
Here is a silly recipe that I amde by accident....and then recreated... I took leftovers of Penne in Vodka SAuce..and put in the left overs of a mixed vegtable curry I made the night before...consisting of cauliflower, onion, carrot,green and yellow squash, and green pepper...sauted in olive oil and curry powder, water, garlic,dry cilantro and salt...and then thickend with corn starch... When I mixed the two left overs..it created a Penne and Vodka curried Primavera...and it was incredible.......Use Victoria Brand Vodka sauce...and the rest is easy and fast...YOu will really besur[rised how Indian and Italy blen nicely together.....a marriage made in heaven (or at least HOHOKUS)
I got a call today ...From a student from 40 years ago.....I remembered instantly who it was, and the computer in my mind brought up his picture...I did not recognize the voice, though, since he was 12 the last time we talked. But soon, he told me he had cancer....lung cancer and brain cancer....and that I am sure changed the voice. My instantaneous joy of hearing from a student of the past, the respect that was being bestowed upon me.....the tears of joy, turned to tears of sadness, when I soon heard how he was suffering, but he was optimistic that hw would survive.
I asked him where he had surgery and he mentioned first VALLEY HOSPITAL. I asked him is a certian DR (who is a customer of mine...and who I admire) did the surgery. He said that the BRAIN SURGERY was sone in NEW YORK by DR SIISTI........WOW< I said, he too is a special customer of mine..MIKE SISTI, the foremost brain surgeon in the world, or one of them......YOU called him MIKE, he said..yes...we are on first name basis....He saved a friends life two years ago..he took him in for an operation on a moments notice, or he would have died..and now he is perfect. So a few coincidences came down in a minute or two.
The next cause of a tear of happiness, or bittersweetness...was when this former student started telling me about his favorite lesson that he had in my class. How we were tobring in a favorite song and analyze its verses for meaning, and poetry...and then they woudl write their own verses.... Its hard for me to believe...that whenever I meet former students they remember lessons and in details.. from when they were twelve....and that was back in the late 1960 and 70's/ I didnt have much of an ego back then, but as time goes on.....people continue to validate my positive influence in their lives...so many of them...and that makes me feel that my trip on planet earth has been a positive one. Growing my antique business..is different. No once really cares about antique dealers, or how big their store is, or how much shit is jammed into it before it explodes...Peopel see me as a businessman...because that is the way things turned out..but the real me...is one that likes make the planet a better place. So the shit that I sell beautifies homes, and makes people happy...but so what. YEs, I am proud of my store, proud of the employees that work for me, but not really full of my self for being a businessman, but would rather beknown for other things...
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