Because there are things that are only intended to last one day…
Here’s how a bout of cabin fever and an impromptu stop at a Jersey Shore antique shop, taught us a lesson in posterity and the value of a simple piece of paper.
I’m afraid a cup of warm New England clam chowder, a 20 minute nap, and an endlessly long car ride down the wintry Jersey Shore, have left me a bit unhinged and I’ve resulted to doodling and writing campy sci-fi horror tales on a paper napkin.
Attack of the Shredder Monster:
Girl attempts to save a small piece of paper that she finds on the ground…There is a beautiful story written on it. It makes her happy and she’d like to keep it so that she can read again and again. Suddenly the shredder monster turns the corner with its sharp metal teeth, eager to shred, and hungry for paper. Girl runs and escapes to the beach in hopes of climbing up to the lighthouse and away from the monster, but she is swallowed by a large wave that freezes over. Girl lies frozen forever. At the end, the shredder gnaws and whirs away as it waits for its next victim.
I crumple up my napkin, fold my map (which I’ve decided to use, in lieu of a GPS, for nostalgia’s sake) and look out of the passenger window just as we arrive at an intersection that catches our attention. We are in Barnegat, New Jersey – a sea port town steeped in marine history – and decide that this is as good a place as any to for a quick stretch of the legs.
Before us lies a myriad of signs pointing us in every direction: One Way, Stop, Keep Right, Do Not Enter, Pear Street, Plum Street, and Quiet Please.
Each sign thoughtfully hangs across the salt-worn shiplap that lines the side of the deceptively large structure.
We spy a shop called Unshredded Nostalgia – a place whose solepurpose is to collect and sell what others throw away. A place intent on defying the very meaning of the word ephemera: “things of no lasting significance; only for one day.” A place where perhaps the word “shredder” is considered a profane.
Postcards, letters, posters, maps, comic books, photographs, and magazines…at some point they will all succumb to an acidic rot that will crumble their very edges – but not if owners, Jim & Barbara Episale, have anything to do with it.
We step inside and are quickly greeted by Barbara who offers us a tour of the shop. “Is this your first time here? Don’t be fooled by the size of this room, it goes all the way back and even upstairs.”
A tool section, a politics section, a Christmas section, a kitchen section, a New Jersey section, a map section, a music section, a magazine section, a military section, a sports section, a women’s section, a book section, a photograph section, a toy section, a movie poster section…a home for all of those things that were never made to last, but that somehow, because of nostalgia, have survived.
When asked how they’ve amassed such a collection, Barbara shares “We’ve been doing it forever. A lot of it just kind of walked in the door. All of it, including our space, has just grown and morphed.”
It is winter and the shore towns are nearly empty with the exception of locals who choose to bear down and grit out the frigid temperatures and ocean gusts. But today, the shop has several visitors curiously popping in and out of each room. Barbara says this is not unusual for this season. “Sure, we are busy in the summer with a lot of walk-in traffic and people who drive by all the time but, in the winter, we get our share of wanderers, regulars, and especially those who come during weekdays to really take their time and browse.”
Gushing about some of their favorite moments in business, Jim and Barbara say their proudest moment has been selling over 250,000 photos to the Library of Congress.
Their second favorite moment happened last summer when they were approached by a traveling musician who wanted to propose to his girlfriend in the shop – and where else but the “New Jersey Room,” of course. Jim explained “We do a lot more than just sell ephemera. We build collections for various historical societies and institutions. We also lease props for theater and television commercials. We’ve even been asked to help decorate restaurants.”
A professional photographer in the 1960s, Jim says his collection was inspired by his love of photography and his interest in research. He is especially excited by their growing collection of 20th century movie stills and snapshots. “They’re amazing. Right now we are in the middle of categorizing them. Everything is sorted, organized, and filed away in a cabinet. Have you checked out the photography room yet?”
Not yet, we say, and assure him that we will get to it. He seems eager for us to explore it and we will soon find out why. We decide to begin our tour on the first floor where we navigate around workmen’s tools, kitchen ware, and muse about the timely political buttons and banners of yesteryear.
We examine a medicine cabinet full of remedies we wouldn’t dare try today even if our lives depended on it.
We enter the “New Jersey Room” which we quickly identify by a stack of old familiar blue license plates lined against the wall.
Thousands of postcards, both personalized and blank, are neatly alphabetized in a form reminiscent of the Dewey Decimal order.
Each postcard depicting a little bit of Jersey history and charm, with luscious gardens and beach havens painted beautifully alongside personal messages of “You must come visit us!” and “Oh, the shore is just beautiful, darling!”
Maps outline each county and city as they traverse farmlands, lakes, and rivers to reach their end along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pennsylvania and New York borders.
Drawers full of newspapers covering headline stories, with the same bold and dark attention-grabbing fonts that we have grown accustomed to, could easily pass for today’s news with the exception of dates centuries-old.
Comic books, children’s stories, and cartoons that remind us of a simpler time when Hanna-Barbera were names every child recognized as creators of classics such as The Yogi Bear Show, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, and Scooby-Doo, just to name a few.
Further back we lose ourselves in all of our favorite past times. Toys, music, and books are all distant reminders of how far we’ve come in the world of entertainment.
Barbie and Ken stand tall with lean and long legs, perfect coifs, and teeny-tiny bathing suits that show off toned physiques we have all once envied.
Vinyl records are neatly organized and color-coded to reflect our every mood.
The times we feel like jammin’, when we’ve suffered heart-ache, or even when we just want to sing-along – I’m sure there is a song for it here.
For those of us wishing for just a tad bit more nostalgia, there are boxes filled with player piano rolls and plenty of waltz and fox trot medleys to warm the soul.
Their “Book Room” makes you feel as if you’ve stepped into a space that once belonged to Albert Einstein or one of the other genius Greats.
It appears untouched since the early 20th century. Although fluorescent lights hang overhead, at eye-level, the room has a candelabra-lit vibe and the desk is ever-inviting with leather-bound books and inked manuscripts strewn about.
The “Magazine Room” reads like a who’s who of all things periodical and relevant.
LIFE magazine satisfies all of our general interests, The Saturday Evening Post regales us with interesting stories and illustrations, Rolling Stone provides a much-needed dose of pop-culture, while Playboy…well, you all know what Playboy is known for – the articles.
The “Women’s Room” is saturated in soft and pretty vintage tones but, look past the fur coats, things slathered in flowers, the color pink, and you’ll soon recognize that women were more than just dolls.
The every-day items in this section will open your eyes to the history of a woman’s inventiveness and resourcefulness.
The “Sports Room” feels like a home run for fanatics looking for newspapers detailing memorable games, biographies on all-stars, MVPs, hall-of-famers, and the all-elusive trading card.
We finally make it to the much-anticipated “Photography Room” and it does not disappoint.
We walk past a wall lined with filing cabinets, carefully step around Jim and Barbara’s staff, who are busily sorting and labeling piles of snapshots, and lean in for a closer look.
What we find are some of film’s greatest moments captured when the video cameras weren’t rolling…moments unplanned and unscripted.
There are photographs of scenes from iconic films too, as well as honest and beautiful portraits of Hollywood’s leading ladies.
For those uninterested in celebrities and fame, there are plenty of photos of the average Joe and ordinary Jane.
Men, women, and children, who once meant something to somebody…people from all walks of life, who once may have never crossed paths, but today, sit side-by-side in manila folders, plastic totes, and fruit boxes.
All of the things in this shop – the letters, the stories, the memorabilia – they would be long gone if it weren’t for the people who connect with them on some level and save them. This room is the heart of the shop because it records the faces of all those who have make nostalgia possible…people like you and I.
A staircase in the middle of the shop leads to a place many guests seem to favor.
The grand “Movie Poster Room” sits on the second level. The sloped high ceilings and prominent wooden rafters make the posters, which line the walls from top to bottom, seem almost larger than life.
It is in this room that we meet John Wayne, Mickey Rooney, Charlie Chaplain, and Marilyn Monroe.
Here, our favorite stars have come to play…
Wayne Newton wishes us well, Ann Miller tap dances around us, The Little Mermaid serenades us, and the Marx Brothers make us laugh.
A room too magical for an actor and movie fanatic to put into words.
As we return to our car, I open my door and the paper napkin I previously doodled on, flies out. I pick it up and flatten it out on my lap – Attack of the Shredder Monster.
My shredder monster stares back at me and I think of all the perfectly preserved paper goods at Unshredded Nostalgia.
I decide to save it. Who knows…
Some day, it may end up at a shop like this or someone may find it and wonder about the girl who once bravely faced the monster who wanted to take away her memories and stories. It might inspire them to save a photo, a map, a postcard, a poster, a magazine, or a doodle of their own, in a cycle of ephemera that lets us know we’re all connected somehow, perhaps even by a simple piece of paper. All of us, frozen in time, like the girl at the base of the lighthouse.
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