Halloween Weekend

Halloween fell on a Friday this year. That's always nice. It starts the weekend out in a fun way. Our decorations had been up since the beginning of the month so we were in the spirit for weeks. Although we choose and buy our Halloween pumpkin a few weeks before Halloween but never carve until a few days before. It cuts down on the risk of it starting to rot before the big day! Our carving night was October 30th this year.

We never plan the design in advance. We usually agree on a design just moments before we start to carve. This year was no exception. His inside was harvested for seeds which we salted and roasted Thursday night. His outside got this goofy face.

Our Jack O'Lantern even looked happy in the dark! 

When Halloween day arrived, we had already planned to start our saling adventures for the weekend early. We targeted one sale that began at 9:30am. In the pictures in the ad, we saw a couple of great old Halloween decorations and a few older Christmas items. That was enough to catch our attention! Rob got into work at 6am and left by 8:15am. Monica had the day off. We met near Rob's job and off went.

We arrived about 25 minutes before the sale and saw that we were not the first to arrive.

It didn't look any better as we got closer. They were handing out numbers and 31 people had lower numbers than we did. We were allowed to search the garage before waiting on line to get into the house and we found four records there. Then, we had to endure the line. Despite the fact that the house was small and that there was a limit on the number of people allowed in the house at one time, we were inside after only 45 minutes. 

The house was cordoned off into sections so that only a set number of people would be allowed into each section at a time. It was a pretty smart idea as it seemed to keep people moving. Just as we were about to be allowed into the first section, we saw the coveted Halloween items being purchased by an earlier arrival.  That was okay...we also saw the price they paid. We would never have paid anywhere near what they were charging.

We probably spent the most time in the first section which seemed to be a sunroom. It was filled with books, Christmas things and general "stuff". We only found a couple of older Christmas items (which we quickly scooped up) and a few books. By the time we were done searching, we were next in line to enter the remainder of the house. Our timing was perfect!  

These old Christmas things were sitting upon the mantel as we walked into the main room of the house. They were marked at a much higher price than we would have paid. We admired them but never touched them. During our search, we did find eight old glass bird ornaments, a popcorn Santa, a few other old Christmas items, some green stamp books and a few other things but most of it did not come home with us. After the items we chose were priced, we decided not to get most of them. We did bring home the records, some old Halloween cake toppers, one plastic Santa and a few books.

On the way home from the sale (and on the way home), we saw this Spicy's Chicken which was clearly not a Spicy's Chicken years ago. Look at that architecture! We thought we would find out that it had been an old fast food restaurant or an old diner at one time. Nope. It has been a farm stand, a meat store and a doughnut shop. It still looks mighty cool! 

We stopped for breakfast across the street from the cement Sphinx which is 100 years old and has moved a few times. It has been in its current location since 1974. 

We spent the remainder of the day stopping at thrift shops (six of them) and managed to find a sweater, an overcoat and a few shirts for Rob.

It was still Halloween and that meant trick or treating with Monica's nieces and nephews that evening (and chili at Monica's sister's house afterwards)

The kids were ready and dressed. A vampire, the Mad Hatter and a witch! 

Rob didn't dress up this year but he did choose an appropriate shirt and set of gloves for the night

The kids ran up to every house! 

Oscar the Grouch answered the door at one house. They got candy anyway (and wished a rotten Halloween)

Someone made and displayed this on their lawn. It is pretty great as was the whole night. It's always fun to hang out with the kids on Halloween! 

Saturday morning came and we were set to resume our saling adventures. The list consisted of six sales though we knew we would not make all of them. It was raining pretty steadily and travel would be slow. None of the sales looked amazing and we had to decide where to start. Two sales were in one direction; four were in another. The most promising was in that group of two and we decided to go there first and hope for the best!

We were greeted by a sign as we pulled up to sale #1. We knew we were in the right place. There was nothing in the ad that told us that we had to come here. There were no pictures of anything that we really wanted but the pictures showed us an old house. That usually means that there is potential.

The basement was cluttered and full. That makes us smile. We had some work to do. Monica was focused!

We are usually no more than ten feet apart in any room as we separately search the boxes. When we find something, we usually stop and show each other. Monica was digging through a box of books, She saw something we would both like!

The garage had lots of stuff to look through too. The Busy Box and lamp were very familiar to Monica. Her brother had both of these growing up.

Here is a better picture of the lamp. It did not come home with us. The Busy Box is gone from the picture. It DID come home with us. After a thorough two hour search through all of the rooms spread out across three floors, some books, records, Halloween blow mold pumpkins, some Christmas items and a few other things also came home with us.

After a stop for breakfast, we moved on to sale #2. It had a very long driveway.

We eventually had the house in our view which was good. It was still raining. Monica was rushing to get inside! This was another sale that didn't have anything that specifically drew us here but the house just said "old" to us. 

Just like the first house, there was a cluttered basement that took some time to search...and search we did. There was a little plastic baby on a table, smiling as if to welcome us! He did not come home with us but, after an hour inside this house, we did find several Christmas records, an old pineapple ice bucket, a great Las Vegas ash tray and a few other things.

By this point, it was early afternoon and the other cluster of sales was at least thirty minutes away under normal driving conditions. In the rain, it would take an hour. We decided to call it a day. There were just two stops but we had fun in those two houses and managed to find a few things we liked.

Here is what we found this weekend:

Some books and booklets

Some science books from the 1950's and 1960's

Some records

Christmas records...one 12-inch, four 10-inch and one 7-inch.

Decks of cards, a Vegas Vic ash tray from the 1950's (marked Japan) and a couple of glass cocktail swizzle sticks

An old ceramic flowerpot, a "Busy Box" from the 1960's, some old New Year's Eve noisemakers and an old plastic Easter decoration

A pineapple ice bucket (dated 1965) and an old monkey pod (made in Hawaii)\

An old inflatable Halloween pumpkin, a vintage Halloween card, an "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" book (from 1977), "The Peanuts Book of Pumpkin Carols (from the 1970's) and several old pumpkin blow molds.

Some old Halloween cake toppers (all marked Japan) 

Two packages of Christmas stencils, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" book (from 1977) and some old cardboard bank giveaway Christmas decorations. 

A few more Christmas decorations

We spent a majority of Sunday running errands and doing the Sunday chores that we know need to be done but we did find time to go out to dinner Sunday night with Monica's sister and family. This is always a good time. 

The weekend flew by and the work week came. It is a necessary bridge to cross before getting to the next weekend. Rob found this message from Monica written in chalk on the walkway in front of our front door as he came home from work on Monday. Weekdays may not always measure up to the weekend but every day counts ...and every day brings a million new reasons to smile together.