Lori and I both have young kids and like many business owners we each often refer to Topanga Vintage Market as “my youngest child.” And as TVM turns two this month (April 2014), we can also say with certainty, “It takes a village!”
And now there’s a new baby on the way – Topanga Vintage Festival*, due June 1st. What were we thinking! Well, as most parents know, right about when baby #1 starts walking on their own two feet, we may experience a deep yearning for another baby. Next thing you know, Topanga Vintage Festival is conceived!
What we also were thinking was “we” can do this, because “we” now means not just me and Lori and our fabulous, stalwart crew, but “we” plus an entire village of support. Several actually!
We have our West Valley community, full of friends and family and thousands of awesome loyal fans, and editors and journalists and printers and bloggers and local businesses that hand out our flyers, our webmeister Rain, the local Roller Derby team, and our cheerleaders at Pierce and Valley Cultural Center.
And of course, we have the amazing uber-village of LA’s many great flea markets fanning the flames of junkin’itus among us! The “Brotherhood of the Rose”, so to speak. And this mega-fleaness has created a metropolis teeming with voracious, knowledgable, enthusiastic, I know my sh_t from shinola collectors. Yayah!
But finally, and most importantly, we have the totally essential, expert and often irascible “aunts and uncles” of the Village, the fabulous vintage vendors! Uncle Glenn and Miss La De Da, Cousin Shawn and Aunt Starlie, Sistah Marlena, Steve the Barker, Coach Bruce, Love Child Linda and Grandpa Phil…hundreds of knees bouncing the lil’ baby.
So as we blow out the candles on TVM’s second birthday, and prepare for the birth of Topanga Vintage Festival, we raise a Royal Ruby Depression Ware goblet to the vintage villagers that keep it all growing and crowing and we say, “All for one and one for all – Viva Las Vintages!”
*Update: the Topanga Vintage Festival was a blast, but too much for me and Lori to handle so we won’t be putting it on again
