Dan’s Place

Cape Vincent, NY
While docked at the fisheries building in Cape Vincent, we had to walk past this strange junk shop on our way to the library or the store. It had so much interesting junk in the window that you couldn’t even see inside. Like most of the stores in Cape Vincent I assumed it was only open in the summer, but one day I looked a little closer and saw some signs saying ‘Emergency Gift Shop’ (with an arrow pointing upstairs) and “Ring bell for service; Dogs will get me”. So I got AM (the other crewman) from the boat and we went back to Dan’s Place and climbed the stairs up the side of the building and rang the big brass bell. Sure enough, the scotties started barking and a few minutes later a dark figure could be seen lumbering up to the window. Dan opened the door and we explained that we simply couldn’t resist ringing the bell after reading the sign and that we didn’t really need to buy anything but we had to see his shop before we left town. So he let us in down stairs and sat and waited for us to go through everything. I felt I had to buy something from him for making him open up his shop for us, but I couldn’t find anything I really needed. I ended up buying an antique washboard which I’ll be using more often as a musical instrument. A necessary item for a long sailing trip. I actually haggled up the price for it when he was trying to give me a deal. I’m not a good haggler. AM found a dusty old copy of the I Ching and a music box with a hauntingly lovely little song.

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