Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Where to Buy Antiques & Vintage Fashion

The drive home to Lancaster is a beautiful one.

Think you need to go leaf peeping in Vermont or upstate New York? Think again. The trees here are shades of red and burnt orange and yellow and light brown. They’re in that in-between state of magnificence and slow death. Amazing that we value the slow disintegration of life and that we qualify this aging process as beauty. Why don’t we see the elderly as equally beautiful?

Like the changing of the leaves, there is value in the aging of furniture, knick knacks and other cultural and geographical artifacts. Lancaster is home to plenty of ‘em — I keep wanting to tell all the folks at Brooklyn Flea to take a road trip four hours down under from NYC to get their goods. Antique Mall? Yes, it exists. [see slide 7 for evidence]

The drive home from New York is like a rollercoaster ride of emotions. At first, I’m relaxed and grooving to whatever music I’ve put on the radio [this trip — Prince’s “Purple Rain” cassette tape, acquired through Sammy Davis Sunshine Cleaning]. The next wave of emotions? Pure gratitude for growing up where I did.

Then, the relaxation and gratitude is followed by frustration. “So many antique stores! So many people I want to interview for Sammydvintage.com! So much to do, how can I ever possibly do this!” I become frustrated literally by the sheer magnitude of opportunity before me.

But, thankfully the frustration comes and goes and I’m grounded again. By hour 3, I’m so grounded that I’m ready just to arrive home. It takes about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to get from Harlem to Manheim Township [what a juxtaposition of names!]. If I’m lucky, it takes 3 hours if I leave at 10PM on a Saturday night. Which admittingly, I have done before.

At about 3 hours, the beauty strikes around Intercourse/Gap/Paradise counties. Rolling farmland, antiquated homes, barn silos, and lush, green grass. These are the things that Sammy Davis Vintage is made of.

It’s good to be home.