By Ahna Kruzic
Picture this…
It’s fall – a beautiful, crisp Saturday morning. You’re standing outside in a cozy sweater. You look around, and notice the leaves are changing colors. The sun is shining, and there’s a nice cool breeze. You’re gripping a vanilla latte in one hand, and a basket full of vintage pyrex bowls in another. You’re gazing at a table full of vintage and antique finds for sale that a couple dug out of their vast collection of odd and ends spanning decades — intricately designed handmade quilts, kelly green depression glass serving platters, a Victrola record player, cobalt blue Fiestaware bowls, macrame plant hangers, an ashtray advertising a regional seed company from the 70s, a jar full of matchbooks, some old fountain pens. To the right of the table, you see a lone mid-century dining chair with a worn wool rug draped across the back and a clothing rack featuring vintage military-issue jackets.
To me – this scene is heaven. And I found it at the Southern Iowa Junk Journey: Fall Edition. I’ve got my calendar marked for this year’s event from Friday, October 18 through Sunday, October 20.
Not long after I moved to Centerville in October of 2022, my mom and our friend Rhonda decided to check out Junk Journey. I love sharing this story as it was such a fun introduction to the community (& my first time attending Junk Journey!).
Rhonda, my mom, and I love a Saturday outing – and we especially love shopping for antique, vintage, and “junk” finds. I was also coincidentally in the market for some home decor as I settled into my new place in Centerville.
We started our day with a coffee at Tangleberries, grabbed a Junk Journey map from the front register, and sat down to make a list of the stops we wanted to hit. Of note… about 10 mins into sitting down, a fellow shopper complimented my jacket (a thrift store find!), asked me if I was new to town, and invited me to return to Tangleberries for coffee the following week (a remarkable example of southern Iowa hospitality).
We spent the day driving to a number of stops – some stops were storefronts that regularly sold “junk”, others were barns that had been opened up for the weekend to sell from a multi-family collection of antique goods, others were tables set up in back yards selling clothing, furniture, crafts, and housewares spanning multiple generations. No one stop was the same – except we did find something we wanted to take home at every stop!
