This week's Wednesday adventure

Dispite the cold we ventured outside College Station for another of our Wednesday adventures - 'adventure' in the sense that sometimes Carol has no idea what we're going to find!  We are dauntless!

Yesterday Carol drove us to Caldwell, a small town which we often pass by on the way to Bastrop to see Bob and Mary.  On the way through we've seen the obligatory fast food places and gas stations and not much else.  But, turn left at the lights and you find 'The Square' and a sense of what the place was like several decades ago.  Around the massive court house are raised sidewalks and shops in various stages of disintigration - except for the banks of course of which there are three within eyeshot of each other.

Mad Hatter's Tea Room

Also doing a roaring trade (that's fairly genteel roaring you understand) is the Mad Hatter's Tea Room complete with mad hats! And not just those you can see on display near the ceiling, in the back was a room full of hats, scarves, shawls and necklaces.  Apparently the thing to do is to dress up for afternoon tea.  Fortunately it was 10.45 am so Carol and I could remain hatless.  We ordered coffee and were offered regular coffee or Snickerdoodle coffee.  Guess which one I had.  Carol said the Snickerdoodle coffee tasted good, but I sniffed  it and it smelled like biscuits which I later discovered is what Snickerdoodles are.  Enough with the Snickerdoodles!   Then we debated whether it was time for lunch (it was 11.00 am by this time) but  decided to restrain ourselves and instead just ordered apricot and pecan scones to keep us going.  And very nice they were too!

Scones!

Then on to Manuel's a dress shop owned by an old acquaintance of Carol's.  The owner was out to lunch so we went off to see if we could find the advertised Czech Museum - this being an old Czech settled town.  No sign of the museum but we located the huge (empty) visitor centre and the lady at the desk switched on the lights for us!  Turns out she came from Glasgow by way of Gloucester and had been living in Caldwell for 12 years, and much longer elsewhere in the States.  Very strong American accent and a lot of "Yes, ma'am."  She unlocked the little museum for us and we admired the domestic artefacts.   These little museums are everywhere.  Set up many years ago with the purpose of preserving the history of the place, they don't get updated.  The labels fade to nothing, the pictures curl.  It's very sad in some ways.

Many Czech immigrants were carpenters and cabinet makers

Domestic history

Silly English tourist!

Back to Manuel's where 'Miss Miriam', as she is known locally, was back behind the counter and very pleased to see Carol.  Miriam is 90 and still running her own business, though thinking of selling now and moving to Austin to be near her daughter.  Miriam brought out a photo book which her family had made for her birthday and we both admired it.   The shop can't have been updated since 1940.  A real time warp!  To my amazement a lady walked out with a purchase as we went in.  What do I know about fashion!

Here's a flavour of the layout and the stock.

I was rather tempted by some of the winceyette nighties though!  And there were some very comfy knickers on display...

In addition to the colourful parts of the shop, there were also a lot of empty racks and empty shelves with old storage boxes.  Hat's off though to a 90 year old running her own business and going to work everyday.

Miriam (l) and Carol (r)