Great Gift Ideas for Old House People!

Have you ever wondered what to give the spouse as a gift? Are you tired of looking at ties and socks for him or lingerie for her? Have you recovered from the beating you took after giving her an appliance? Do those roses he gave you three months ago still smell fresh? Let's face it, gift giving is fun but shopping for that special something really sucks! After several years at Gimbels Department Store in the 1980s I learned to really hate Christmas shopping...

I no longer have a problem finding neat thoughtful gifts for the spouse. In fact I find it quite easy these days and I take my time doing it. What do I do? Well, most of my shopping is done on Ebay because the selection is far greater than going into a store. (Though I do that too.) I search under the Key words "Dayton Ohio", "Dayton Oh" and "Dayton O" and look for stuff that would be neat to have around the house. Things I look for are early calendar plates with Dayton advertisements printed on them, coffee or spice cards that we can frame and hang in the kitchen or other cool little items. For Christmas I scored 8 sterling silver souvenir spoons from the 1890s and 1900s that can be displayed on the rustic side of the house or in the parlor. The twist to that story was that although the seller was in the Chicago area, these were part of an estate that prior to 1993 was about three blocks away from the "Crack House". (You can stop humming "It's a small world after all" now...)
This week I was able to acquire an embossed cup on Ebay to add to our growing collection.

The nice thing about this is that you can find find stuff for all decades. If you like that 50s look then you can locate an old paper weight or trophy from some local company that has long since vanished. Postcards are readily available and show the transition from horse to tram to motor car if you collect images of landmark buildings. Advertising calendar plates are common before 1920.

If you start now, you might just have enough stuff by Christmas!