Museum worthy

Susan Jirele is selling her antiques every second weekend of the month from May through October in Waldorf because her son told her he needed to downsize. 

“I was at home with all sorts of things,” Jirele explained, “and my son said ‘Mother, you need to get rid of stuff.’ I said, ‘Well if I had a store…’”

So that’s what her son did - bought her the old Deml grocery store in Waldorf. “It was oh just perfect,” Jirele said. She explained that the building was about to “be pushed over the hill” and that it had a leaking ceiling and needed a new floor. But her son, one of five Jirele children, is handy: He fixed the building up so that she could have a storefront and he could live upstairs with his children. 

While Jirele had her store open a recent weekend in June, she was babysitting those grandchildren–three boys and her “ballerina.” They kept her company as she watched over the main room with her antiques, most of which she had owned prior to buying the store and some of which she had purchased at an auction. 

A great many of Jirele’s antiques have stories behind them. An old sink from a relative's cabin, an old rocking chair that rode on a covered wagon, her great-grandma’s dress, tea cups, plates, dolls, and even an old crank radio. 

“The question is what to do with all this stuff,” Jirele said as she walked among the items  remembering the dates and origins of many of them. Some, including an old rocking chair, Jirele originally purchased for herself. Because of that, she said she won’t sell it for anything less than she thinks it’s worth. Other items Jirele believes should be in a museum, including the one chair that rode on a covered wagon.  

Jirele said the reason she isn’t at the store every day is because she’s starting out by testing what level of interest her items attract.

“I don’t want to be closed so that I’m never open and so by saying one weekend a month, I’m seeing if I get anybody,” Jirele said. “If some people start coming, I’ll be here more.” 

The problem that Jirele faces is that she doesn’t live nearby, but rather ten miles away, halfway between Waldorf and Waseca. Her advice for anyone wanting to do this is “you need to be the person living upstairs.” 

But Jirele has more ideas for the place besides only an antique store. She tossed around the ideas of making it a restaurant, or a tea place, or even a place where she could teach home economics classes, something she used to do for a living when she was younger. “There's a lot that can be taught in these things,” Jirele said, “not just the basics.” 

Jirele hopes that her store can one day be considered a destination, not just a store that sells antiques.