My siblings and I quote movies. That’s what we do. In fact, I think that’s a trait of just about everyone in my generation. It seems there is a movie quote to fit most situations in life. Since our parents raised us on Star Trek films, we always had an arsenal of quotes from Captain Kirk and Spock. But every so often another Enterprise crew member would release a verbal gem that stuck with us. Our favorite movie was Star Trek IV, The Journey Home. Scene: As the crew of the Enterprise, flying aboard a stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey starship, enters the atmosphere over California (with cloaking device engaged), after performing a sling shot around the sun to go back in time to the 20th century to save the humpback whales, [[breath]], the crew sees the Golden Gate Bridge, and Sulu proclaims, “San Francisco, I was born there,” in his deep, easily recognizable voice. That’s how I felt this month when my wife, Nichole, and I opened Sienna’s Sandbox, our first store on Ruby Lane. Rare finds and left behinds… I was born there.

My dad was in the Air Force and we moved around a lot. My mom stayed home and made every dollar stretch. One of the ways she did that was by shopping garage sales with us kids along for the ride. We each got a dollar to spend and carefully selected our purchases. I was 8 when she figured out that some of her finds were worth something and started selling her found treasures to local antique dealers.

We were living in Colorado at the time and on this particular Saturday the garage sale we visited was filled with boxes to dig through. I found a package of unopened Star Wars erasers for 10 cents and showed them to Mom. Now I was born after the Star Wars movies came out, but I knew these were something special. It took some convincing, but we ended up with them as part of our haul to take to the antique mall. We took them to a booth that specialized in comics, cards and toys and they offered us $8! That was quite a profit on a dime and I was hooked. From then on while my brother and sister spent their dollar each week on something fun, I was on the prowl for buried treasure!

That first experience started me down a road I have been on ever since. I bought and traded collectible sports cards and memorabilia from 5th grade on, begging Dad for a ride to the local card shop on Saturdays and hanging out in the back of Walmart as they unloaded the truck with the latest sports figures to have first pick. I saved my aunts old toy box from the dumpster and sold the 1960’s toys I found inside to eager collectors and dealers when I was a teenager. And when my mom became disabled and could no longer work, I talked her into selling on eBay and helped her learn the ropes - I was 20.

She was the one who first discovered Ruby Lane and opened her shops there 4 years ago. I figured sooner or later we would be joining her there. And now, like Sulu, we are “coming home” and settling into our new shop where we are able to share our finds with other treasure hunters. Our shop is named for our little daughter, Sienna, who, like me, will surely grow up collecting, buying and selling. And a love for rare finds and left behinds is a tradition that will inevitably be passed down to our kids, along with our cheesy 80’s movie quotes.

Written by Ben Brown

Sienna’s Sandbox on Ruby Lane