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Antiques and Centralia- A Great Pair

© Jerri Brooker

Today I walk around Centralia, Washington with my Dad - boy, has it changed since the last time I took time to walk downtown! It has always been known as one of the best places around to hunt antiques, but now antique shops are everywhere I turn, on Tower street and elsewhere! I can't believe my eyes! What treasures I see!

Would you believe Centralia has more than 350 antique dealers in 11 malls? That's a lot of antiques!

While browsing the shops I search for a missing piece to a depression glass candleholder set with a history. I picked the first one up quite by accident in Silverdale, Washington, at a garage sale sometime prior to 1974. Then I miraculously find the mate in 1974 at a St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store in Bremerton, Washington. Was I ever thrilled! I would never have expected to find a mate to the first one. (I have been going to garage sales and thrift stores as long as I can remember and had not seen one like it.)

Depression glass is one of the things I look for, but I love all antiques. My husband has to convince me at times that I don't really want the antique I'm thinking about bringing home.

I look for finds anywhere. Did I ever surprise my husband when I came home about ten years ago and told him I bought a new pair of (antique) skis for him - I left out the antique part when I told him. Since that's a pretty personal buy (skiers pick their OWN skis generally), his eyes got big as plates and he really had to contain himself.

He was pretty worried but began to laugh when I took him to the garage and showed him an old, pretty used, hand-carved pair of wooden skis with metal bindings from early in the century (a good buy at $10 from a secondhand store in Oakville, Washington). We have cathedral ceilings in our house, so we put the skis on the wall. It's fun recounting the story to family and friends for a laugh. Anyway, back to Centralia.

Centralia was founded by George Washington, son of a slave, in 1875. At the first link above, you can read about the tough time he had getting land because he was black. The area was not kind to him in those early days.

He persisted and Centerville, now Centralia, was established (today there is still a Centerville western shop in Centralia). The city has some dark history, such as the Wobblies - it's at the same link. I'm not going into that here, but the "Centralia Massacre" played a big part in labor union history; it was such a terrible event, the townspeople would not talk about it for years.