Talk of the Town - The Junkman’s cowgirl March 25 2004
Lassoed moments from a local celebrity’s childhood
Junkman’s Daughter isn’t just the name of Pam Majors’ Little Five Points store. When she was a kid, her dad regularly brought home junk that he had purchased cheaply when buildings burned down or stores foreclosed. She would run out to meet the junk-filled station wagon, happy to see her father and happy to see the most recent loot. Young Pam always got dibs.
As a third-generation collector, Pam still goes junking all the time. Conventions, antique shows, anywhere a dirty gem might be hiding in piles of real junk. And the things she finds are not just for her store.
Pam Majors: This is the Western Room. I found this set of ’50s western furniture and kind of built the rest of the room around it. And, I have these paint by number pictures. (She smiles as she indicates the wall art.)
Creative Loafing: When you come in here, do you feel like you’re in the Old West?
Well, the reason I like this is because when I was a kid is when they had all the westerns and everything and I was going to grow up and be a cowgirl. And I did. I actually lived out in New Mexico for a while.
So you lived on a farm and helped with ranching?
Nah. It was just my hippie days, but I got to do the western thing, which still has a warm place in my heart. I still grab things from that time. I lived in a small ghost town outside of Santa Fe.
A ghost town! There was nobody else there?
That town was actually populated. Three miles down the road was a ghost town. The whole town was for sale when I lived there.
How big was the town you stayed in?
Really small, the one I lived in was three streets by three streets. It’s still there, and it hasn’t grown. It can’t grow because of the way it’s positioned between two railroads and a highway, and it’s ... it’s really nice. The ghost town finally got bought by one person or another who sold off each of the houses. The houses there were wooden and they were brought in by railroad in two pieces each, so it looked like they had just landed there. It was so beautiful.
It sounds like a unique experience.
Yeah, I got to live in Santa Fe before it turned really hotsie- totsie and expensive. My rent was $35 a month for an adobe house. It was great.
So do you think that if you hadn’t spent that time out West you still would have built this room?
Yeah. The only thing missing from this room that I’d like to have is a TV like we had in the ’50s. You know, a big one with the little screen, because I sat like 2 feet away watching western shows all the time.
What was your favorite show?
Well, Dale Evans was a real inspiration to me because she was a girl and she got to do all that cool stuff. And also the pirates, there were a few female pirates. I might do that as a backup job.