It was nearly 20 years ago that Eric Vettoretti and I came to know the “institution” that is Rideau Antiques. Situated atop a hill in the Ontario village of Lombardy, it has been selling furniture, doors, windows, jars, bottles, sinks, signs, silverware, sirens, and pretty much anything else that you can think of since the 1960s.

I was on the fence about making the three-hour trip to Lindsay, because an incoming rainstorm threatened to wash everything out. Once I was forced to make the game-time decision, the forecast said the rain wouldn't start until after 10 o'clock. Lindsay isn't a huge area to cover, so if I started before 8, I knew I could do my picking. The weather kept some people away, and several of my friends / competitors in the hobby wouldn't be going because they had other things going o