Janet Dyk couldn’t be more thrilled with the opening of her Magpie Antique Shop in Ripon at the corner of First Street and Walnut Avenue where some 500 visitors crowded into the building in its first two days.

The doors were first opened on Sunday from noon until 4 p.m.  She noted that so many sales took place that her vendors had to restock their booths with many of them on site until 10 p.m.

The formal grand opening and ribbon cutting drew a respectable number outside the building at 10 a.m. Monday with coffee, fruit and pastries inside the shop where most of the 13 vendors were waiting to greet their guests.

“It was a great day,” Dyk said Monday afternoon.  “It has been constant – the store has never been empty.  It was quite a surprise when my old high school friends came and surprised me.  We all graduated in 1971 from Ripon High,” she said of Karen Schemper, Deb Tornell, Gail Fontana and Arden Thompson.

Dyk said there was enough food for 200 people at Monday’s grand opening from as far away as Sacramento, Merced and the Bay Area.  It was all in response to cards she had mailed out, word of mouth and newspaper publicity, she said.

“The football game didn’t hurt us,” she quipped.  “We even had a lot of men come in. Sunday we had over 300 shoppers and (Monday) about 175.”

Mike Anderson, representing Congressman Jeff Denham, presented Dyk with a special congressional recognition on the opening of her business.  She received a similar document from Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen.