In the summer of '79 I "dropped out" of the corporate world and moved to the Finger Lakes where I was co-buying a 112 acre organic farm. After living 20 miles due north of Times Square, I was thrilled to learn that western New York State was so untouched, so behind the times, so gloriously clean and fresh. So I stayed there.

One summer day in the sleepy little village of Lodi, I decided to track down the owner of an antique shop, named The Odd Lot, that was dingy and dusty and never open. I was pointed in the direction of a huge house that was built in the 1700s. I knocked, met the owner of the store and presented my offer to him. I said, "If you will let me use your store to sell some of my things, I will run the store for you for free." And he did but he did even better. I got a percentage of everything I sold of his. And then every weekend he was bringing me new pieces of antique furniture to sell out front. It was a win-win situation.

The Odd Lot was revived and thriving.

About a year later, I ended up buying an 1800s Salt Box home from this man, and then a few more years later down the road, I bought a barn from him next door to my house. Turns out the barn had been the original location of the Odd Lot before he had opened the store in town. Now I found myself the owner of not only a barn but a barn stuffed with antiques.

Photo captions:

1st photo: Me in 1994 open for business at my barn in Lodi, NY.

2nd Photo: Newspaper photo of me in the Odd Lot antique store that I ran in Lodi, NY.

Last Photo: My first purchased home. The photo is an antique sepia photo of Mrs Brown sitting on the front porch. This house sits next door to the barn in Lodi, NY.

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