OWEN SOUND ADVICE

I spent last weekend in Owen Sound visiting my pal Janine Fawcett, an entertainment and consumer p.r. consultant specializing in media relations and owner of J9 Communications and Right Channel Speakers bureau.

I have known Janine since she did p.r. at O’Keefe Centre, which predated Sony Centre, where she was the handler of boldface such as Liberace. We bonded over a trip to Buffalo, ostensibly to interview her assigned Robert Goulet, who was headlining in Camelot, with a memorable side trip to the historic Anchor Bar, reputed to be the original home of the Buffalo chicken wing. I subsequently dubbed the trip as “shuffling off to Buffalo on a wing and a beer.” 

Goulet kept in touch by sending me a Christmas card every year with a portrait of himself and wife Vera in evening attire. Every year Vera’s waist kept getting thinner -- those days predated photo shop so she simply used white-out to whittle away the waist- -- and her plastic surgery kept escalating, as did Goulet’s dark hair colour, ending up even blacker than Liberace’s. 

I have a collection of these cards. Reviewing them is as much a Christmas ritual as our sluts-and-shoes theme-decorated jet-black fake Christmas tree. 
And there was much thrift shopping in Owen Sound. It is not as good as thrifting in Oakville but not too shabby either.

Friday coincided with First Friday Festive, where retailers on the main drag (2^nd Avenue) stayed open until 10 p.m. and offered goodies like chocolates to shoppers even if they didn’t buy anything. One of the first stops was the addictive home/accessories shop Bare Birch which is Restoration Hardware meets Love the Design. I am a sucker for all things moose and reindeer.

This is the bag at Bare Birch that got away. Love it but don’t need it and more importantly, don’t have room to schlep it home.

Plotzed over these Elton John Meets KISS boots, part of the set decoration at Dr. Cobbler’s Shoes & Swirls, which is big on skull and Marilyn Monroe motifs as well.

Here I am decked out in two layers of tops at Cora Couture, which is the Owen Sound equivalent of Motion boutique in Yorkville. Cora staffer Suzanne Saville wins the Miss Congeniality Award of the trip.

A seasonal display (poinsettias and the signage “Jesus is the reason for the season”) behind the counter of the Salvation Army thrift store, which dispenses free bibles to shoppers. This is God’s country, Virginia.  

This sombrero caught my eye at the Salvation Army thrift store, the perfect gift to commemorate a trip to Mexico thereby avoiding all the tequilas ingested before you succumb to buying one and schlepping it home on the plane.

The sign for the Bibles For Missions thrift shop on 18^th Avenue. The bibles are optional.

Janine in full-on bargain-hunting mode as custodian of the shopping cart at Bibles For Missions. I scored big time. Women’s pants were on special that day for $1; blazers were $2. The pieces de resistance: a Chinoiserie silk jacket for two bucks for moi and a genuine silk Hawaiian shirt actually made in Hawaii for Rob for $4!

The signage at Twice Is Nice thrift shop in Clarksburg, a neighbouring town of Owen Sound.  The sales money goes to cat refugees; standout items were the highly collectible Fitz and Floyd china cat mugs and pitcher. 

Antique treasures straight from the horse’s mouth at Danfield Antique Furnishings & Fine Art in Clarksburg. The horse outside drew us in.

Amazing artifacts inside Danfield include a gun chest covered in deerskin with rose-head nails from Vermont circa 1750-1770 and priced at $1,350 and this exceptionally rare armoire stained with blueberries dating back to 1830 from a French settlement in what is now Windsor. It is priced at $15,000. A Toronto dealer could snap both these gems up and easily sell them for triple the price. Just sayin’.

Thrifting works up an appetite. I inhaled this breakfast pizza – complete with two poached eggs – at Bruce Wine Bar/Kitchen on Bruce St. in Thornbury, which has tons of cool stores. It is like Collingwood Lite.

And it wasn’t all retail. We did a Sunday drive to Flesherton, where another pal, Linda Reader, has a charming farm. Here is her vintage apple tree.