Day Trippers

Finding the Happy Woods: a Tale of Two Antique Stores in Keene, NH

It's funny how some days turn out: how a bad day can turn into a good one, with a little patience and humor.

My family and I had gone to Keene, N.H., to go antiquing and shopping, and to get something to eat for lunch. On our way, we stopped at a long, one-story building called the "Knotty Pine Antiques." Inside, antiques filled the room in neatly organized rows. Blotches of blue splattered the white walls. In the center, a woman in her 70's stood ripping apart a meat sandwich with her silver-filled mouth. My mother smiled at her and said, "Good morning." The woman did not say hello. Instead, with her mouth full, she squawked, "Ma'am, you'll have to leave your bag outside." My mom's bag, a purse-sized backpack, which she wore on her back at the time, had brown and blue zipper stripes. "What, but this is my purse!?," my mother stammered, in a confused voice. "We have a policy," snapped the woman stubbornly. Her face was narrow and sharp. "So I guess I don't buy anything? . . ." my mom muttered. "Well, you can bring the money in, but you have to leave the bag outside." Her voice was cold, her stare penetrating. "How distrusting. . .," my mom mumbled to no one in particular. Finally, my dad said, in a low voice, "Do you want to go?" "Yes, I want to go," my mother pronounced. My brother and I whispered to to each other, "Wow." We were all stunned. And we giggled all the way to the car.

Taking our seats, we all traded our feelings about what had just happened. The woman's rudeness had made us feel very unwelcome. We agreed that we would never go there again.

We drove to Colony Mill Marketplace, a brick building filled with lots of shops and restaurants in downtown Keene. First, we lost ourselves amidst sour pumpkin gummies, strawberry licorice, and Harry Potter jelly beans in a candy store. Then, we grabbed a quick lunch at an Asian restaurant in the small food court on the bottom floor. Finally, we made our way past hat and shoe shops, clothing stores, and a fun store with hilarious George Bush playing cards, then up the stairs, and into an antiques store.

We weren't sure what to expect. As we sauntered into the store, we heard the warm voice of the woman at the desk, "Hello, are you looking for anything in particular?" At the same time, we stumbled upon the sign that asked customers to leave their bags at the front. My mom still had her purse on her back, but the woman did not say anything. "Hi, we're just looking, thanks." We began to slowly pace ourselves down the aisles, savoring every stop as we looked at cool prosthetic eyes, Wedgewood pottery, a Mongolian knife, and a five thousand dollar Native American statue hand-carved out of wood. It felt good to finally be able to browse all the cool things in an antique shop without feeling like we were not supposed to be there.

By the time we made our final stop of the day at the bookstore next door, we were eager to sit down and relax with a book before hitting the road for home. It had been a long day for us travelers. It started off a little rough, but we managed to plug the hole of rudeness and find the trail into the happy woods.

--DRP