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Belleville’s the place for a brewsky-related brouhaha

by | Mar 1, 2022 | Mid-American

March 2022

Raise a glass – Breweriana Blowout is back!

Breweriana Blowout XXII is slated for 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2, at the Belleclair Fairgrounds in Belleville, Illinois 62220. Show is free Saturday from 9 AM until 2:30 PM. Early entry On Saturday is at 7 AM and is $10. For more info email BUDMANBOB1@CHARTER.NET or call Bob at 618-580-5475 or Jay at 618-954-9605. Hope to see you there!

Touted as the largest brewery collectibles show in the Midwest, attendees can buy, sell or trade items such as beer steins, glasses, cans, and more.

Greenwood-handmade easter planter

Biggest Breweriana shows

Beer Show One of the biggest breweriana shows in the area. Saturday April 2, 2022 at Belle Clair Fairgrounds,

Photo by Yutacar on Unsplash

Get ready for a spectacular time at Antique Spectacular

by | Mar 1, 2022 | Mid-American

March 2022

You never know just what you’ll find at the Antique Spectacular Vintage Market, March 4-6 at the QCCA Expo Center in Rock Island.

Items from the quirky to the rusty to the funky will be up for grabs at the show. Antique Spectacular is the brainchild of Kimberly Schilling, who, along with her Melting Pot Productions, has been producing antique shows throughout the Midwest for nearly 30 years. Schilling has “developed a foundation for success built on the integrity of demanding quality antiques and collectibles,” according to the event’s website.

Admission to the event is $8, with a $1-off coupon available at www.antiquespectacular.com. Children under the age of 14 are free when accompanied by an adult with a ticket.

For more information, call 712-326-9964.

 

The deals at the Antique Spectacular

Antique Spectacular Vintage Market

The deals at the Antique Spectacular Vintage Market will be hot, hot, hot. (Image courtesy of Antique Spectacular)

Bella Rustina back in Arkansas

by | Mar 1, 2022 | Mid-American

March 2022

Bella Rustina Vintage Market is returning to Little Rock just in time for spring, with a show March 11-13 in the concourse of the War Memorial Stadium.

Shoppers are invited to come marvel at more than 225 booths, stuffed with vintage, vintage-inspired and handmade items brought in from sellers from multiple states.

Those vendors who wish to participate and sell their wares can submit an application on Bella Rustina’s website at www.bellarustina.com.

Admission for early buyers on March 11 is $10, while regular admission on March 12-13 is $5 for adults, while children under the age of 18 are free. Parking is free as well.

The event is hosted by Ashley’s Finds LLC.
For more information, call 501-230-5728.

 

Bella-rustina-yall

Bella Rustina

Bella Rustina events always bring with them the whimsical and quirky – and its spring Little Rock event is scheduled for March 11-13 (Image courtesy of Bella Rustina)

Bottle and postcard sale scheduled for early April

by | Mar 1, 2022 | Mid-American

March 2022

If antique glass is your passion, you won’t want to miss the 15th annual Kansas Territory Bottle and Postcard Show and Sale, April 3 at the Kansas State Fairgrounds’ Sunflower Building in Hutchinson.

The show is sponsored by the Kansas Territory Antique Bottle and Postcard Club, which also has hosted garage sales and even digs for fellow collectors. The organization is active on Facebook, where items collected by members are posted and their history discussed.

For more information about the show, contact Mike McJunkin at 620-728-8304 or Mark Law at 785-224-4836.

Antique Bottle

This bottle was likely sold by Charles Nelson, who, according to Stan Hendershot of the Kansas Territory Antique Bottle and Postcard Club, owned and operated a liquor business in Fort Scott, KS, in the late 19th century. (Image courtesy of Facebook)

Artisans to feature their works at Spring Handmade Market

by | Mar 1, 2022 | Mid-American

March 2022

The annual Spring Handmade Market is coming back to the Greenwood Vintage Market in Greenwood March 19.

Artists and crafters will be on hand to meet with shoppers to sell their wares and discuss their creative processes. Items ranging from candles to soaps to clothing to accessories will be on sale, and live music will be provided.

Greenwood Vintage Market is located on Greenwood’s bustling Main Street, where several other antique stores can be found within walking distance of one another, so come out and plan to make a day of it.

For more information, call the Greenwood Vintage Market at 816-537-7172.

 

Greenwood-handmade easter planter

Spring Handmade Market

This whimsical handmade bunny planter will help you start decorating for spring and Easter. (Image courtesy of Greenwood Handmade Market)

Vintage Market Days back to welcome spring season

by | Mar 1, 2022 | Mid-American

March 2022

Vendors across Missouri are opening their doors to shoppers with spring-themed sales touting fresh items.

Vintage Market Days will herald the arrival of a new season when its “Hello, Spring!” show comes to Kansas City, March 18-20.
The highly anticipated event, which will take place at 7100 NW Prairie View Road, features art, antiques, clothing, jewelry, handmade treasures, home décor, outdoor furnishings, and seasonal plantings. In addition to national vendors, attendees can get a taste of local and area fare with creative, vintage-inspired items sold by local artisans as well.

As you browse the tables piled high with unique treasures, enjoy giveaways, live music, and lunch from local food trucks.

For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.vintagemarketdays.com.

Vintage Market Days

Shoppers proudly display their treasures found at Vintage Market Days. (Image courtesy of Vintage Market Days)

Conversation Hearts tell story of a divisive candy

by | Jan 25, 2022 | Articles

February 2022

Feature Article

Conversation Hearts tell story of a divisive candy

by Corbin Crable

 

Valentine’s Day candy

If you had to think of the most iconic Valentine’s Day candy, it’s likely that those chalky, pastel-colored conversation hearts would come to mind – and their history is richer than the contents of a Whitman’s Sampler.
And if you think the candies taste similar to NECCO Wafers, that’s because they were actually invented by NECCO in 1866. The makeup of the candy is simple – just corn syrup, sugar, gelatin, and coloring, baked into a dough and then flattened and cut into small heart shapes with cute sayings painted on.

A sweet cure for what ails you

The precursor to conversation hearts were lozenges sold in apothecaries across the country. They were administered for a variety of ailments – even bad breath. The American public enjoyed them because they were so sweet – the fact that they were sold as a cure-all almost seemed like a secondary benefit.

The booming lozenge industry benefitted from the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, which saw steam-powered machinery able to mass-produce everyday items at a faster rate than workers ever could by hand. In 1847, one Massachusetts pharmacist, Oliver Chase, had the idea of inventing a machine that would produce the hard-to-make lozenges at a rapid pace. Oliver’s machine rolled out, flattened, and cut the dough into small disc shapes. Today, historians consider Oliver’s invention to be the very first candy-making machine.

 

Necco

Necco Wafers

NECCO, the company that made NECCO Wafers as well as Conversation Hearts, filed for bankruptcy in 2018. The company that bought NECCO, Spangler, eventually began making the candies, but only a portion of the candies contained the small messages to which buyers were accustomed. (Image courtesy of NPR)

Chase and his brother Silas set their focus on the confectionary industry, and their business, Chase & Co., merged with several other companies to form the New England Confectionary Company – or NECCO.

Now that the process of actually producing the lozenges had been made easier, the Chase brothers decided to market the small discs as candies instead of medicine, and they wanted the ability to print small sayings on them as well. Another Chase brother, Daniel, invented a machine that would make this goal a reality – his machine could press sayings onto the candies using a red dye.

Conversation Hearts

Conversation Hearts

Conversation Hearts were given their popular heart shape in 1902. (Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash )

My heart belongs to you

Next came the idea of a different shape. The earliest lozenges resembled the marshmallows you might later find in Lucky Charms cereal – horseshoes, clovers, and the like. But with the rise of popularity in the Valentine’s Day holiday in the early 20th century, the Chase brothers decided that the candy should be marketed for the special holiday. In 1902, the candy began to be produced only in the shape of a heart.

The candies, which became known as “conversation hearts,” proved to be an immediate hit. Early sayings that were pressed onto the candies included, “Please be considerate” and “Marry Me.” Larger versions of the candy hearts even bore the lengthier message, “Please send a lock of your hair by return mail” (during the Victorian era, hair relics were a popular declaration of love as well as a memento of a deceased loved one, kept by bereaved family members).

Though the taste and texture have remained largely the same over the years, the candy’s messages have kept up with the times. Since the 1990s, around 60 messages have found their way onto the candies, including “LOL” and other such acronyms synonymous with the Digital Age. Other, older sayings that have become dated are removed from the list regularly.

 

Falling out of favor

The contemporary popularity of the candy, however, has proven to be divisive, with just as many critics as fans these days.

“Why do we need chalky, dusty, and tasteless candy for a day about love?” blogger Sarah Perchikoff wrote in 2020. “Surely, there are better ways to say ‘Love You’ or ‘Be Mine’ than on a gross, heart-shaped candy. We can do better, right?”

Although NECCO went bankrupt in 2018, the company that bought NECCO, Spangler, has taken up the mantle of producing and selling the tiny candies – and business, it would seem, is on the decline.

It took Spangler a little more than a year to get its footing as far as production of the conversation hearts goes – the company didn’t produce or sell them at all in 2019, but competitor Brach’s did. Even after the 2019 shortage, consumers found that Spangler’s version of the candy not only looked different from its original counterpart – the candies looked different, too, with only a small percentage bearing pressed-on messages (the machine that pressed the messages onto the candies required repair, which wasn’t exactly high on the company’s budgetary priorities). After years of the industry churning out an average of 19 million pounds of the candies each year, sales of conversation hearts were down industrywide by about 24% in 2021.

Before the company folded, even NECCO itself seemed to admit that the candy’s best days were behind it, and that it now was bought due in large part to nostalgia. “Our main market is in classrooms – kids, teachers, and moms,” the company’s marketing director admitted in a 2011 interview.

“Be Mine”? For candy conversation hearts these days, fewer consumers are responding to that plea in the affirmative.

Source: The Huffington Post

Contact Corbin Crable at editor@discovervintageamerica.com​

Ephemera everywhere at upcoming paper show

by | Jan 24, 2022 | Mid-American

February 2022

If paper is your passion, the annual Postcard, Stamp, and Paper Show is the place to be. The 15th annual show, which will take place April 8-9 at the Johnson County 4-h Fairgrounds in Iowa City, will include 12 dealers and more than 60 tables of items for sale. In addition to postcards and stamps, you’ll find coins, photos, and paper goods as well as small collectibles.

Admission to the show is always free, and dealer space is still available. For more information, call Herb Staub at
319-400-6498 or e-mail herbiniowa@mchsi.com.

Paper show

Paper Show

The annual Postcard, Stamp and Paper Show in Iowa City offers great finds on paper items, including antique greeting cards. (Photo courtesy of Facebook)

Time for treasure hunting at Winterfest

by | Jan 24, 2022 | Mid-American

February 2022

The Winterfest Flea Market, Antique, and Junk Festival will allow shoppers to cozy up to some deals as we prepare to bid farewell to winter.

Coming to the Lancaster Event Center in Lincoln on Feb. 26-27, Attending and setting up shop will be more than 125 vendors, selling an array of collectibles, antiques, and one-of-a-kind items. Antiques, glass, furniture, advertising, pottery, signs, primitives, yard art, and everyday flea market items and good, old-fashioned junk will be up for grabs. The event is organized by Mike’s Junk-N-Tiques.

Admission to the event is $7 for adults, while children 12 and younger are free. For more information, call
402-525-6234.

https://www.facebook.com/events/590428892023565?ref=newsfeed

WinterFest

WinterFest

Over 125 Unique vendors selling everything from quality to run of the mill antiques and collectibles of all types (furniture, advertising, glass, pottery, jewelry, toys, dolls, comics, signs, primitives, and on and on) repurposed and hand-crafted artisan items, good old junk, yard art, flea market items and so MUCH MORE.

Image from Mike's Junk-N-Tiques

Junkaholics, unite for 2 Friends & Junk shopping event in Tulsa

by | Jan 24, 2022 | Mid-American

February 2022

Bring your friends for a day out at 2 Friends & Junk, a shopping event for the junk lover in you. The event runs Feb. 4-5 at the Exchange Center on the Tulsa Expo Fairgrounds in Tulsa.

The event includes booths stacked with vintage items, farmhouses, furniture, antiques, industrial salvage, garden décor, rusty junk, and a lot more. If your buy is a big one, don’t worry – a loading area is available, and volunteers will load your purchase for free.

The first 50 shoppers in the door on each day of the event will receive a free 2 Friends & Junk swag bag. While shopping, enjoy door prizes and wine sampling as well.

Friday admission is $10 and Saturday is $8. For more information, visit www.twofriendsandjunk.com.

Junkaholics 2 friends and Junk

Junkaholics

Junkaholics ... It will be a perfect mix of vintage, upcycled, furniture, boutique, custom decor & rusty JUNK!

Facebook image from twofriendsandjunk