Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130039
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SHOW HER THE JUNK BOX; SHE'LL SURELY FIND A GEM
WHEN TRUDY PARKER opened her antiques shop a couple of years ago, it helped satisfy her husband's plea "not to bring any more junk into the house." Now it's her hobby and her joy as well as a living. But now she has to move.
The fancy chairs in her grandmother's formal parlor created a lasting impression for Trudy Parker. But it was many years before childhood peeks into the parlor flourished into a business that sells similar formal furnishings.
"I used to call the Victorian chairs `crocheted chairs,' " said Parker at her Trudy's Antiques shop in Roanoke's historic Gainsboro neighborhood.
She was minding the shop, as she does from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, also keeping an eye on the television, watching the "Young and Restless."
Soap operas are one of the perks of an occupation that can be more an indulgence than a profit maker, said Parker.
"It's really got to be a hobby," she said. "That's the joy I get out of it. Of course, I get joy out of selling, too."
And from those rare moments when she finds that gem of an item in a junk box.
Even finding a gem and not recognizing it is part of the appeal of selling furniture and bric-a-brac of past generations. Parker once sold a picture of the Coca-Cola girl for $100; it was resold for $800 and rumor has it that buyer sold it for $1,800.
But missed opportunities are getting fewer.
"Now if I get something I'm not certain about, I put it aside and don't sell it until I can research it," Parker said.
Parker didn't set up her business until after she had worked 13 years as a file clerk at the Veterans Administration Hospital and spent another couple of years caring for a father who suffered from Alzheimer's disease.
Initially, she had a stall in an antiques mall. She opened the shop on Wells Avenue Northeast a little more than two years ago.
It helped satisfy her husband's plea "not to bring any more junk into the house."
And "my daughters say I used to have a right pretty house until I started junking it up with antiques," Parker admitted.
She said one of her daughters is showing interest in some older pieces, however.
Parker said she has been somewhat surprised at the attraction the past holds for young people. For a while, there was a real run on the pre-1950s stand-alone kitchen cabinet with flour bin and a counter that could be extended.
"When the couples came in, I just figured they must have bought an old house," she said. Then she learned that the rage was to convert the cabinets into baby-changing tables.
When she moved into the storefront behind Hotel Roanoke, Parker made a greater commitment to her business. She signed a rental agreement with an option to buy the building, a former state Alcoholic Beverage Control store that, with its glass block decor, is itself a piece of history.
The site was isolated from downtown by the railroad tracks, but Parker has looked forward to the day when the closed hotel would reopen and fill with potential customers for her shop.
The shop already has a steady stream of customers. And the hotel is going to reopen, sometime in 1995.
But by then Trudy's Antiques will be gone.
The shop has to move within 18 to 24 months. The building and others along the street are to be demolished to make way for realignment of Wells Avenue as part of the hotel renovation project.
As part of the deal, the city will buy Parker's option and move her business.
The problem is where to go. Parker has looked at sites in downtown Roanoke, but she said rental rates and parking are problems. She said she wants to stay near the hotel.
She has some prospects, but she wants to keep them secret for now - they're what she'd call gems in a junk box.