The first stop was an estate sale. I like estate sales because everything is for sale, not just the crap people are tired of having. The house was in a big development with lots of other similar looking houses. I normally don't like to go to sales in neighborhoods like these, for a few reasons. For one thing, the people usually haven't been in the house that long and they haven't accumulated much stuff. Also, the stuff they have usually is newish name-brand stuff, which is generally not the sort of stuff I'm looking for at sales. Finally, I get easily lost in those neighborhoods, and I will go on identical street after identical street, trying to find my way out and convinced that I will surely die here in Falcon Ridge or Lake Crest or some other such name that doesn't mean anything.
The person who died so that we could poke through his stuff apparently did a lot of travelling. There were lots of things from East Asia, especially. The stuff was interesting at first, because it was unexpected, but as you looked more closely at it, it all looked like stuff made for tourists. It's not that I haven't bought souvenirs from yard sales, but I do try to stay away from things like ashtrays that say Panmunjon on them. There was this wicker hat, which Josh picked up for fifty cents.
This may be a cheap touristy thing, too, but we thought it was interesting. It's shaped like a soldier's helmet, but it's wicker. Is wicker stronger than I think?
I alo bought two Pyrex pie plates for a dime apiece and also a Vegemite pillowcase.
Now, this pillowcase may very well be a souvenir, but it has a certain uniqueness about it, too. If nothing else, it took a special tourist to buy it. It was a nickel. The bottom corner says "KPAFT FOODS LIMITED," which makes me believe that this might not be an officially licensed Vegemite (TM)(c) product.
Josh poked around this sale, going back for a second round while I tried not to mention that we had several more sales on the list. It's a good thing he did, because he found this.
It's a paper mache Don Quixote and it was seventy-five cents. I found Sancho Panza nearby for the same price. These are fragile and likely made by children in Mexico to sell at roadside stands. But we both love them. Aside from the fact that it's Don Freaking Quixote and Sancho Freaking Panza, I really think the paper mache medium does a great job making the figures look wiry and downtrodden.
When we brought these up to the cashier, the woman seemed surprised that someone was actually buying them. I don't know how she was related to the deceased, but she obviously had no idea who the characters were. We could be sad about that, except that we would have had to pay more than $1.50 for the pair if she had known. That was Josh's score of the day. I wish I could get a better picture of Don and Sancho for you, but they were a bit shy about the camera. Or I just suck at photography.
We hit a church yard sale in Cary, where the prices were already low and the people were just begging to make deals. It's nice when the seller starts the negotiating process without you having to say a word. I did not try to haggle on this item, because it was marked $5 and that was perfectly reasonable to me.
I've seen dozens of those Taters and Onyuns wooden boxes at yard sales and thrift stores. I kinda liked them, because my mom had one and because I like the rusticity of keeping produce in an old wooden box. But the ones that you see (and indeed, the one my mom has) are a sort of fake rustic. You can tell just by the spelling: taters, onyuns. Look, we're so rustic we can't even spell! Let's celebrate our illiteracy!
Look how cute my onions look, all cozy in their cubby hole. This thing is still rustic, what with the chicken wire screens. But it looks like something your handy grandfather might make, rather than something a fat guy sells on the side of the highway going up to the mountains. And now I'll stop insulting my mother's belongings.
Finally, we stopped another estate sale, where I picked up these etched glasses, a set of six for a dollar. What am I going to do with them? Put them in my hutch, of course. I could serve ice cream or something in them, I suppose. I don't know what they are for, but they were just so pretty. I don't know anything about glassware, so it's possible these are a dime a dozen and so by paying a dollar for a half-dozen, I was gypped. But I think they're lovely.
I don't know if you can even tell much from these pictures. It's a bit impossible taking pictures of glassware, particularly if you're trying to capture etchings. Some people can do it, I'm sure, but I couldn't find any of those people in my house this afternoon.
And here is a shot of most everything else. I got a lot of clothes, too, but that stuff would be boring. This stuff is...less boring. We caught a couple of church sales that were wrapping up and so they told us to stuff a bag for a buck. And that's how I ended up with some tiny pictures, a few placemats and dish towels, some antique jar thing, and a box of round pegs (large), for square holes (larger). But not the Snoopy bank. I just bought that because sometimes there are Snoopy banks and they must be bought ($.50). Do I need any of this stuff? Of course not. And it may be that I get rid of it later. But a lot of times you find uses for things you had no idea you had any use for at all.
Does anyone know what this thing is? Josh says it's a vintage SlapChop (TM), but I suspect that he's lying.
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