SOME BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:
Wallace "Col. Wally" Wenn, is an auctioneer (Ga.
Lic. #2946) and antique dealer today, but his interest in history and
"old things" goes back to his growing up days in Portland, Oregon, when
he wanted to become a paleontologist and search for fossils the rest of
his life. That didn't happen. But by the year 1970 he
had graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota
(if you want to know where that is, just go to Lake Wobegon
and hang a left.) With his B.A. in English, Wally planned on becoming a high school teacher and coach, but Uncle Sam had different plans, so Wally
ended up as a journalist in the U.S. Navy, stationed in the
Philippines and off the coast of North Vietnam. In the Philippines, he met and married Dellie, and off the coast of Vietnam
he did a "Good Morning Vietnam" show and produced a daily newspaper
for the U.S.S. Chicago.
After the service, Wally was a medical writer, a
graduate student in business, an advertising rep for a newspaper chain
and a marketing director for a regional shopping center, before he and Dellie
moved from San Diego to Big Bear Lake, California, where he eventually became general manager of the local newspaper. However, there was yearning
in his heart to work for himself, so in 1985, the couple and their two daughters, Maraiah & Sarah, moved to Clarkesville, Ga., in order to (a) own a store of their own, (b) be closer to Wally's parents in Atlanta and (c) enjoy small town life in a beautiful section of Georgia.
Until this year, Wally was a devoted distance runner, but
a poorly designed knee has finally slowed his running down. He has been a member
of Clarkesville's city council, and he carried the Olympic Torch when it traveled through Clarkesville back in 1996.
Adelfa Edangal Eclarinal Wenn (Dellie) grew up in Olongapo City,
Republic of the Philippines. She graduated from the University of
the East in Manila "a long time ago" with a degree in elementary education. After a
year of training in San Diego, Ca., she went to work for the U.S. Navy
in the Philippines as a computer operator, until she foolishly accepted a blind date with a
young, curly-haired sailor at a Christmas party in 1970. That led to their
marriage in 1972 and then
to Dellie's first bouts with below-zero temperatures in Minnesota.
Following a long, rambling journey around the West, Dellie
and Wally arrived in San Diego in 1974. "Dellie" used her educational background in the rearing of two daughters, Maraiah and Sarah, and in the training of her spouse.
She was thrust into the antique
business back in 1985 when Once Upon A Time, Co. opened, and she
quickly discovered that her childhood training in crafts
such as knitting, crochet and sewing had an important place in the
business. She also discovered that she really enjoys the day-to-day task of running the shop, talking with new friends and learning ever more about antiques and history. In fact many visitors to the store over the years don't know that anyone else works in the place other than the "little lady with the pretty salt-and-pepper hair."
Wally and Dellie are the proud parents of two daughters, Maraiah and
Sarah, and the very proud in-laws of a son-in-law, Galen. Maraiah
is a principal potter at Mark of the Potter, just north of Clarkesville.
Sarah, who is a full-time college student, also works part-time for Mark of the Potter, and she has just begun making her own line of
pottery. Galen is a research assistant and doctoral candidate in Biochemical Engineering at Clemson, but he really wants to be a motorcycle shop owner.
Epiphany, or "Epi", agreed
to move into the Wenn's household about 16 years ago. His
official job is Night Watchcat, but sometimes he enjoys greeting new customers and having a chat with them. Epi admits to a fondness for catnip. Passers-by
may also spot the other "Watch Cat", Jo-Jo, who often poses in
the front window where she can keep an eye on the nightlife of
Clarkesville.
