Beat The Heat

The first weekend in September had arrived. Labor Day was in our rear view mirror...the unofficial end of summer. It wasn't autumn though. It was summer. The calendar said that it would be for a few more weeks. The weather said so too. The day after Labor Day, the temperature reached 88 degrees. This was the highest temperature we have had all year. It tied a record for the hottest September 2nd on record. It felt it. After a milder than normal summer where 90 degree temperatures just did not exist, it really felt hot. It wasn't only hot. It was humid. It was humid most of the week before getting a little more comfortable on Friday. That's what we felt...the humidity. Unofficial summer? Maybe, but it was summer. Make no mistake about it. Saturday arrived and the heat and the humidity had returned after a one day break. The forecast called for a high temperature of 86 degrees...and to expect uncomfortable levels of humidity. We were ready.

Our saling list was short. During the week, we only found three sales worth saving into a prospects list. None of them were anywhere near the others. Many of the tag sale companies seemed to be extending their Labor Day break though there were some companies active this weekend. None of them had the type of sales that we like. On Saturday morning, while doing a last minute search, Monica found one other sale that looked worthwhile and it was not too far from one of our other choices; the one we favored over the rest. The choice was made. We narrowed our list to two sales and hoped for the best. We would take Monica's car. While a smaller car, her air conditioner worked much better than the one in Rob's car.

Stop #1 was the last minute discovery. While there was nothing specific in the ad that caught our attention, pictures of the inside of the house told the story of an older house that had not changed much since it was built. We were counting on that!

There was a cool bar in the basement and a really cool basement floor. Atop the bar were a few assorted Christmas items; most of which were new. We did find two things we liked. 

Around the other side of the basement was this mounted pencil sharpener...always a good sign!

Sitting in the basement were two old metal cabinets. One was rusted pretty badly in the back but this one was in great shape. We really want one to house our towels and linens but the ones we usually see are rusted or not of the right size. This one was the right height. It was the right width. It was the right depth. At $5, it was also the right price. Sold! 

We spent about an hour here and found plenty of things we liked. Aside from the cabinet, we also found  lots of records, some cocktail swizzle sticks, a couple of cookbooks, a salad tosser, a ceramic reindeer, a Christmas Gurley candle and some cool hand puppets. 

Now that we bought the cabinet, we had to get it home. It would never fit in Monica's car. We were about thirty minutes from home so we decided to bring what we had home and to take Rob's car back to the sale to pick up our largest prize. With the temperature rising and the humidity growing, it was a good idea to get our records and the candle out of the car and into our house anyway. We made the trip home, switched cars, went back to the sale, loaded the cabinet into the car and brought it to see its new home. An hour and a half later, we were ready to move onto sale #2 in Monica's car, of course. It was still very hot. We made a brief stop for a late breakfast near our house and then, off we went. 

Stop #2 was about 35 minutes from home. There was nothing specific in any of the pictures in the ad that drew us to this house but the ad did say  "mid century" and "1960's" and that was enough to get our attention. It was already the afternoon and this sale started at 9am but we weren't all that concerned. Our last minute first sale, by all indications, seemed to have been the right start to the day. We arrived to find an old home and Monica was not waiting for Rob to snap a picture. She was already moving towards the door.

There was a great old stereo set there. The turntable and a record rack was on the right side

A radio and shelving was on the left. This did not come home with us

The main floor bathroom was pink and everything about it was great!

There was even boomerang countertop!  This did not come home with us either.

We spent about 30 minutes in this house and, while there were lots of rooms to explore, most of the stuff here was not of interest to us. We did buy some more records, a vintage pocketbook and some cake toppers, all at a very low price!

Aside from the metal cabinet, here is what we took home with us on Saturday:

Some Christmas records

Some more Christmas records with what appears to be possessed children

Some Hawaiian records

Some more records

And more records

Even more records

Introductory Special and Special Dance Offer records

A children's record from Childcraft...

...with "Taps" on it? Uplifting! 

Some cookbooks

Cocktail swizzle sticks

Some old hand puppets

A cool salad tosser from 1959

A vintage pocketbook for Monica

Some Valentine's Day cake toppers

Some old Christmas gift tags

A Gurley Christmas candle and a ceramic reindeer (marked Japan)

Although we only went to two sales on Saturday, it was a long day (but a fun one) and we relaxed Saturday night. Sunday was spent doing housework, chores, cleaning our new metal cabinet and setting up where we envisioned it would be. The humidity finally broke on Sunday and it was very comfortable. It almost felt like autumn but we don't to rush things. It's still officially summer and we have more summer still to enjoy. No matter what the season, we will always find reasons to enjoy it...together.