One the best things about traveling two lanes, picking through piles of dust and rust, is the people you meet along the way. They are the people that love junk as much as I do and sometimes, they have a way of articulating what I find hard to explain.
Lots of people believe in history and preservation. Lots of people love rusty, old stuff, but not all of them understand my love of AMERICAN MADE old stuff. Let’s face it, America is still in diapers and our old stuff, in the grand scheme of things, just isn’t all that old. Our history has just begun to be written.
On the road in Virginia last year, I met a hard bargaining woman from Portugal at The Car & Carriage Caravan Museum at Luray Caverns. I heard a lot no’s that day (and even saw one as she wrote it in the dust of an old truck fender), but she also said something while we there that totally summed up the importance of our American Made “junk”.
Being raised in Portugal, “When I first got here,” she began, “I didn’t understand it. Where I come from, everything is so old, so I saw something here that was a 100 years, 150 years…I thought, well, it’s basically just junk. But now I’ve gotten to appreciate it. It’s not the time spent, it’s what’s accomplished in a little time, and for that, what happened in America is unique.”
I guess sometimes the perspective of someone who wasn’t born here is all we really need. Our American story, our progress, it’s unique, and the junk that tells that story, that shows that progress… well, it’s just priceless!
See ya on the back roads!
Your picker, Mike Wolfe
Miss the episode? It’s available on the History Channel YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NdpeYyhlBI
Plan your visit to Luray Caverns by visiting them online here: http://luraycaverns.com/
Photo Courtesy of Luray Caverns Facebook Page, October 2014.
Love old things, but don’t always know when they’re valuable. Have learned some from “American Pickers” but as in anything there is still much more to learn. I realize each item has a story and since I love History so, each time tells the story of their “Junk” I realize that is one of the most important factors in the game we play with “Junk”. Hope to follow your blog and learn even more. Thanks for including me
as a eager participant.
Thanks for stopping in to see us on our very first day here at Two Lanes! Look forward to seeing more of you.
Enjoyed your comment. I love learning the history too. There’s a great story highlighting the adventure called Junk Yard Cove- I think you’ll LOVE it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiyUkIJ2dzI
Thank you! For the heads up and can’t wait to learn new more things on here and on the show “american pickers” plus more american history knowledge…I started being picker when I first watch your since the first time and collected coins like a state quarters and more and more old American money and I started looking in the history of old American money because I’m still amazed of the story of behind and I’m still am doing it and collected more old american money and a lot antiques too.
Your show I meant my bad
Love your show and love having you on my Facebook page. My husband and I have been going to yard sale and auctions for a long time. Last year I purchased two employee manuals for the Playboy Bunny Club. I paid 25 cents each and sold them for $285. on ebay. That was probably one of my great finds. Love your show.
Thanks,
Margaret
I’ve been watching American Pickers and the Canadian version Canadian Pickers, pretty much from inception. “I love the involvement plus the fascinating stories that is attributed to the earthy picks of junk, that, does coincide with our early, antique, and classic historical man-made creative pieces.”
The picks with George Barris, is only apart of the great hunt, for something special a collector would like to add to his or her collection. I’m sure if Mike & Frank continued picking Hollywood, California, there is still lot’s of findings to unearth!
I thought the pick with lead guitarist of Cheap Trick was an awesome show, I hope they can hit more musician’s such as ‘motor-city madman, Ted Nugent!’ Or Alice Cooper; Lynyrd Skynyrd….everyone who know’s music from the ’50’s to ’80’s, the players, behold pieces of history, those are special items whether sold, or on loan for special display, shows their timely moments of created history.
Paradise-Is Down A Two-Lane Blacktop
First, we were drawn by the land,
enticed by the promise of freedom…
fresh faces in new places, where
we built our farms, our stores, mills
smithies, with our own dreams
and our own Hands, paying our way
with the sweat of our brows,
leaving our bones and legacies
as our testimony to those
who would follow.
Then, great factories replaced
the smithies, concrete towers
supplanted the wheel mills, and
we were drawn from the land
to the growing cities for what we
believed were better dreams,
brighter futures,…”the good life.”
The farms we left were swallowed
by corporations, the family
store was neglected by the lure
and flash of the corporate chains.
We were the great middle class,
living a vision, that for most of us,
never truly existed, leaving
nothing, but broken dreams
as our legacy.
Times and paradigms pass.
Some of our small towns just died,
some were swallowed by the
circling cities, others are
barely hanging on, yet,
here and there, new pioneers
are returning, bring their
fresh faces to the old places,
rediscovering the old ways and
creating new ones, as America
finds her roots again.
Hollywood, Broadway, & Prime Time
doesn’t show our true image.
Our story isn’t on CNN or in USA Today.
We’ve journeyed back, off the
Interstate, rebuilding the
Courthouse square, starting farms,
building houses, stores, and families,
infusing our enterprises with
Faith, truth, love, patriotism, and a
determination to not allow our
unique visions or our new freedom
to ever be swallowed by mere
sound-bites, glamour, glitz,
or pulp fiction.
The America and world
we must become is the one
we always knew in our hearts.
We had only to remember that
Paradise is down a
two-lane blacktop,
where the tree of
wisdom waits for all
who prefer revelation
over information.
The super highways
and bypasses, the
jets, planes, buses,
and trains can only take you
by the “American Dream”.
The turn down that two-lane
is a calculated decision
to arrive there, a journey
you take, only if you’re
hungry for a new vision,
if you’re ready to put down
some new roots, and make
your own legacy with
your own hands and the
sweat of your own brow.
If you’ve caught
that pioneer spirit,
then here’s the place
to draw close to the tap
roots of the “American Dream”,
where the juices flow
strong and rich, near the power,
right at the source.
You have truly arrived,
friend, for you’ve
come to a powerful
place to begin anew,
where you can find purpose,
change the landscape, acquire
wisdom and real estate, and
create your legacy, where your
accomplishments and children
earn respect and receive honor,
where your babies and bones
are attended with reverent
tender care by real peacemakers.
Oh yes…if you destroy,
mar, steal, or harm
those and that which
is in their care,
you’ll have a fight
on your hands, the like
you’ll not soon forget.
No, real peacemakers are
the architects, the restorers,
the creators and shapers,the
healers, the comforters and
nurturers, the sowers and
caretakers of paradise.
They are recreating and
shaping their future and
shall be counted blessed.
No need for a plane, bus,
or a train to come.
We’re waiting at the
gates of paradise at the
end of any two-lane blacktop,
beckoning, as Lady Liberty
has for over a century,
“Send us Your tired, your
poor, your down-trodden,
struggling to be free…”
We’ll be waiting.
Written by R Andrew Ohge 2003
Mike your show on wolds only tattoo school made me realize my eagle tattoo I have on my shoulder that was done by an eighty nine year old lady in1972 in Columbus Georgia was so special mrs Cleveland said it was the last one she’s ever going to do I was in the 101st at jump school in fort Benning I wanted an eagle to resemble the screaming eagles I was so proud to be part of we were all getting ready for Nam at that time and I wanted it ever though if I compliant about the pain from it I could be charged with destruction to government property I talked to bill he said you all got all of the flash I would love a picture of you holding the flash with my bird it cost me 25dollars back then
There is a lot of value in American Junk. Just think back around the time a lot of the things you picked were made. Folks back then took their ingenuity and creativeness to make things serve an important purpose. They also made things to last and endure the test of time. These are things you see on a daily basis and provide a tremendous insight to the pride people took into making whatever.
I wish folks nowadays would take the same pride in the things they make. America seems to be a throwaway society and when they are finished using something, it is many times thrown into the trash bin. We see this in electronics, cars, diapers, paper cups, packaging, etc. This was not the mind set of our ancestors where waste not meant want not. Our ancestors made use of everything and nothing went to waste.
During the Great Depression when the Arts & Crafts movement was in full swing, we saw people making things because they could not afford to buy them. And most times, what they made was of high quality and lasted a life time. This is what you see daily in your picks and gives us a glimpse of what was in the minds of the people of that day and time.
Thanks for bringing this all to light for each of us. Thanks for the great education about people and things we would have never known about!
Hi Mike,
The thing I appreciate most about American Pickers, is the story behind the stuff. I love the education I get about valuable rust and dust, and I like the bantering between you Frank, and Danielle, but I really get a kick out of the people you meet, and how we can relate their lives to the American experience. Looking forward to every new episode.
Kevin
Looking forward to this blog and reading all about your adventures. This will be fun!! Thanks Mike.
love your show mike and frank you remind me a lot of my better self
i like anything old and rusty it gives me pleasure just like your show
i’d like to see more 70’s and early 80’s BMX bikes being found i collect bikes and restore them to there
former glory it’s expensive but i enjoy it the good thing about this my chrome plater lives around the corner from me
he picks up my parts takes them to he’s factory to be plated and then drops them off at my house. how’s that for service.
i’m addicted to your show i can’t miss a episode from Vic Australia
Smart guys, non political, caring for and preserving Americas past. Not only us in the present time, but I believe the people who ever came in contact with the thousands or more of these items Antique Archaeology saved is thanking them as well. Visited the store in Iowa last July, loved it, as I looked at the motorcycles on display, I could not get out of my mind who rode them and who were there families etc. So many stories.
Visiting again soon, nice wineries in the area. Antiques and wine, I’m good.
As a foundryman of 50 years plus, I so enjoy watching your shows whenever you come across iron castings. I can relate to making them either production machine or by hand parting and hard labour. I also love the entire show but I have this special interest in all castings and materials and look forward to watching your show for many more years. I was watching The Canadian Pickers show once and swear that I seen an anvil that I had made about 25 years ago. Wouldn’t it be awesome to see something that I made on your show? Keep up the good picking Mike.
all I can say is that we love your show and I am learning to be a picker now too! I just love antiques.
p.s. .we love Danielle! I hope I can be as smart and savy as she is .
keep the shows coming.!!
We live just 35 miles north of Nashville and stop by your store quite often. You need more space in the store. Tell Barry to rent you a larger space…
I am a 93 yr old WWll veteran and never threw anything away. I have many items from the 1920’s and even earlier that I have saved from my Dad. I would like to sell everything I have for a fair price which would take hours to go thru, so I don’t care to be on TV. From Dearborn Mi.