It's easy to get distracted in the office of Yesterday's Treasures owner Lawrence Schaeffer. Even you just asked him to give you an earful about the quirky larger that DisplayStatues.com creatures that stand at attention in front of his County Road 39 (Rte. 27) store in Southampton, NY, you're likely to get more then an eyeful attempting to take in the objects d'art.

      A statue of a wriggling, rolled over bronze puppy smiles at you  from under the desk, his perpetually still tail nearly touching  the outstretched Jaws of an equally motionless scaly alligator. Your eyes might wander next to an antique Exercycle below a Mae West movie poster, or to the old British bobby's helmet next to the skull of an antelope with its antlers attached. Even a scantily-clad Betty Boop figurine on the corner of his desk draws a look, once a visitor realizes that Betty is directing her un-batting eyes at the statue of one horse violently trampling another that towers over her.

Mr. Schaeffer makes, collects and sells 'things' - his word - something he and his wife Elizabeth have made a living at for the past 35. In opening and operating Yesterday's Treasures in Southampton for the past eight years, a retirement business for him, he has been able to personalize the collection and distribution of the highly unique items he sells. Before opening the store, as well as a similar one in Westhampton Beach, the Schaeffer specialized in creating and selling the exact kind of establishment they're now running, as well as wholesaling the very items they now sell retail.

  The shops support their rather ambitious art “habit,” both he and his wife, he said, are longtime art lovers and collectors Judging from the original Warhol and Nagel paintings on the walls of his office, he isn't kidding “There's nothing I can think of doing that would be better than being paid an enormous budget to buy art for the rest of my life, " said the Brooklyn native who has lived in Westhampton Beach for the past 22 years. ''So to keep it happening, we run this business '' In working to support that habit, Mr. Schaefer has inadvertently created quite the tourist attraction. Art students with cameras, tourists, and moms with small children who gape at the gargantuan horses and hippos are all frequent visitors to the store-former. Southampton Village Mayor Joseph Romanosky has even stopped by to thank Mr Schaefer for creating one of the best tourist spots leading into the village, the owner said. "After all, what kind of museum is open on all weekends and holidays?” he asked, walking the grounds of his highly visible statuary and antiques shop, on Friday of Labor Day weekend while eastbound traffic crawled by "People seem to be thrilled to walk through our collection. That part is enjoyable, watching and listening to people as they find things."   

   The kids love the larger-than-life Santa Claus figure greeting them as they walk through the front door, he says, and they jump as they turn to see an oversized carton of French fries, complete with arms, legs and a face, down at their eye level. So who is it, exactly, that buys the life-size statue of John Wayne on horseback, or the antique reproduction of dancing retro hot dog? “Anyone from Billy Joel, to possibly and probably your next-door neighbor,” the straight-talking owner answers, with a sincerity that will make you want to peer aver the fence into the neighbor’s yard just to check.

      And those sales encompass only the ones that result from someone stopping into the store – Yesterday’s Treasures is also part of a larger international business run through DisplayStatues.com. The owner is not shy about his clients: he’s had a part in décor of all three of restaurateur Ed “Jean-Luc” Kleefield’s Hamptons location, helped decorate building for the Donald through Trump Enterprises, and lent rented or sold hundreds of pieces to charity events, private entitles or movie sets.

      And the business doesn’t consist only of buying and re-selling. Mr. Schaeffer also designs his own items and has them manufactured at fiberglass factory; their claim to fame, he says, is the Serta mattress counting sheep, which used to dot the store’s display, dwarfed by the dinosaur and bucking horses in front.

      “We got 2000 of them made and we sold them all,” he said.

Walking through the winding, cluttered walkways inside the store, shoppers or browsers can get a distinct sense they are on the movie set in and of itself - no section of wall, flat surface or floor, except for the footpaths, is left uncovered. Although the mammoth animals and fanciful outdoor decorations are what originally, catches everyone's eye, it is the indoors, the room upon room full of thousands of "things” that form the true sensory overload that is Yesterday's Treasures.

What appears from the road to be a tiny building is in truth almost 10,000 square feet of display space, a veritable maze of rooms including dead ends, sharp turns and creaky hardwood floors. “The organization kind of deteriorates the more stuff we get," the owner admits.

      His assistant, James puts it another way “It’s kind of like trying to arrange deck chairs on the Titanic" he said wrily “What's the point?"

     Motion-sensor lighting follows visitors from room to room, with track lighting illuminating from above  when patrons enter and darkening It again immediately upon exit their exit – even more eerie are the signature pieces connected to the system: like the Tiffany-style rooster table lamp that brightens suddenly as you walk by which seems to squawk "look at met!''

A walk through and a conversation with Mr. Schaefer prove that the business, and the hundreds of items that pass through his life, are a labor of love. He stops by a massive stuffed lioness on a pedestal, gently running his hand over her back. “The male sold a lot quicker,” he mused. “She's been here a while.

He admits to not minding too much if a particular favorite doesn't move right away. "Even if something doesn't sell I get to enjoy it while I have it,” he said. But then, the dichotomy of his love for art and career as a businessman shows, as he never really has trouble parting with any of it, even if it was a favorite.

"I used to be that way'' he said. "But I've learned by now that there's always more where It come from. "I want to try to allow other people to be as happy as I was to buy It in the first place," he added.

So what does the Schaeffer backyard look like? The store's owner strategically avoids the question. “I'm not saying anyone's backyard should look like this," he said motioning to the 1/2 acre hodgepodge of 1950's celebrity statues, purposefully aged, Buddha artifact reproductions and menagerie of animal figures behind him. “But there’s more to life than just a picnic table in a backyard.”