Pottery Chatroom Board

Well, what do I say about me? I live in Oakland, Florida, a small town about twenty-five miles west of Orlando. I I have just retired from a major theme park where killer whales, sharks, otters, penguins and other such creatures were my co-workers. I am single, never married, no kids (but several nephews and nieces when I want to borrow a kid).

I was raised as a Navy brat, then enlisted in the Navy four days after my eighteenth birthday. I spent eight years there and then went into the ministry until health reasons forced me to resign. With all that, I managed to live in several places: West Virginia (where I was born a direct descendant of the Hatfields of the Hatfield-McCoy feud), Maryland, Florida, Naples (Italy), Virginia, South Carolina, California, Illinois, Rhode Island, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina.

I was laid up for over two years after a serious fall at work in 1993, during which time I worked on my bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Central Florida and attended franchise and entrepreneur seminars when I was physically able. I eventually bought a couple of inflatable attractions and spent seven years setting them up at weekend festivals and small-town fairs throughout the Eastern United States. If you live in a small town in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland or South Carolina, I may have been in your town!

I started adding a few souvenirs at my set-up and that was the beginning of this endeavour. I had to let the inflatables business go when I realized my old fall injuries were becoming worse with the physical strain. I kept the retail sales going until I got caught in a sudden downpour in Tampa that wiped out almost everything. I quit and took the job I have now.

One problem, I had the selling bug in me and it needed to be fed. I rented a booth at a nearby antique mall and started filling it with discoveries from moving sales, estate sales and plain old yard sales. After about three months, I finally decided to try eBay also, so here I am. This has been a long tale to show how I got here.

I discover almost all my offerings at yard sales, estate sales and moving sales. I am most interested in collectibles and books. I do not even look at furniture or large pieces since I have no storage space and I don’t want to mess with shipping anything like that.

I think I have covered all the bases on who I am. I hope you will like my selections and we will have a long and pleasant relationship!