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Berryville Antique Dealer Never Met a Stranger
Berryville Antique Dealer Never Met a Stranger
By Linda Roberts
I picked up what looked like a large plunger only to find a metal, cone-shaped attachment with holes on one end of a long handle. Bewildered, I turned to Gerald Dodson, who owns Berryville’s Family Antiques with his wife Bonnie, looking for an answer.
“Why, that’s an agitator…back when clothes were washed in a tub and you had to supply the manpower yourself to get them clean,” explained Dodson with a grin.
Family Antiques has in stock four of these in case a customer wants to try the old-fashioned method of getting their clothes clean or the pleasure of owning an apparatus that keeps guests guessing. Along with the agitators, a myriad of antique tools, furniture of all types, vintage china and kitchenware, decoys and collectibles greet Dodson’s regular visitors, browsers and those seeking a specific item.
“Bonnie and I have similar tastes and we started collecting things even before we were married,” said Dodson. The couple will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year.
As an investment some time ago, the Dodsons bought the small building at 116A Buckmarsh Street (Route 340 north) just off Berryville’s main street. After a tenant relocated elsewhere, Gerald announced to Bonnie that they would be opening an antique shop featuring oak and country furniture and collectibles. Filling the space was never a problem as the Dodsons had already spent years putting together a sizeable collection of items that by 1983 had outgrown their home.
Upon meeting Dodson, it’s quickly apparent that the man has never met a stranger and visitors to Family Antiques become friends along with the regulars who frequent the shop to catch up on the local news. “It’s true,” Dodson says, “I do like to talk to people.” His natural affinity to interact with whoever he meets has placed Dodson in various civic and community leadership roles which keep him busy when he’s not holding court at the counter of Family Antiques.
“Well, it’s all about relationships,” he adds, saying, “when you’re in business then honesty is the best policy. If you’re not honest with people then you shouldn’t be in business.”
The past few years have not been so kind for Dodson and many others in the antiques and collectibles business, although he remains optimistic. The quest to own an antique has not been a popular past time with the rise of big box stores and chain retailers and the antiques market has definitely been down.
However, Dodson notes he is seeing a shift coming with the younger generations being more interested in keeping and using Grandmother Lucy’s antique walnut tilt-top table, displaying Grandfather Henry’s collection of old tools or searching for antiques that will become their own family heirlooms.
Family Antiques is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday and from 1 to 4:30 p.m. on Sundays. If you stop by, tell Gerald you’d like to see those antique agitators!
