I visited Caledonia, Missouri, population 158, this afternoon.
The weather, a muggy 113 degree heat index, was stereotypical of a Missouri summer afternoon. I parked my car along the side of the road and stepped out into a blanket of heat.
My first stop was Old Village Mercantile. Dated “Post-1909″, the Mercantile building is among the many in Caledonia on the National Register of Historic Places.
I’ll do another post about the store itself, but this post is all about the fun discovery I made on the second floor of the mercantile; a room filled with old hats, gloves, purses, antique wedding gowns, and more. In short, this room was like a giant, antique, little girl’s stage for playing dress up.
So what did this big girl do?
Funny Blue Hat, photo by and of smalltowngirl
Funny Peach Hat, photo by and of smalltowngirl
Funny Yellow Bonnet, photo by and of smalltowngirl
Life’s short, and you’ve gotta have some fun. There’s plenty of amazing history in Caledonia, and I’m planning to tell you more about that history another day.
For tonight, I encourage you to take time to try on silly hats.
You are right, life is way too short to not be silly from time to time!
Thanks for visiting my blog. I’m always trying on hats in hat shops – the more zany the better. Looks like you had fun!
PS: if you e-mail me for the password you can view the protected hat post. I don’t normall protect such posts but some of the photos are of younger family members.
You so totally crack me up! Very fun.
t a great time you must have had. i’d love to have been there with you.
I love these hats. Is it terrible of me to say, I’m going to Ste. Genevieve and Caledonia for several reasons, most prominently for HATS. I think they’re all just dainty and gorgeous. Thanks so much for all of your work!
Melissa-great story and photos…it’s so nice to meet a kindrid spirit who appreciates a great hat or two! It’s been years since I’ve been to Caledonia-since my HS sports days. Maybe I can head that way on a girls road trip or something this summer.
[...] read more about Caledonia, check out the following blog posts: Caledonia, Missouri, Smalltowngirl’s Many Hats, and Caledonia, Missouri Pt. [...]
[...] isn’t my first time trying on silly hats in an antiques shop. Check out my post from Caledonia, Missouri’s Old Village Mercantile last summer. Life’s hard sometimes, [...]