Post Labor Day Saling

The unofficial end to summer may have come last weekend but it is still summer on the calendar and the weather should still be conducive to outdoor sales. Not that outdoor sales are our first choice. They usually aren't. We love the indoor estate sales best. Walking through old houses that still have remnants of days long gone by thrill us. We often imagine what must have been. Every old house seems to have its own individual story that we can almost hear...and we listen...we listen very carefully. Still, when there are outdoor sales, there seem to be more choices. More choices are good! 

A review, during the week, of the sales this weekend provided us with a list of seven potential stops. They were spread out enough that we knew that we not make them all. Still, choices are good and we did not establish a particular route for the day. We knew our first two stops would be sales in the town next to us. After that, we would make our decisions on the road. With a list in hand, off we went!

Our first stop was just one town away and the ad didn't really say much. All it said was "the entire house" and when Monica googled the address, the house looked older. We figured that it was worth a look. Upon arriving, we found that the guy running the sale was someone we knew from past sales. He works for a company that has been around for years but he occasionally runs sales of his own. This was one of them. The house was small and we did not find much but we did leave with one deck of playing cards and one old sewing kit. Onward to sale #2.

Our second stop was in the same town as the first one and was listed as "64 years worth of items" and "lots of vintage". That sounded pretty good to us! We arrived to find a garage sale with several tables. It wound up being a quick stop but a great stop. We found some great vintage pink elephant glasses, lots of vintage Libbey carousel glasses and a few Christmas items.

That second sale was not crowded at all but we did find this toad on the driveway as we were leaving. He looked disappointed. We think he wanted the carousel glasses. 

At this point, we had to choose a direction. We really had two choices. We could head north and see what the "60 year old time capsule" had. The pictures in the ad showed that there were plenty of old things there but nothing in the pictures excited us. Our other choice was to head thirty minutes to the west where "a lifetime collection of treasures and antiques" awaited us. This sale was run by a tag sale company whose sales we attend a lot and there were a few pictures in the ad that intrigued us. The choice was easy and we went westward knowing that it meant we would never make the northward sale at all. 

We traveled by car but not everyone did. We passed this horse and his passenger along the way. We never see horses traveling main roads around here! 

We arrived at sale #3 to find this small house with a familiar sign out front. Monica was already up the driveway while Rob was snapping this picture. She was in a rush to see what "a lifetime collection of treasures and antiques" looked like! 

The house was a little bigger than it looked like from the outside and there were three floors. There were lots of things of interest but some were priced a little higher than we would pay. Still, we did find plenty to take home including a color wheel in its box, some other Christmas things, some old Tupperware, a vintage orange juice glass and a few other things.

Sale #4 was in the same town as the third sale and was on its second day. The pictures in the ad showed some old things (though nothing that stood out) and we thought that it was worth a visit.

The sale was run by a fairly new estate sale company that we have visited in recent months. The owner said that they had a big crowd on the first day so we were searching around for anything that might be left behind. One garage and two floors later, we left with a deck of cards, a ceramic cow creamer, an Esso medallion and an old grill starter.

At this point, we decided to abandon the remaining two sales on our list, both of which were a minimum of thirty minutes away and were of questionable promise. Instead, we visited Monica's dad for a few hours and headed home for the day.

Here are the things we found:

Some records

Some booklets

Some sewing kits (the elephant is a promotional kit for a Republican running for a local office in 1966), some decks of playing cards and an old Esso medallion

An old barbecue grill starter in its package. Monica's dad used this exact same one to start their grill when Monica was a little girl. Rob's dad used to throw a match into the charcoal which was thoroughly soaked with charcoal lighted fluid from a metal can.

A vintage plastic container for hot water that sat on the tables at International House Of Pancakes' restaurants in the late 1960's/early 1970's. It was Sanka whose name was on the other side of the container. There is a slot on top to hold the Sanka packets.

A ceramic cow creamer (marked Japan), some old Tupperware containers (marked Millionaire Line from 1954 and marked as "Tupper") and a vintage orange juice glass. We have a few more of these glasses. The oranges on the glasses are smiling.

Vintage Libbey carousel glasses

Vintage pink elephant glasses

Some vintage Chick-Chick Easter egg coloring packages

An old color wheel in its box

Some Christmas items

It was a fun day of saling together and we found some great things but the houses that we visited this weekend were a little different in that there was nothing inside the hoses that were picture worthy. No old bathrooms. No old cabinets or countertops. No amazing old appliances. Most of the insides were re-done at some point in time and that makes us a little sad. 

There was no barbecuing this weekend as we had rain both Saturday and Sunday evening though we can't complain. This was the first weekend in months that we saw any rain and, of course, whether it rains or not, it is still a weekend spent together...and no amount of rain can ever spoil that time together.