Originally Published Here in the Longview News Journal on October 25, 2020
A new antique store will focus on vintage and nostalgia items when it opens Friday at 1107 Evergreen St. in Longview, with expectations for the store to become a local attraction.
“We are just trying to do something fun,” said Jason Robbins of the store he and his wife, Mimi Page, are opening. The Dreaming Peddler: Antiques, Oddities and Ethereal Treasures will be open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
The store is in a thriving strip center at Gilmer Road and Evergreen, where the new Evergreen Coffee and Dessert shop recently opened.
“The millennial definition of antiques has changed,” Robbins said. “We are going to focus on vintage, nostalgia. We’ll have some antiques, of course, but our brand and what we’re gong to be bringing is a unique twist. We’re going to focus on oddities...”
Think gaff taxidermy and doctor/quack items showcasing “the great Victorian era of confusion.”
“We’ll be one of the only providers of gems and crystals. That’s my wife’s section .... She’s the main crystal person, and I’m going to learn as we go,” Robbins said.
[Robbins] and Page moved to Longview about year ago from California and have fallen in love with the city and its people. They had been living in Los Angeles, which he described as a “sinking ship” and “terrible town.”
“I was just ready to go somewhere that was safe, that was kind. We made the leap,” Robbins said.
“I think everybody lost their mind at some point a little bit” during the COVID shutdown, he said. “When I lost my mind, this is what happened. I had this vision of this store next to the coffee shop. I’d rather make it work. We can control our odds a little better.”
He hopes to expand the store into an attached walk-through attraction museum in a few years if all goes well.
For information, call (903) 331-8978, email info@dreamingpeddler.com, find The Dreaming Peddler on Facebook or go to www.dreamingpeddler.com .