ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9601020010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-14 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: BECKY HEPLER STAFF WRITER
It's a time warp. The people and pets at the Blacksburg Animal Clinic on U.S. 460 are clearly of this time, but the waiting room in which they are sitting is from another.
A 1920s cash register, brass and weighty, anchors one end of the narrow room, while a collage of old Virginia Tech memorabilia holds down the other. A 1913 picture of the school - then called Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College - lists the various curricula available and the total cost for the year at $235.
The wall in between is covered with old advertisements for veterinarian products, that in this jaded age are refreshing in their honesty. ``Bickmore Gall Salve, For All Wounds and Sores on Animals - Be sure and work the horse.'' One examination room has cabinets filled with the cans and boxes of this and other elixirs of the era.
Dr. Casey Jones, veterinarian, obviously has a thing for antiques. "My house is full; I've put as much as I can here at the clinic. The rest is in storage. Even my wife doesn't know how many storage units of stuff I have," he admitted sheepishly.
But unlike most collectors, he follows his heart, not convention.
``I know I should pick an area and specialize, but it's hard. There are so many things I'm interested in, plus one thing just seems to lead to another."
A case in point: Jones has always been captivated by the contents and accoutrements of old general stores.
In those days, stores served a diverse clientele, including ice cream lovers. The old soda fountain's ice cream scoops, with their gears and levers, appealed to Jones' mechanical bent.
Add to that the fact that his wife's family was connected with the old Cloverdale Creamery, a Roanoke company that supplied milk to the region, and you'll understand why Jones started collecting old milk bottles and signs. Before long, he and his wife were deep into the Ice Creamers, a group for people interested in antique soda fountain items.
``Actually, I always wanted one of those milk shake mixers," Jones said. "I finally found one, but then you need the glasses, and you wouldn't believe how many different kinds there are.
"You start researching and you find other things, like all the different kinds of glassware for sundaes and banana splits. You can find these heart-shaped sundae dishes, and they even have heart-shaped ice cream scoops to go with them. I was at a conference where one like that was selling for $4,000.''
Jones inherited his love of antiques from his mother, and luckily it is something he shares with his wife, who collects antique toys. "But a lot of people probably come to antique collecting when they get married and have to raid their parents' attic to set up housekeeping," he said. "The old stuff is so well made and beautiful. How can you not get hooked?''
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to explain how he got hooked on Virginia Tech. "My whole family went to school here," he explained. "When I graduated from high school, I didn't know there was another school in the state."
After getting his undergraduate degree here, Jones graduated from Georgia Tech's veterinary science program, where he shared classes with another Blacksburg vet, Jim Shuler. This was followed by a 10-year stint in Newport News, where he had a small-animal clinic.
When he had a chance to buy his current practice in Blacksburg 15 years ago, he jumped at the chance. "Finally, I was going to be able to go to lots of games without a lot of travel time," he said. Like many Tech fans, he's in New Orleans today for the Sugar Bowl.
His Virginia Tech collection includes many things with personal connections, such as the 1930s football team pictures featuring his uncle. He also has the German Club posters of concerts and events he helped to plan when he was a member of the club from 1958 to 1962. But much of the collection predates those years.
He has several panoramic photos of the campus in its early years. "People get so confused by these, because it shows everything in a straight line," he said. "But if you could curve the picture around, because the old cameras were shooting in a semicircle, it would be a more accurate representation."
Area antique dealers know his passion and call him when interesting things featuring Virginia Tech come their way. That's how he gets much of his collection.
He has celluloid plates with drawings that were used in printing the yearbooks, old pennants from long-ago football games and a cartoon from 1906 that looks like it could have been printed in The New Yorker magazine.
It features a Virginia Tech football player tapping a Virginia football player and saying "Tag. You're it."
The Virginia player's reply? "Oh fudge, you sassy brut."
The lure of collecting comes from the love for the subject, the thrill of finding a treasure in someone else's trash, and the friendships forged. Every summer, Jones and his wife go to Hershey, Pa., for the Ice Creamers convention to see what's hot in that field, to eat ice cream and to visit friends with similar passions.
The downside of collecting is what to do with all the stuff.
Eventually, he intends to set up an old country store in Blacksburg. He wonders if the library or the German Club might be interested in his Virginia Tech memorabilia. But, like many people of this day and age, his big problem is finding time to do that as well as the other things he would like or has to do.
Jones, however, is philosophical and realizes that the only thing that might ever happen to his collection is that it may be sold. "Some of my best buys have been at estate sales," he said, "buying boxes ... of someone else's collection."
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. (no caption) ran on NRV-1. 2. Notby CNBeverything in the Jones home is collected and displayed for looks
alone. 3. Maggi Jones (above) uses an antique grabber as it's
intended - to reach an item high up in a cabinet. 4. The Joneses
keep the rest of the grabber collection in the attic. 5. Casey Jones
(right) puts his train set in motion. The collector's interest in
antique general store items and C&O Railroad memorabilia can be
traced to his grandfather, who worked for the Chesapeake & Ohio
beginning from the 1890s to the 1930s; after his retirement, he
operated a general store in Gordonsville. 6. Blacksburg veterinarian
Casey Jones (above) is, of course, a Virginia Tech fan - with an
extensive collection of Techiana at his clinic. His wife, Maggi, had
three uncles who worked for the Clover Creamery in Roanoke beginning
at the turn of the century, so there are plenty of items from that
business. color. 7. Drawers of an old general-store cabinet (left)
are filled with just a fraction of Jones' collection of ice cream
scoops. The cabinet, with slots for holding packs of cigarettes,
also is used to display more of the collection of Virginia Tech
memorabilia. 8. A growing collection of sundae spoons and
milk-bottle caps (left) fills a cabinet on a bar counter. 9. Old
tobacco tins line an antique shelf - and there's a newly purchased
barber pole decorating the sunroom.