June 27th by Francine Rose
Some people beach comb, some people geo cache. Me? I’m a junque store junkie. Cruising the thrift stores for hidden treasures is somewhere south of a trip to the Smithsonian and north of dumpster diving.
One of my favorite places to root around is the Big Pig Thrift Store. Flanked by the famous Boeing nose cone of Bloomer’s Landing burger joint, and what I like to call the Road Warrior Museum (a pickup adorned with lots of glued-on-stuff), the Big Pig completes the Bermuda triangle of Hadlock humor in what looks like a hard luck version of the Epcot Center.
Lock your gravitas in the car and bring your mad money cause you never know what you’ll find buried in a landslide of Waffle irons, GoGo boots, shop vacs, swim fins, stuffed bisons, portable typewriters and Barry Manilow’s greatest hits (did he ever had any?)
Unlike the flourescent Goodwill warehouses or the breathe-and-you’ll-break-it consignment shops, the Big Pig is like your favorite old bookstore – a cozy place to auger in for the afternoon and poke around through bins of this and racks of that.
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle herself, Bonnie Osmer is no newcomer to the game. She and her husband Warren have been curators of the collectible for well over two decades and it’s clear from the array of interesting stuff, they have a nack for nick-nackery.
It’s also clear from the get-go that they’re warm good-hearted people. But what they won’t tell you is that they’re staunch supporters of community causes, contributing to Pregnancy Resource Center in Port Townsend, 4-H projects through the Extension College, Sara Penhallagon’s Center Valley Animal Rescue in Quilcene, the Jeffco Fair, and the Tri-area Food Bank to name a few.
Bonnie and Warren didn’t grow up here, but “the Osmers” did. They met while working at the Port Ludlow Resort over 32 years ago. Warren later worked at the Chimacum Cafe while Bonnie was a baker for the old Market Foods in Port Townsend. Once the weekend came, they’d pack the kids in their 68 Corolla and set sail for exotic ports from Astoria to Zillah in pursuit of their dream – rifling through garage sales for valuable items
Soon their collection grew so big, they started auctioning stuff on eBay and manned an antique booth in Port Townsend’s Undertown.
When the old Hadlock thrift store became available 7 years ago, a huge pink pig sign went up next to another landmark – Bloomer’s Landing’s giant nose cone. Somewhere between the juicy scent of legendary cheeseburgers, the bizzaro exhibit of the Road Warrior Muse um and a little curiosity shop called the Big Pig, a tourist attraction was born.
