Arkansas
part three
[My Saturday Stories are a travel journal for a few weeks. I hope you enjoy going along for the ride]
Off to my left I noticed a store called the “410 Vintage Market.” It looked interesting and then we passed an outdoor market with a sign that just said, “Vintage Market.” I said, “You want to stop?” She did. So I turned around and headed back.
The Vintage Market turned out to be a used clothing bazaar of some sort outside of the Ozark Natural Grocery. We spent more time inside the grocery store than we did in the market outside because the market outside seemed to be something akin to a Goodwill store with a fancy moniker that was popular with the college kids.
The grocery was something I wish we had close to home – like in Claremore. But it would not likely be a success here. Maybe the new Hippie store that is opening downtown will be a mini version of that. We bought some tea that is supposed to be good for your gut and I got a couple of cookies to balance out that healthy stuff with not so healthy stuff. It all evens out that way.
We left there and headed over to the 410 Vintage Market. It is an antique store but it has more of the 50-70’s style furniture. There were some really nice pieces if you are in to that kind of stuff. But bring your wallet. It isn’t cheap.
They also had a nice selection of records. The vinyl kind. LP’s.
I had a revelation moment while thumbing through the record rack: there were a ton of artists in there I hadn’t heard of, and a lot I knew about but had forgotten existed. And that is when the value of the old physical vinyl hit me. It still exists for someone to find. That won’t be the case with the new digital age. Yes, I know they say, “The internet is forever,” and yes, it will exist in a sense. But who is going to go looking for it.
With that old stuff, the stuff you can find in a place like 410 Vintage Market, you can come across it accidentally while browsing on a lazy Saturday afternoon. No one is going to go internet browsing through old artists in 50 years. They will be forgotten and their work gone. But the people who put it on vinyl – they live on with cool cover art (and some not so cool) and something you can carry home with you.
It is the same thing with photos. Let’s be honest here. The 10,000 pictures you have on your phone and uploaded to Facebook and Instagram – no one cares. But those old family pictures my mom carefully collected in albums with labels and dates, we will look through them again and remember.