Toddler set was excellent purchase

Dollar for dollar, it has to be one of the smartest purchases we’ve ever made.

We bought it more than 40 years ago, and our recollection is that we spent about $40.

Back four decades ago, Quentin and Libby Imel had a small antique shop in a building that had been a service station at the corner of what is now county road 300 North and U.S. 27.

Back in the day, 300 North was still Indiana 22. That was before the state figured it could save some money by reducing its inventory of highways and shunting them off to county control.

The Imels later moved their antique enterprise to a shop/house they built just south of Bryant. But for several years, the shop at what I think of as Pleasant Ridge was their place of operation on weekends.

During the week, both Quentin and Libby worked for the Graphic Printing Company. Quent headed up the company’s commercial printing business, and Lib worked in composing on The Commercial Review and The News and Sun.

They were not only employees, they were great friends. The Imels had been on my paper route when I was in high school, and it was at their house that I borrowed the phone to call home and try to explain that I had slid my sister’s Corvair into a car that had been abandoned in a snowdrift. That was in high school as well, but Quentin continued to tease me about it for many years afterwards.

Four decades ago, the antique business was a very different thing from today. The concept of an antique mall hadn’t yet crystallized, and it was possible to build a weekend’s entertainment by moving from shop to shop.

You could stop by to see Alton Hartley’s latest finds, cruise over for a visit with J.K. and Helen Wehrly, roam through the maze at Maude Hite’s or explore Don Longnecker’s emporium in Bryant.

For us, a stop to visit with Libby and Quentin was also in order.

The Imels not only sold antiques. They also sold antique-style wood furniture that hadn’t been given a coat of varnish.

That’s where we bought a rocking chair for Connie when we learned she was pregnant with our twins.

And the twins were on our minds when we made that smart $40 purchase one Saturday afternoon.

How could we resist a little toddler-sized wooden table and two matching chairs? They’d been sanded smooth but were otherwise a blank slate.

And they fit in the back seat of the car to take home.

They also fit in the nursery of our first house and came with us to our current home when we moved down the street.

The twins, of course, outgrew them. They were made to be outgrown.

But then Sally came along and the table and chairs were back in action.

They’ve been used by grandchildren as well during various visits.

And for Thanksgiving weekend, they were brought down from the third floor of the Graphic building so that our newest grandchild, Sally’s daughter Beatrice, could enjoy them.

Truth to be told, she didn’t pay much attention to them. Her first birthday will be Thursday of this week, so she’s still a little young for them.

But my guess is that by her next extended visit she’ll be ready to treat them like they are her own.

As investments go, that one’s hard to beat.

Quentin and Libby would be thrilled.