Fort Worth: Montgomery Street Antiques Mall

When it comes to brocantes, fleas, garage sales, vide-greniers, you name it, I’m weak. As much as I want to scale down, downsize, and get rid of, I seem to keep adding to instead of editing. I’ll need (insert item here) for a photo shoot, I tell myself, and off I go, out of the car, and into another dusty, junky heaven.

As was the case last week when I was in Fort Worth. I was driving down Montgomery Street, on my way back from the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, where I was signing stacks of my books, and there it was, right on the corner of I-30 and Montgomery, the Montgomery Street Antiques Mall, 61,ooo square feet of booths large and small, stacked neatly and haphazardly with old treasures, nearly 250 in all.

I was – and still am — on the hunt for an old cast iron corn pone pan, just like the one that my mom has, but I haven’t found one that’s less than $50, which I absolutely will not pay, so the hunt continues. If any of y’all find a pone pan that’s reasonably priced, let me know…

I love this blue and white quilt, and this little bowl, which reminds me of one that I used to have but can’t find now. Like so many things that I’m no longer able to locate, this is either in storage, or given away by mistake. When I moved to Paris six years ago, the process itself was so hurried, that a few things — my small blue and white bowl, my pasta maker — disappeared.

At this point, I figure they’ll either turn up someday, or not. In one sense, I’ve learned to let go.

But not completely, or I wouldn’t have found myself in another antiques mall, my arms filled with treasures. I didn’t buy this salt box or the blue kettle, but I thought about it.

Ditto with these old gates, a couple of which would make a great French daybed, I think.

I ended up buying a few old kitchen tools and a Pyrex double-boiler just like the one that my mom still uses to make everything from almond butter crunch candy to lemon curd. I feel so fancy with a double-boiler! Until now, I’ve used a glass bowl over a saucepan.

Don’t ask me how I’m going to get this glass double-boiler back to Paris. I didn’t think of that.

For now, I’m happy to be in Texas and soon in New Mexico again, where I hope to be able to layer up and hike in the mountains, and maybe, just maybe, hit a junk store or two along the way.

Montgomery Street Antiques Mall

2601 Montgomery St.

Fort Worth, 76107

817/735-9685