Its official- we've gone "picking". We're junk pickers, antique pickers, treasure pickers... you know the type... the ones you see on the History Channel now. After only going one time, I wouldn't say were experts or even claim we are truely "pickers"... but today, I'll say we are.
Yes, we LOVE that show- American Pickers! What's not to love... two funny guys from Iowa driving around the country side visiting obsessive compulsive collectors and looking for and finding great deals on cool old stuff.
Well, over the weekend we channeled our inner Mike and Frank. While visiting some family in Southwestern Iowa, we decided to drive over to the infamous "Mrs. King's" place. We've been hearing Matt's cousins talk about this place where this little old lady has building after building PACKED full of old stuff. Just a bunch of old junk thrown every which way. Here there and everywhere. Parts of buildings are falling down and open to the elements. Sections of buildings small like raccoon p*$$, um I mean urine. Its a scene straight out of American Pickers on History Channel.
So, even though it was a hot day and we weren't dressed to pick (flip-flops aren't the best footwear for the job), we just started looking through stuff. We were especially on the look out for old Dutch ovens. We want a Griswold. Bad. We really want one.
Matt found a couple black pots stacked back in a nook of this old building. After climbing up and over an old wrought iron bed frame, a rotten old mattress, a buggy seat, an old ladder, a modern Graco stroller, and numerous other artifacts. Matt started handing down old grimy, greasy, rusty, cast iron pots.
Unfortunately, none, except one, had a lid, and the one with a lid had been severely cracked and mended on one side. Darn. Well, undaunted, the pickers (us) kept on looking. After searching through several buildings and some piles of junk covered in weeds, we had found 3 rusty cast-iron skillets. Even though they weren't D.O.s, we were still excited to expand our cast-iron collection for camping- plus one of them was a Griswold.
After we decided we were done hunting, we had to go and present our finds to "The Queen" (Mrs. King). She sat inside the house in her old recliner. Anybody who wanted to possibly buy something had to go in, show her what you wanted and wait for her to give you a price. The scene was hysterical. Erin went with the first two skillets- a 8" Wagner Ware and a No. 6 Griswold. Mrs. King said, "$3 ea". Sold.
Matt had stayed outside with his single skillet and was still kinda looking around for that elusive D.O. Still, no luck. Better go in and pay. When Matt presented his find to "The Queen" she had her granddaughter pull out the price book. Uh-Oh. This isn't good. She's not gonna give Matt a good deal.
"How about $8".
Matt replies, "Gosh, you gave my wife a lot better deal."
"What she give me for hers?"
Her granddaughter says, "$6; three each."
"Oh."
Matt jumps in, "Well, how about $5." The Queen agreed. So, for $11 we walked out with 3 rusty old cast-iron skillets and no D.Os. I guess if even one turns out to be usable, we made out alright.
Coming soon... our cleaning and re-seasoning process.
~Erin
