Feb 25, 2020
Carol
'Dusty' Seddon's first desert experience was in and around the
Mojave near Apple Valley in the mid-90’s accompanying a group of
friends from an Orange County college, who were coming out to
perform archeological digs. Dusty immediately fell in love
with the feel of the desert – the dry air, the quiet and so much
different than what she’d know in the suburbs. On these digs they
mostly found tools, stones used in cooking, and maybe bits of
pottery.
In
October of 2005, returning from a Mitchell Caverns trip, Dusty
was looking for a more adventurous route back home to Orange
County. She pulled out a map and found a route that would
bring her through Amboy, to a place she’d heard of called, Joshua
Tree.
As
dark fell, Dusty found a camping spot at Indian Cove and on exiting
her tent the next morning, looking around at the colors, boulders,
textures, says, “It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced”.
In this episode, Dusty
tells about a gift from the Park Ranger who showed up to her site
in the morning.
Dusty
made it a point to return to Joshua Tree within a year. Those trips
continued, becoming every six months, then more frequent –
sometimes camping, other times staying at the Joshua Tree Inn. Just
seeing the landscape along the highway seemed enough - three years
after her steady trips out, she finally went into Joshua Tree
National Park and was pleasantly surprised by what she
discovered.
As
much as she loved coming to and recharging in this special getaway
place, Dusty felt she could never live here with the extreme summer
and winter temperatures and then, there was how figuring out how
she would make a living.
After
ten years of visiting, Dusty met and began dating someone who lived
in Joshua Tree. He pointed out how stressful her life in Orange
County, CA was and suggested she give a move to the desert some
serious consideration. Dusty admits she did not possess the ‘blind
faith’ others seemingly had when making their journeys here.
Sitting in her car in public parking lot one day on a lunch break,
Dusty saw a moving truck and took that as a sign to make the move -
and continued to ponder what she would do when she got
here.
With a
love of clothing since her early teens, Dusty shopped often in
local vintage, resale and thrift stores. Her sense of the owners of
these shops was, 'they had the life'. While still working
full-time, she often wondered how she might make a go of selling
clothing on the side, but with most of her energy going to her full
time work, she just could never see it happening. Having brought
all the clothing with her to the desert, as Dusty was unpacking it,
she began to realize what an exceptional collection she had and
thought she needed to begin selling them.
A
chance encounter at the local Punk Rock Sewing Circle accelerated
Dusty's dream and soon after, she was opening 'Dusty Deserette' in
the Sun Alley Shops in downtown
Joshua Tree. Dusty celebrated four years in business on February
13, 2020.
Though
Dusty didn’t set out to have a vintage clothing shop, she has found
that much of what she has sourced for the shop is vintage and she
continues to learn more about the various facets of that fashion
genre. She calls her shop 'a fashion shack of eclectic clothing for
guys and gals'.
Dusty
says she's found life in the desert to be more fulfilling and
authentic and is currently is renovating a camper she'll stock with
clothing to travel to flea markets and do pop-ups on the
road.
FB:
Dusty
Deserette
IG:
@dustydeserette