Spring Ahead

Spring ahead...the weekend.we move the clocks ahead and lose one hour in trade for an extra hour of sunlight at the end of each day (we'll forget the hour of sunlight we lose in the morning). "Spring ahead" could just as easily be the perfect description of how the weather made us feel. This past week was, once again, very cold. Temperatures rarely broke the freezing mark and, one morning, the wind chill was below zero. We even had snow flurries one day. But Saturday was different. Bright sunshine and warmth. Springlike. Finally! It reached 58 degrees on Saturday and it was almost warm enough not to wear a coat at all. It officially becomes Spring next week and the lamb has shown his face. 

We had six sales on our list for the day; all of which were run by tag sale companies. That's a bigger list than we have had in recent weeks. There was no time to waste...off we went.

Our first stop was to our east; the only stop on our list that was to our east. We had two sales on the list that we felt showed the most promise and this was one of them. The other one was in a cluster of four sales so we figured we would make our way westward after this house. This one was advertised as having "50 years of accumulation". We were excited to find that the house had three floors and plenty to search. It was a worthwhile stop and we came home with some records and a few Christmas items at a very low price.

Off we went to stop #2 and, along the road, we saw this spinning vent atop a pole. We see them occasionally on old houses but never just sitting on a pole. We have no idea what it was venting but we never call them vents anyway. We always refer to these as "jiffy pops".

We arrived at our next stop and encountered the dreaded line. While Rob snapped the picture, Monica rushed to secure our spot in line but not before waving to the camera. This was the other sale that we felt might be a good one. 

Look at the door! We loved the starburst doorknob backer. We have three of them but this one was different. Rob was ready to find a screwdriver if it was for sale but alas...it was not. Anyway, the line moved quickly and we were inside in 15 minutes and when we got inside...wow!

Great turquoise metal cabinets

This radio was built into the wall...and it worked!

More turquoise cabinets beneath the stove

It was a vintage General Electric stove

In the basement, there was a great refrigerator

The inside was turquoise and white

There were so many great things to see inside this house and it was fun to have the opportunity to see them. Unfortunately, aside from the appliances and furniture, there was not much else. We did manage to get some vintage Tupperware, a great salt and pepper shaker, a couple of records and one Indian Red crayon.

"Indian Red" was one of Crayola' colors until 1999. At that time, Crayola renamed this color "Chestnut", perhaps because of the perception that the name was politically incorrect. In reality, "Indian Red" had nothing to do with Native Americans and was actually named after a pigment used in India as paint. Rob is one-sixteenth Cherokee Indian and it has become a running joke that we should gather any of these that we find. We keep them in a crayon can along with some very old crayons and with the Crayola crayons labeled "Flesh". Up until 1962, Crayola had a color called "Flesh". In response to the Civil Rights Movement, it was renamed "Peach". With that naive thought process, they still could have had three distinct flesh colors, in order from lightest to darkest: "Winter", "Summer" and "George Hamilton".

After stopping for breakfast, we made our way to the third sale on our list. Three floors and lots of rooms, many of which had nothing of interest...except the basement. 

Although the sale had gone on for hours, there were boxes in the basement which looked like they had not been searched and in those boxes were Christmas stuff...lots of great Christmas stuff. We spent about an hour here and came home with some great Christmas stuff and a vintage apron for Monica.

Stop #4 was literally two minutes away and that was good because we got almost nothing here at all. Two records and that was it. 

It was getting a little late and we had two stops left. It was still very sunny and it was warm. Both of our cars were begging to be washed. So, we decided to go to just one of the two remaining stops and then go home to wash our cars. The choice was easy. One of the sales on our list looked pretty weak. We decided to skip it.

 After a 20 minute drive, we arrived at our last stop of the day. It was described as "set back in time". It was an accurate description of the interior of the house but our visit here was pretty short. 

There was a basement bar and we found some cocktail stirrers we liked behind it. Unfortunately, a search of the house did not yield much. Aside from the cocktail stirrers, our haul here consisted of just a few records and one book. We rushed home, washed our cars and took a nice, late Saturday afternoon nap together. It was a great day but an exhausting one! 

Here are some of the things we found today:

Some books

A 10-inch and two 7-inch records

Some children's albums

Some more records...

...and some more records!

Of all the records we bought today, this was our favorite cover. It made us smile to see that the little boy had such an important job. Then we got sad when we realized that...

...the poor little boy would lose his job a few years later to someone more qualified.

We also found some great popcorn Christmas decorations

Some great vintage felt decorations, covers (tissue boxes, toilet paper rolls, etc) and a Christmas card holder, all made in Japan

Christmas stuff including some Hazel Atlas Christmas mugs

More Christmas stuff...

,,,and more Christmas stuff

Some Easter decorations

A great vintage apron with cocktail glasses and cherries on it

A vintage sweater for Monica

Cocktail stirrers, a beer stick, two Valentine pixies (made in Japan) and a rubber duck

Netted candle holders, Tupperware containers, a TWA toiletries bag and salt and pepper shakers

It was a great Saturday where the day was filled with adventures and the air was filled with Spring but it was very brief taste of Spring. Sunday's high temperature was only 38 degrees. 

Aside from a quick drive to the store to buy some vegetables, we spent Sunday indoors, having our big weekly Sunday breakfast together before concentrating on what we needed to do around the house. Life amongst the ducks might not always be glamorous...but it is always filled with smiles.