Dec 21, 2009

Have yourself a merry recycled ChristmasBy Lynn AscrizziBangorDailyNews.com

The last place in the universe you might expect to find last-minute gifts with designer panache is in downtown Thorndike.

Clustered along the railroad tracks, the small town is one of those forlornly picturesque rural neighborhoods where time blew the whistle on change, decades ago, with the demise of the train era.

But there, perched between timeworn, unpainted dwellings and a rusting Bangor & Aroostook railroad car, is a cheerful little curiosity shop called Garden Variety, owned and operated by Diana Prizio, of Knox.

The gift store, with its orangey-red trim, olive-green faux shutters and large silhouette of a leaping rabbit painted above the door, is one of the brighter spots in the area.

“It’s the site of the town’s former United States Post Office, built about the 1880s,” Prizio said of the building that is set a stone’s throw from the tracks, on Gordon Hill Road (Route 139), just off Route 220.

She calls her enterprise “something between an art gallery and a garage,” a place artfully crammed with nostalgic, recycled collectibles, from mint-vintage to new designer items. About 60 percent of her shop is stuffed with a fascinating array of carefully selected, found inventory.

“It’s the only way things make sense — to use things already created rather than go out and buy new things. Clearly … we’ve got too much stuff covering the face of the planet,” she said of her creative participation in the reuse-recycle economy.

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