Trenton Stein walked by North 6th street and Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg and stopped to look at the vintage jewelry displayed on the sprawling table by the sidewalk. His tall frame loomed over the trays of neatly arranged earrings, rings, pendants and necklaces. He started talking to the white haired, bespectacled lady manning the table and suddenly let out a loud guffaw.
“ I told you,” she said, “Women always lie except when you are good in bed.” Stein started laughing again. She waved him goodbye and told him that she would see him the following week.
The wisdom-dispending vendor, Lidia Swiatkowsai, 63, has sat at the same corner on this sidewalk almost every day for the last 5 years, becoming a fixture in the neighborhood. She speaks Czech, Polish, Russian and German and seems to know everyone—and they flock to her. “They come from all over- whether it is the Bronx, London or France, I have regulars who come back to buy what I have gathered over many years,” she explains,
The artistic community in Bedford appeals to her and she trusts them. “They are loyal customers and if they stand on the other end of the table, I don’t even need to look, because they never steal anything,” she says. “These arty people dress badly in scruffy, hipster clothes. But they are nice on the inside.”
Originally from Sandau (Germany), which later became Pszczyna (Poland), she immigrated to Massapequa, Long Island 30 years ago, with her Polish husband, then in the air force, and an array of antique jewelry she had collected throughout the years. She still regularly vistis antique auctions in New Jersey to build her stock. “I have no two pieces of anything!” she says.
She started selling her collection as a way, she says, to interact with people. “I have two daughters and a son and they all are married and live in different cities,” she says. So when her husband got a veteran’s license, she decided to take charge so she could meet people and spend her time. “ I love people and I believe in relationships,” she says. And from the traffic at her sidewalk stall, it’s clear she has many of them
Another regular, this one from Queens, stops and inquires about her health. “I am a heart patient, but I also have poor vision. So I need good light when I have to fix the stones on my trinkets,” she says.
A typical day ends for her around 5 p.m. where she delicately wraps up her paraphernalia and puts it into boxes in her van and drives back home. Her husband sometimes accompanies her and the drive back usually consists of arguments about what they will eat for dinner.
“I’m going to have salmon tonight,” she says. “ But either Atlantic or Alaskan, I don’t like the regular farm packaged salmon.” She has also made up her mind to have a glass of whiskey with her supper. “ Johnnie Walker is the only way to go. Remember, it is all about quality,” she says as she cheekily winks.
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