S10 Ep18 VICE and GRAFT: Megan Olson's curated vintage shop in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter - on holy grails, generational estate sales, and the Louisiana Vintage Festival.

So give us a little bit of the story of how you went from your career in nursing into, like, starting the shop.

What, what brought you into the world of vintage, you and your husband?

Yeah, it's, it's a wavy path.

Um, so I, as I had said, as you mentioned, I was a nurse by trade, and I went into nursing because I didn't know what I wanted to be [laughs] when I grew up.

But I knew nursing was interesting, healthcare is interesting, and nursing was dynamic enough that I knew, like, I wouldn't be bored, and there's a million different things you can do as a nurse, and it would pay the bills in the meantime until inspiration struck.

And so 15 years [laughs] went by-

[laughs]

... as a nurse and, um, I think like many of us, COVID was, like, a really defining moment for me.

So, like everybody else, my life was turned upside down, and through that, healthcare changed a lot.

My job just, like, didn't have the same joy that it used to, which is crazy because I was, like, on this, like, incredible trajectory into, like, administrative nursing, and it just didn't feed my soul the way it used to anymore, and I barely saw my kids, who were very small at the time.

So I had this itch of, like, thinking about what I wanted to do next, and I was passionate about history, I was passionate about vintage insofar as the limited ... exposure that I had to it, you know? So I'm, like, ripe for change.

I'm ready to do something different, and I am, like, a risk-averse person.

I like to plan.

So I'm like, "This is gonna be months, maybe years of me, like, figuring this out." Well, like a week goes by coincidentally, and my husband calls me at work, and I figure it must be important, 'cause he's disturbing me at work.

And he goes, "Babe, I, um, I'm at this estate sale.

It's the dealer who did all the merch for Ozzfest.

Um, he wants to sell me 5,000 rare T-shirts, and I think me and my good friend Dante..." Dante's a good f- friend of ours, and now he's our business partner.

"I think me and Dante are gonna buy them and then open up a vintage shop.

Is that insane?"

[laughs]

And nor- nor- yeah.

Normal me would be like, "Yeah, it's insane.

I'm at work.

We're not doing that." And for some reason, I'm like, "Yeah, it's insane.

Let's do it.

So give us a little bit of the story of how you went from your career in nursing into, like, starting the shop.

What, what brought you into the world of vintage, you and your husband?

Yeah, it's, it's a wavy path.

Um, so I, as I had said, as you mentioned, I was a nurse by trade, and I went into nursing because I didn't know what I wanted to be [laughs] when I grew up.

But I knew nursing was interesting, healthcare is interesting, and nursing was dynamic enough that I knew, like, I wouldn't be bored, and there's a million different things you can do as a nurse, and it would pay the bills in the meantime until inspiration struck.

And so 15 years [laughs] went by-

[laughs]

... as a nurse and, um, I think like many of us, COVID was, like, a really defining moment for me.

So, like everybody else, my life was turned upside down, and through that, healthcare changed a lot.

My job just, like, didn't have the same joy that it used to, which is crazy because I was, like, on this, like, incredible trajectory into, like, administrative nursing, and it just didn't feed my soul the way it used to anymore, and I barely saw my kids, who were very small at the time.

So I had this itch of, like, thinking about what I wanted to do next, and I was passionate about history, I was passionate about vintage insofar as the limited ... exposure that I had to it, you know? So I'm, like, ripe for change.

I'm ready to do something different, and I am, like, a risk-averse person.

I like to plan.

So I'm like, "This is gonna be months, maybe years of me, like, figuring this out." Well, like a week goes by coincidentally, and my husband calls me at work, and I figure it must be important, 'cause he's disturbing me at work.

And he goes, "Babe, I, um, I'm at this estate sale.

It's the dealer who did all the merch for Ozzfest.

Um, he wants to sell me 5,000 rare T-shirts, and I think me and my good friend Dante..." Dante's a good f- friend of ours, and now he's our business partner.

"I think me and Dante are gonna buy them and then open up a vintage shop.

Is that insane?"

[laughs]

And nor- nor- yeah.

Normal me would be like, "Yeah, it's insane.

I'm at work.

We're not doing that." And for some reason, I'm like, "Yeah, it's insane.

Let's do it.