Charming Creepiness

Girlie, Matt & I ventured out to New Hope, PA today. It's a cute town with lots of offbeat shops and old architecture. After an overpriced lunch, we found TearDrop Memories. This is a peculiar little store, long and narrow, that gets stranger the farther back you go. Old photos and Victorian birdcages yield way to memorial jewelry (pictured: the mesh is hair from the deceased) and antique medical instruments for both humans and animals. Greg took great pleasure in showing us his pump for draining bovine udder infections and the ultra-rare sheep chastity belt. Then there were the old anatomy texts for embalmers (emphasis on the vascular system, natch).

Every inch of the place revealed another set of startling treasures. If you're looking for the memorable and unusual, you can't go wrong here. But please, when considering a birthday gift for me, skip the infant death mask, okay?