It’s here again, the semi-annual Choo Choo Swap Meet at the Tri-County Fairgrounds! (Saturday, October 2, 8:30 AM) At East Side Books, we pack up a lot of overstock, a few oddities, and a few boxes from my storage shed (yes I have a book filled storage shed, but I can quit at any time – just not today). These treasures are priced for volume discounts, so bring your little wagon or a wheelbarrow if you want to stock up!
The Choo Choo Swapmeet is the primary fundraiser for our friends at the Laws Railroad Museum, both the space rental and the reasonable $2 admission keeps some of their restoration and preservation work going for the year. Even if you don’t need any swap meet treasures, the admission is cheap for the amount of socializing you can do in one morning, it seems like EVERYone is there to visit!
If you have not been out Highway 6 to the Laws Museum in a while, you should also stop by to see the restored Agent’s House, the new mining exhibit in the Stamp Mill and the new Textiles Building that stores and displays some of the amazing quilts, clothes and needlework the museum has collected over the years. Some of the textiles have been in the Owens Valley for generations, and some had rich histories before they ever made the trip west. The talented members of the Calico Quilters have been volunteering hours upon hours to catalog and care for these treasures – our whole community should be grateful! The Stamp Mill has been dedicated to the memory of Larry Paglia, a long time Museum board member and volunteer who spearheaded the project and did much of the design work for this interesting exhibit. If you have ever wondered just how miners got the gold out of the rock, this is the perfect graphic display to show you that process step by step. I have not seen the new Agent’s House improvements, I know they had to fix some foundation problems, but I am sure all those favorite displays like the Victorian funeral hair wreaths and the Murphy Bed are still in there, well worth visiting again. Laws is one of the few free admission museums still around – they rely on donations at the door instead of ticket sales, so you can easily stop by when you have young children for the day just to ring the bell on Engine #9 or to have a picnic. We are so fortunate to have this resource in our community to visit often. If you are just visiting Bishop, make sure to put it on your list of activities as well!
We’ll be in the first row by the fence, so stop by the East Side Booth to say hi and check out the bargains – See you there!
Diane