Review of Calico Quilt Antiques
Formerly Bynum-Paschal Farmers Union Store Co.
Goldston, N.C. 27252
919-898-4998
by
H. Kent Craig
Calico Quilt Antiques in the heart of the Goldston, North Carolina Historic District is one of those rare shoppes that seems to be in the perfect place, filled with perfect inventory, at this perfect time, run by the prototypical perfect proprietor, Myra Dunn.
As soon as you cross the railroad tracks to scoot over and around and to the town lane from US Highway 421 Business, the special energy given off by Calico just draws you in to it, 'not needing a map a'tall to find it in that last few hundred feet of sojourn. As soon as you park in one of the spaces in front or to the side of it, you'll smile. You won't know why you're smiling, trust me, you'll simply smile.
Once inside the enveloping history that reeks from the building, at first glance it will appear to have a somewhat ordinary collection of standard antique shop fare, but then your eyes start darting to this, to that, to any and everything that catches your fancy. An extraordinary collection of somewhat ordinary antique items. Myra, from her teller's cage at the back of the shop, won't break the spell that her shop has put you under until she feels a question ready to pop from you unconscious into your consciousness, then she'll ease into your awareness with a "hello, and welcome to Calico Quilt Antiques, I'm Myra Dunn, may I help you?"
From there, it's a grander than usual treasure hunt through her ever-changing but somewhat stable inventory. When a given item is sold, it's often replaced with a similar one, usually parked at or near the same spot as the original one. The breakout of her inventory most times is usually around 60% antiques, 35% collectibles, and 5% miscellaneous. The less-than-handful of reproductions are clearly labeled as such, and you won't ever find a forgery on the floor of the shop, Myra's trained eye and strong sense of ethics and morals wouldn't permit that, ever.
Don't let the flight of somewhat longish and steepish steps discourage you from bopping upstairs, where more treasures await your eye and touch. It was upstairs that we found one of the true treasures now proudly displayed in our home, a slightly fire damaged smallish farmhouse cabinent that had been lovingly restored. When we first saw it on our first trip to Calico, the price tag read "$250". Cathy and I both really wanted that cabinet, badly, but we both knew it wasn't worth $250, and knew since it was a consignment item, the price wouldn't probably be negotiable. Over several trips back over the following months, that cabinent kept calling us back upstairs to it, until finally, I told Myra that we really wanted it, but it wasn't worth two-fifty to us, was only worth one-fifty, and sigh, too bad for us. Much to our surprise, she said that the person who had on consignment to her told her that it had been sitting there too long, and to take any reasonable offer, and one-fifty was a reasonable offer. It now displays some collected memories of our collective lives in hallway of our home.
Besides furniture, you'll find tons of brickabrack, glass, china, antique tools, antique whatsits, jewelry, old signs, old instruments, edged tools, old books and magazines, etc., more of a variety of stuff that you'd think you'd find at first passthrough, so take your time and really stop and smell the must of history, Smile. And, as demonstrated by the anecdote above, don't be shy about trying to strike a bargain. While Myra does own most of the inventory herself and will often voluntarily offer a better deal at checkout time without even being asked, especially when multiple items bought start pushing real money, she wants to find her stuff good homes as much as anything, I think, some of her inventory is consignment, and if you make a counter-offer, she may or may not be able to help you, but she'll at minimum take no offense at your asking, and will always do what she can to help find the true current market value of an item.
{The following was taken verbatim from Myra's store brochure:}
Calico Quilt Antiques
~ Formerly Bynum-Paschal Farmers Union Store Co. ~ Monday - Saturday 10-5 ~ Myra Dunn, 919-898-4998 ~ P.O. Box 245, Goldston, NC, 27252 ~
The old Bynum-Paschal Farmers Union Company Store was in continuous Operation from 1899 until 1988. The building and contents were sold at auction in 1990. The building was purchased and completely renovated from top to bottom. It is now being used as Antique Shoppes.
The Calico Quilt Antiques offers a fine selection of Antique Furniture, Primitives, NC Pottery, Decoys, Quilts, Toys, Advertising, Architectural Items, and Unique Collectibles.
The railroad was the beginning of Goldston and the downtown area is on the National and State Registers of Historic Sites.
Goldston is geographically located in the Heart of North Carolina on U.S. Hwy 421 Business between Siler City and Sanford and 12 miles west of Pittsboro and S.R. 1010.
While you're there, ask Myra about the mineral springs at Mt. Vernon Springs. Originally home to a grand resort now long gone that sprung up around the springs, the springs themselves continue to spout forth their healing waters, free to whoever wishes to partake of their healing powers.
There are two completely different springs coming from two small pipes just inches apart at the springs. One spring gives forth a healing water with a high sulphur content, that's the spring you drink from if you wish "health". The other trickles spring water of a completely opposite chemistry, water with more calcium and other minerals in it and no sulphurous compounds, that's the one you drink from if you wish "beauty".
Now, the kicker is this: both types of water, so completely unique and separate in their respective chemistries, come from the exact same source, a single spring the bubbles forth two polar opposite kinds of water. Geologists will tell you this is utterly impossible, that there has two be two spring sources from two different aquifers, but that's just so much plain old bullshit. A consulting geologist friend of mine who knows the Mount Vernon Springs area geology very well indeed has told me that both kinds of water come from a single source. I'll leave it to your imagination to speculate on how the laws of chemistry, physics, space, and time can be so clearly broken, but broken for a reason, broken to help those in need of healing who seek these healing springs at Mount Vernon Springs out.
Mount Vernon Springs is a lot like Myra's Calico Quilt Antiques shop. It makes no sense that it's there, out pretty much far away from anywhere. People seek it out, though, from far and wide, and once there, they become happy, are somehow healed for the moment, and leave happier than whence they originally came. And visiting both in one day makes for a perfect trip from anywhere you need to come from, so you can continue going where you need to go, but in a more respectively happy and healed manner.
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