Time Traveling - Luckett's Fall Vintage Market 2023

This weekend was nostalgic. Thought provoking, perspective providing, a little emotional. 8 years ago, Patrick and I were walking through the Luckett’s Spring Market on a last minute hunt to find something to do on a lazy Saturday morning. As we walked past booth after booth of antiques and refinished furniture pieces, I looked at him and told him that I was going to be a vendor the next year. It didn’t matter that I knew nothing about antiques or refinishing furniture or even becoming a vendor. It just seemed like something fun for us to do.

The next year, we set up our first pop-up at Luckett’s Spring Market on the grounds of the Clark County Fairgrounds in Berryville, Virginia. A huge leap of faith and adventure. Knowing nothing about what would sell, how long and hard the days were, and having spent countless hours watching tutorials on how to paint furniture, we unloaded a U-Haul full of furniture and small items in the middle of a torrential downpour. It was starting to seem like one of my REALLY bad ideas.

And yet it wasn’t. It went so well that we signed up for the holiday market that same year. And haven’t looked back on doing pop-ups for the past 7 years. We’ve learned, we’ve grown, we’ve argued, we’ve sat through 90 degree days and 20 degree days, and ultimately learned that indoor pop-ups were way more fun than outdoors.

For the past 2 years, I’ve done Luckett’s with a group of friends from the Richmond, Virginia shop, Bee Charmed. It’s the only outdoor pop-up I still do and one that I can’t just give up, no matter how many years I say it will be my last because my knees and back just don’t handle the great outdoors like they used to. So, as I headed to set up on Thursday, having just moved the majority of our business into an online concept, it was a time for me to contemplate just how much had changed since that day 8 years ago when I walked through my first large scale vintage market and decided that I was going to start a small business.

The Colonel’s Grace, in and of itself, has obviously grown. But, while that was definitely part of the nostalgia, it was also about the lessons learned. About myself. What I’m capable of and what I want my reputation to be. (Ya’ll will never hear me admit how long it took me to learn to back up a trailer!) About perseverance through tough times and poor sales. About fostering creativity and being willing to take a chance or two. About mistakes and wrong decisions and times when I wondered if it was even worth it to continue.

I thought about friendships made, including the group that I was getting ready to spend the weekend with. Shared purpose and conviction and interests forging a relationship that without the business I would never have. Women who have supported me during other tough times in life, having nothing to do with The Colonel’s Grace but whom I never would have met without it. I thought of the shows that I had done where I had gotten to spend time with my sister, my mom, my aunt, and my nieces. Buying trips that turned into girls’ trips. Holiday set ups and shopping sprees, giggling until 2 in the morning to put the finishing touches in place for the holiday open house the next day.

As we take this new path the thought that constantly came back to my mind was this; no matter what comes next and how many more decisions are made as we head in this new direction, nothing really has changed. Through all the twists and turns and edits of life, we really are all just walking each other home.