The Friday after Thanksgiving, 1990, so many people came to the store that Mary Lewis turned to her husband, Evan, and said, Were going to have to take turns eating.

They had just opened Phog Bounders Antique Mall in Astoria. They had no idea it would be so successful. 

We didnt have any ambitions about anything except living, Mary Lewis said. 

Twenty years later, the mall is still in business, though under different ownership. 

Being an antiquer, its almost a cult, said Tom Schmidt, who now runs the antique mall with his wife Debbie Boothe-Schmidt. It takes one to know one and once you are one you cant get out.

Its a study in history all the time.

Mary Lewis, wandering through the mall recently, paused in front of a cabinet full of knick knacks.

Id forgotten how much fun this place is, she said.

But shed never want to run it again. She and Evan are both 80 years old. They ran the mall for nearly 12 years and those days are done. 

They worked hard. Mom worked 365 days a year, Lewiss daughter, Amy Lewis, said. Id call her to tell her what was going on in my life and shed say, Oh, thats great. Let me tell you what the stores been doing.

It may not be the best way to make a fortune (Dont quit your day job, Boothe-Schmidt advised), but (on the other hand), who needs a fortune? 

We like the old stuff, Schmidt said. 

A Davy Crockett clock sits on one shelf. Theres a Remington typewriter from the 1920s, small beaded purses behind glass and when the hour strikes, clocks chime from every corner.  

Antique malls are different from antique stores. A single store tends to reveal the personality of a single antique dealer, Schmidt-Boothe said. The mall, however, rents space to about 50 different dealers, and personalities jostle for attention at every turn.

There are some repeat items just how much glassware actually exists in the world anyway? but Schmidt and Boone-Schmidt try to encourage variety in the dealers wares and the mall carries a mix of antiques and collectibles.

Technically, antiques are items 100 years or older, Schmidt said. Collectibles are more recent think 70s kitsch or furniture from the 1950s.

The mall started out on Commercial Street in the building where Deals Too is now, but has since moved to 892 Marine Drive.

Schmidt and Boone-Schmidt have been in this location for several years and have filled both the main floor and the basement. Dealers spaces areseparated by moveable dividers. 

The building had been a second-hand store for years. Schmidt remembered going there when he first moved to Astoria in the 1980s. The roofs leaked and every winter buckets would be scattered around the store underneath the drips.

Schmidt and Boothe-Schmidt have kept busy over the years fixing the place up and making it comfortable.

Mary and Evan Lewis had known both Schmidt and Boone-Schmidt for several years before they sold Phog Bounders to them. 

They were the first people we asked when we thought about selling the store, Amy Lewis said. 

I think its wonderful that its been able to continue, Mary Lewis said. It was Evan, she said, who came up with the name Phog Bounders 20 years ago and shes glad the name has carried on.  

After they sold the antique mall, the Lewises opened a used book store. Books had always been something of a passion for Mary Lewis, a former teacher. However, that venture didnt prove to be as successful as the mall. They decided to retire for good. They still live in Astoria.

Running the store it was very interesting, Mary Lewis said. The fun of it is coming in and seeing all these different things, seeing how marvelous so many different things are and how theyve developed over the years. People used to know how to make things and what are we used to now? Plastic. 

Amy Lewis said people still remember her parents from the antique mall days.

They tell me, I saw your mom, or I saw your dad today. When are they going to open another store?