CHAPTER 20
The store smelled just the way I remembered it, a comforting bouquet of furniture polish, musty books, cedar, and potpourri. Instantly, I was eight years old again, butterflies in my stomach, looking for hidden treasures. I don't know if other kids loved antique stores as much as I did, but I know that if history class were taught in an antique store we'd all be experts. I remembered how patiently Mr. Petersen would answer my barrage of questions--what was this called, what did it do, where did it come from. Everything there was old, but it was all new to me. I learned that before washing machines were invented, clothes were scrubbed by hand on aluminum washboards (glass boards for delicates), then fed through a wringer before being hung up to dry. I learned that in the 1930's
