Post #77258 by Kono on Sat, Feb 21, 2004 7:40 PM

Woke up at 5:30am to go to the humongous antique extravaganza at Renningers in Mt Dora FL. Looked at the clock, decided I have enough tiki stuff and turned off the alarm. Had a dream about Charisma Carpenter. Woke up at 7:30am and decided to go to Renningers after all. I had a vision that I'd find a Tiki Hibachi. Hit the road about 8:30 for a 30 mile drive north of Orlando. Hwy 46 is an 18 mile stretch of two lane highway through rural Florida (complete with "Bear Crossing" signs) from I-4 to Mt Dora.

A mile or two from Mt Dora, traffic comes to a complete stop. Now I knew that when you go to one of these shows its best to get there about 7am or it can be difficult to find parking. I did not expect it to be like Woodstock with cars piling up still a mile or two away from the site. I said "screw it," I'd just passed a roadside yard sale and turned my truck around and went back to it. They had a big ol' gigantic King Kamehameha Coco Joes made with lava 1962 sitting there with a $15 price tag on it. I didn't want to pay $15 so I say "Will you take $10 for this?"

The guy says "What about $6?" I'm like WTF? How does that work? He sees my confused look and says "OK, what about $5?" I figure out he must've thought I said "What will you take for this?"

Being an honest and forthright person I say "OK. But you know you have $15 on it right?"

He says "I don't care. He should be here to take care of his stuff. I've packed and unpacked that twice now and if he can't be here to watch his stuff..."

So I got it for a fiver. I decide to hit garage sales and thrift stores instead of the antique market (since I couldn't get to it). Went to Sanford and tried to visit HETO TIKI at her store but they didn't open till 1pm! Talk about banker's hours!

My finds:

Blue Orchids of Hawaii surfer mug, Orchids of Hawaii R-72 (I had a newer knock off but not a real one), Coco Joe's King K, Martin Denny's 20 Golden Hawaiian Hits, a Hawaiian bar towel. Under $30 for the lot. I doubt I'd have done any better at the extravaganza.

As I got close to home I saw a Yard Sale sign and went to investigate. The sale was actually at the home of an older friend. She and her husband were friends of mine for a couple of years and then he died a few months ago. He'd been in Asia during WWII and spent some time in the South Pacific as well. They own a nice vintage black velvet of a topless polynesian girl that he acquired over there.

We're talking a while and she mentions that she was having the large Japanese good luck symbol in her front yard (forget what it was called) replaced due to rot. I go look up front and spy this large black cylindrical organic object propped up near the front door. I go and look at it and it's really odd looking. Of course, I notice it's the right size and shape for a tiki but it was just a rounded amorphous log-like thing with all these brushy fibers sticking up. It looked like a thin "Cousin It" upside down. There were large tunnels in the center as if the core rotted out.

I ask here "What's that?" She tells me its another good luck symbol.

"Oh, another Japanese symbol?"

"No, he got that in Hawaii. What's it called...I can't remember."

"Tiki?""Yeah, that's it. A tiki."

I told her I have never seen a tiki that looks so unlike a tiki before. She shows me where the eyes and noses and mouths used to be and I could kind of make it out. I pulled it away from the wall and could better see some of the carving on the back. It was 4.5 to 5ft tall and apparently had two faces with small bodies one on top of the other. She said it was so degraded because her husband had it out in the elements in front of the house for over 40yrs. It looked more like a bush than a log. What is amazing to me is that I've been to their house several times and walked past that tiki many times (poor tiki radar) and never knew he had a big ass tiki sitting in front of his home for the latter half of the last century and they never knew of my interest in tiki. Weird.

That's my story, sorry it's so long but hey no one made you read it!