Once a year, Elaine Pasekoff, Bob Newlin and Jill Ziegler make a pilgrimage to Central Florida to attend the Renningers Antique Market in Mount Dora. The last several years Terry has joined them in their all day shopping fest. She has started collecting antique women’s compants encrusted in jewels. Last year she also came home with a huge railroad crossing sign. Bob who comes from Washington D.C. collects antique silver. Elayne comes from Miami and usually walks away with some Teddy Roosevelt memorabilia. Jill, also from D.C., has joined in the last several outings collecting fine china. I didn’t spend the day shopping, but I agreed to meet the exhausted shoppers at the Lakeside Inn where they were staying the night so they could continue shopping at the Renningers flea market the next day.
I got to the Inn a little early and decided to sketch the building. A women stopped to admire the sketch. She told me that a friend of hers was an artist. Teachers bought the girls work. In time however, the art student sold her soul to the devil and became a graphic designer. The crew parallel parked across the street from me. They unloaded their haul for the day and made their way to the hotel’s front porch for “Show and Tell.” There were several people smoking cigars, so we all moved to a smaller porch on one of the hotel’s smaller buildings.
Elaine advised me to come up with “Best Of” categories for the best buys of the day. Last year Elaine won my vote by getting four French diorama scenes that were multilayered, adding depth to the scenes.This year Terry won the Sci-Fi Award for her purchase of an unused Star Trek board game. Elaine won the Best Teddy Award for a bust of the president. The Steal of the Day Award went to Jill. Bob’s knockers won my pick for the Best Overall Award. The mini working door knockers were on a tie clip.
We all watched the sun set over Lake Dora and then went out to dinner. We all stayed at the Inn, which is the longest standing working Inn in Florida. The next day as the troops rallied to shop again, I drove back to Orlando.
