Thirty years ago, Marie Fortier wanted to try something new.

She had already started a business, Earthward, over a decade earlier. Eventually, that business became a well-known organic health food and healthy living/holistic institution, later run by her husband, Chick Weatherbee. Chick was known as “the guy to go to” for information on almost everything related to healthy living, including outdoor survival skills and holistic treatments for ailing pets.

By 1994, Marie was free to open a new venture in Wilton, a shop she named Here Today. Her intention was for it to be an emporium, an everything shop with a welcoming atmosphere. It opened around the same time Wilton was named a national Main Street Community.

From the first day, this emporium housed an eclectic mix of antiques, gifts, local goods and publications, as well as hard-to-find specialty items. But there was more that came with Marie’s vision. That “more” was her interest in the people who frequented Here Today. The shop became a place where conversations began and continued as new customers came through the door. Soon, a group of strangers would become friends as they joined in these conversations, often leading to some new understanding of the world we inhabit. That is still true today.

I recently stopped in to purchase a few cards and stayed for nearly two hours. After touring all five rooms to see what was new, what favorite antiques were still in place and what spaces had been redecorated, I planned on chatting with Marie about how the business had changed over the past 30 years.

One change and relatively new focus was that Chick had become part of the picture since Earthward closed its doors a few years ago. This means that many of the natural healing products, soaps, essential oils, gifts and books that had once been attractions at Earthward have a new home at Here Today. A welcomed addition is Chick’s wealth of knowledge, including nutritional and iridology counseling, that also is now accessible on Wilton’s Main Street, Fridays through Sundays.

While there, one of Marie’s renowned group conversations took place. A former Wilton resident who had moved to the West Coast several decades ago returned to find Marie and Here Today still on Main Street. She, Marie and Chick quickly picked up threads of decades-old conversations and I found myself joining in. As others entered, it felt like a small party was taking place.

Marie pointed out that many customers from out of town visit her shop and the other small, unique shops in Wilton. Frequent comments she hears from customers often are variations on “I can’t believe you carry this. I usually must order it/can only find it online.” These items not only include products once carried at Earthward, but antiques like the large “feather (gathering) basket” displayed on a table in one of the rooms on the second floor, a collection of hats and purses, paintings, pottery and china, linens and chairs, lamps and necklaces and rings and a collection of books that range from vegan cooking, novels and history to a selection of local author/illustrated children’s tales.

The one thing she never wants to change is her belief in “running a business the old-fashioned way:” This means a focus on making Here Today a destination where customers never feel rushed and are treated as welcomed guests, free to stay and chat at their leisure with no pressure to make a purchase. As Marie expressed it, “The people we meet in the shop are such a blessing .” These conversations enrich both Marie and Chick and are as, or maybe even more, important than making a sale.

Here Today is really an extension of the way they’ve chosen to live their lives, forming a community of kindred spirits centered in one unique shop on Wilton’s Main Street.

Just a few steps away is Winding River Antiques, another that brings people from out of town to Wilton’s one-of-a-kind shops. Unlike Here Today, Winding River Antiques is all about the old, the rare, the historic, the unusual. One might describe it as “a real antique shop” where you don’t have to search for what’s old, since “old” is its only focus.

Another similarity is that it, too, is a family-run business, run by father and son Loren and Brian Field. These two purchased the building they occupy on Main Street to “control our own future after several years being part of a group shop, “ responded Loren when I asked him about his move to Wilton in mid-2020.

He continued, “Antiques is a business you wouldn’t do unless you loved being surrounded by them. Discovering the history behind an item, where it was made, what it was used for is a constant learning experience. That’s what I love about the business, why we’re in it.”

A visitor to Winding River must plan on taking time to discover all that’s in this store, since not everything is as obvious as the unusual Native American statue brought to the shop from New York, or the oversized wooden mortar and pestle that hangs from its bracket that once was the outdoor logo for a pharmacy.

A turtle spittoon caught my eye, actually my foot, as it sat on the floor near the counter. Brian told me that it’s quite unusual since it’s complete and objects like this are usually missing some of their inside components. This one, no matter its former use, is a delightful metal sculpture that could easily serve as a unique doorstop. When I asked about it, he admitted that some of his favorite searches are for “quirky things,” unusual cast-iron objects and toys.

On the other hand, Loren seeks out the “Country Primitive” line like old painted boxes and furniture or even an antique 1870s wooden barber pole statue with a stand.

The items in the store cannot be pigeonholed. Winding River Antiques houses an eclectic mix of a Russian icons, an 18th-century framed genealogical paper sampler, a dramatic framed painting under glass, samplers of antique textiles, a Shaker rocker and a porcelain French birdcage, cases of jewelry and tin ware, stoneware and dishes to a Majolica platter with an attached white dog statuette.

One item you’re certain to see as you enter the front door is a, possibly zinc, weather vane with bronze paint resting on a cabinet at the front of the shop. Of course, that’s after you’ve perused the large front window displays of continually changing, eye-catching antiques.

What both Winding River Antiques and Here Today offer are shops that make wandering Wilton’s Main Street an exploration of constant discovery of both the old and the new that excites the imagination and soothes the body and mind.