~ Joseph Sorrentino
Description
I guess I was pretty much born to collect and deal in antiques. My parents decided to take their passions for the eclectic and gave it a shot as a hobby/business. That was back in 1961 and they later informed me that I was to be born a few months after they first applied to the state of Connecticut in order to become legitimate "antiques dealers."
Well, how legitimate their application fees and a little piece of paper with some forgotten state officials name and stamp leaves more doubt than answers.
They became transient vendors by legal terms, to many others simply hawkers of bric-a-brac. They set up and sold and bought at most of the local small shows and flea markets they could fit in around their family of four kids and a very lively beagle.
My father gravitated to collecting U.S. Coins and carnival glass aka "taffeta glass" according to him. My mother found her initial attraction to be Boston and Sandwich glass with a spill over into miniature lamps.
About the time I had reached the ripe old age of five, my parents decided to bring me along on their outings meant for buying or selling. In no time at all I became a sort of fixture on the circuit my parents were involved in.
I clearly remember the long evenings of my parents bickering as to what to pack and what not to bring to that weekend show and sale, getting up before the sun had a chance to break to head out in my Dads pick-up, and sitting in smoke-filled auction rooms until ungodly hours.
I must have been one heck of a pest and know-it-all kid because I seemed to fit right in with the adult antiques vagabonds and the caravans of over loaded vehicles that would line up at an empty field, both in the hopes of finding a gem and the selling enough of our previously believed gems to pay for the newest acquisition.
By the time I had turned ten, I had amassed a fairly decent inventory of my own, sometimes both outbuying and outselling my parents on some weekends. A number of the established "dealers" seem to have taken kindly to this talkative strawberry blonde kid who, thanks to his dad and a twenty dollar bill having been handed to me before every show, became just one of the dealers.
I was so lucky as to have been sort of taken under the wings of a well known and respected husband and wife who dealt primarily in Art Glass and a little in what would become known as American Art Pottery.
Over the years, my parents made many friends and I was exposed to a plethora of sane and sometimes outright bizarre characters. As the years passed, my parent's business grew, their collections grew, our areas covered to buy and sell would grow to cover more than a half dozen states. My personal interests seemed to follow my parents guidance but it easily surpassed theirs by the mid 1970's.
About the time that things seemed to become more exciting and profitable for me personally in the field of antiques, I was also up to my neck in my other passion, ice skating. I had competed as young as four years old and being a boy, well all I have to say is there are thousands of prima donnas for just one prima don. Being so few successful boys competing in figure skating skewed success for me and I won quite a bit. I was pretty much assured a medal just for showing up. My poor younger sister, four years my junior, had to fight tooth and nail simply to make it out of the qualifying rounds.
Due to the great expenses my parents carried in order that their two youngest children could live out their youthful dreams of one day winning it all at the Olympics, our parents had to put aside their passion and weekends of antiques in order to save enough money for our lesson fees and all of the other outrageous costs associated with our sport.
The trips to Richard Bournes auction became fewer and fewer, the shows my parents and I set up at had become bigger, grander, more impressive, and obviously much more expensive to show at.
Alas, time, finances, and life simply no longer worked out well for my parents as a team. They divorced before the 70's had come to a close. Along with it the family antiques business was carefully packed up into so many banana boxes only to be stored out of sight and mind.
Nearly a decade later, a much taller, retired competitive ice skater, along with his partner, suggested to his mother that it might be a fun weekend for us to set up at a local antiques show.
Thirty years later, that same ex ice skater is sitting in his living room, the lights are off and the only sounds heard are the constant tic, tic, tic of my IPad keys and the random gurgling of my stomach.
To my mentors, my mom, Maryann and my late dad, Tony, thank you very much for everything. It has been my honor to have had the both of you as my mentors. I love you both very much.
~Joseph A. Sorrentino
Photo: Mother & Son
