Friday, May 9, 2008

fortune telling machine



We bought grandma from a unique store in Iowa city,Iowa called "Things Things and Things". they went out of business and she was for sale. Bill and i just had to have her. she's in perfect working order. and was made in 1927. the owner of the store bought her in new york in the sixties, (i think) She's beautiful and the ultimate antique. We are very lucky to have her.

8 comments:

kartika said...

Yes! I remember Things when it was just a little head shop and grew into a fashionable store with a Deli - I actually worked in the Deli when I was attending U of Iowa. Great picture and I love Grandma! Kartika

cconz said...

OH kartika, i can't believe it.you used to work there!!! Wasn't that the neatest store around? That big lion they had there (fake) and that center room full of plants, SOOOOOOO cool!!! TOm was pretty cool!! i had admired that machine from when i first came to i.c. 1975. that store really influenced me. that's why i say, we are very lucky to have her. there were other people who wanted her also, we were meant to have her.

kartika said...

Wow - that is so cool - yes, and I remember Things when it was just a little hole in the wall when I came to IC in 68 right after I graduated HS in New Jersey - my brother had just gotten through the Writers Workshop - IC was so different way back when and Coralville was considered almost a little joke - with nothing going on there - now you have that piece of history from IC and Things and Things - I remember Tom and I think his wife was Marsha? Also, there was a Janet. The times have changed. I now live in Fairfield - I am not a TMer anymore - but that brought me here back in the days. K

Anonymous said...

OMG! The fortune lady--I used to visit her often, as my mom owned Every Bloomin Thing next door. I still have some of the cards she dealt me. My favorite says that I will always have money. Can I come visit her next time I come home? PS--that's how I met Kartika all those years ago--she worked next door.
Annie in Boston

cconz said...

Annie, small world isn't it!! Stop by and get another fortune, next time your in the area. She'd love to see you!!! There still is an Every bloomin thing is'nt there? Still in the family? cathie

Anonymous said...

EBT was sold in 1993 and is now located out on the Coralville Strip on Riverside Drive. Sadly, after 29 years, my brother's toy store The Fun Zone will be closing its doors for good next week. Thanks ever to the slumping Bush economy, the invention of superstores and mail order over the internet. Ey yi yi these are not good times for small potatoes retailers. Even my favorite toy store in Boston is fixing to close. About THINGS--that store soooo influenced me. I too remember it as the hippie store, even before the great fire in the winter of 69 where it burned to the ground. My family has pictures of the street light incased in ice, with all the hippie-ish students looking at the damage. I was 8 when it burned down. But the building they built in its place was so grand--designed by weiner (?) Novich and Patchul Architects (I think) (Or Hanson Lind Meyer?) with its 5 levels. They had the corner on cool, and THINGS remains a vivid place in my memory--going downtown on the bus after school at the age of 9 or 10 for candy and to look at toys, or just to simply loiter and take it all in. IC was a safe place to do that when I was a kid. I used to also go get lost in the several locations of Epstein's books, not that I was a reader yet. My parents did very little micromanaging of me. I hope I wasn't too much of a nuesence. I actually visited Tom and Kathy Wegman when I was in IC last Thanksgiving. Tom is an amazing artist. Actually Marcia, his former wife, is too. Tom had one of the original rusting THINGS signs in his front yard. I think Marcia has hers in her yard as well, come to think of it. I'm not sure where Doris, Tom's sister and business partner keeps hers. Anyway, there it was like a welcome home sign.

BTW--I have started a fiction blog and have started to post a novella in weekly installments. If you would like to see it or link it to your blog as Kartika did, that would be awesome. it is:

http://courseinpigtailmastery.blogspot.com/

Anyway--awesome to see the lady again. I hope to see her again soon!
Annie

cconz said...

annie, i remember your parents shop. It always smelled so good. i bought houseplants from them, feeding my passion back then. i read about your brother in the paper. i also traded with your sister-in-law. i bought my caldrea products from "Roominations" Great Shop.It is a sad state we are in now. shopping is no longer a fun experience, getting to know shop owners etc.... no longer an option, get in get out, get off the road and out of the car before you go balistic. crazy, crazy

Gothic Rose Antiques said...

Wow! She is awesome, you are a lucky girl to have that machine. The Fortune Teller's Booth at my shop I created out of a 1700's Sedan Chair like what they used to pick up and carry the princess around in, people come in just to see it too. Of course it isn't mechanical, just has that Haunting look....
Crystal