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The Bakersfield Californian Thursday, December 15, 2011
Eye Street Editor Jennifer Self | Phone 395-7434 | e-mail jself@bakersfield.com
Index Maureen Recalde ...................................... 17 National Cupcake Day.............................. 17 The Daliens................................................ 18 The Magical Forest .................................. 19 The Miraculous Christmas Radio Show.. 20 Christmas Around the World .................. 21 The Lowdown with Matt Munoz.............. 22 Calendar .............................................. 28-29
“I always like to know where things come from. There’s no story behind Walmart toys.” — Kevin McLean, antiques shopper
Gold from good old days Antiques shoppers, dealers keep eyes peeled for treasure BY JILL COWAN Californian staff writer jcowan@bakersfield.com
T
he De Elena family’s 1950s bungalow in central Bakersfield is missing something. It’s not a Christmas tree. The De Elenas have a small one, in what dad Michael called the “Charlie Brown” style. It’s not the trimmings, either. Tiny baubles and “pixie elves,” which mom Christina explained were popular at Woolworth’s stores mid-century, sat among the branches. No, what the house lacks is a solid, American-made vinyl couch. Since Michael, Christina and their two young sons moved from a larger house in southwest Bakersfield earlier this year, they’re doing their best to redecorate from scratch — using only the finest secondhand ingredients. Bakersfield’s antique stores form a kind of ecosystem for vintage collectors who, like the De Elenas, comb through estate and yard sales, keeping their favorite finds and selling others in malls’ vendor spaces. It’s a way of making a hobby like Christina’s vintage Pyrex collection sustainable. “This stuff has got history,” Michael De Elena said on a recent afternoon while the family touched up the vendor space they’ve stocked for a little less than a year at the 19th Street Antique Mall. “Now we do everything retro.” Fortunately for vintage enthusiasts and collectors like the De Elenas, downtown Bakersfield’s antiques district is a perfect place to treasure hunt. And for last-minute holiday shoppers, the sheer variety of odds and ends for sale creates plenty of gift alternatives for
CASEY CHRISTIE / THE CALIFORNIAN
Three generations of shoppers do some serious antique shopping in Bakersfield at the Central Park Antique Mall on 19th Street. They are Matthew Palmer, 12, left; his grandmother, Lena King, center; and Matthew's mother, Adrianne King, right. Lena says she loves looking for antique jewelry, pottery and Fenton glassware.
Bakersfield’s antique hounds lose dear friend
Please see 24
Online only Watch an audio slide show of more antique gifts at bakersfield.com
Laurel and Hardy figurines sitting on an iron bench are on sale for $200 at Central Park Antique Mall.
Antiquing: On some excursions you stumble upon a priceless piece of pottery for $2.50 while other days — most days, really — you find a bunch of kitsch, valuable only for its nostalgia. But one treasure Bakersfield shoppers and collectors could always count on finding was the smiling face of Gino Sorci, who worked at Central Park Antique Mall until the day of his death on Nov. 15. Sorci, a fixture at the store from the day it opened 18 years ago, was a history buff and eager conversationalist who enjoyed chatting up first-time shoppers and regulars alike. He was something of an expert on Hollywood’s gold-
en era and loved old movie stars, though his interests were so diverse that it was hard to stump him on any topic. “He was the Sorci most helpful person in the world and got along with everybody,” said Charlie Zawila, who owns Central Park Antique Mall and had known Sorci for 50 years. A lifelong Bakersfield resident, save for his military service in Europe, Sorci, 84, had a minor stroke after recent knee surgery, though everyone expected him to Please see 24