Closing Out August

The last weekend in August was a three day weekend for us. We each took a vacation day on Friday. We were supposed to have this three day weekend a week earlier but Rob was too busy at work and didn't feel that he should take the day off. This week, however, we would do it. There were sales of interest to us on Friday and saling was how we would begin our day. Off we went! 

Sale #1 was local. It was in the next town and was described as a huge yard sale with items from the '50's and '60's. It was a yard sale. It wasn't huge and there wasn't much evidence of '50's and '60's. This was a bust.

The other sale on our list was a thirty minute drive which didn't begin until after we stopped for breakfast. The sale was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies and we were anxious to find out what this "jammed" estate sale had in store for us. 

Inside the living room, in a box, were these tow old pencil sharpeners. They weren't mounted to anything but we still hoped that it was a good sign.

We were happy to see a basement jammed with Christmas things but, as Monica's expression suggests, it was not our kind of Christmas things. Most were newer Christmas items though we did find a couple of things. 

The kitchen had this great, old Nutone fan mounted into its wall. We love these! We didn't take the fan home but we did bring home a few Christmas things, some records, some books and some magazines.

 We had plans for Friday evening and we started it here at the iconic All American Drive-In. It has been around since 1963 and we make sure to stop here a few times every year. It's the place for burgers, fries, hot dogs, knishes and shakes and it is always crowded! 

Our next stop was the Levittown Historical Museum. It is housed within a school building and is only available to the public for a couple of hours every Wednesday and from 7pm-9pm on Fridays. We had never been here before but it was now our time to go.

It's a little known museum which celebrates the history of Levittown, NY, with specific emphasis on the building of the Levitt homes by William Levitt in the years just after World War II. The admission is free (though we put money into the donation box for this very worthwhile museum) and the Levittown Historical Society's president took us on a tour and gave us a great history lesson. 

There were exhibits set up to show what the rooms inside a newly built Levitt house would look like. They were originally cookie cutter homes, all designed to look the same, but a second type of Levitt home came a few years later.

This would be a good representation of the standard living room though the sweater and poodle skirt did not come with the house. The furniture, however, did. They were designed to allow a family to move in immediately. 

This was a typical boy's bedroom. The pennants, Brooklyn Dodger's shirt, Santa, etc, did not come with the house but the furniture did.

 This was a typical Levitt kitchen. Yes, even washing machines came standard with the house. Levitt was able to negotiate great discounts on appliances to furnish his homes since he was buying in such bulk. They were building thousands of homes each year! 

This great bicycle was in the museum. There was a Long Island Press paperboy's bag on the front of the bicycle. Rob had a Long Island Press route when he was a kid until they went out of business. 

It was a fun tour with so many great things to see. We should have known it would be. There was a mounted pencil sharpener in the museum! 

On Saturday, we just had one sale on our list but we were hoping it would be good. This one was described as "60 plus years of accumulation" and a "picker and digger's delight". "Vintage Christmas" was amongst the items listed.

The basement was packed and there were many small rooms to dig through. Yes, it was a good sale for a picker! Yes, it was a good sale for a digger! 

There were mounted pencil sharpeners in that basement and we considered that to be a good sign! 

The kitchen had lots of boxes and shelves to search and the living room was almost as crowded! We would have liked to take more pictures but we weren't sure how comfortable the people running the sale would be with us taking a lot of pictures plus there wasn't a lot of room to manoeuvre in this house. The one disappointment here was that there were so very few Christmas things. We asked about them but were told that the owner wasn't 100% sure that she wanted to part with them and that, maybe, they could convince her by the second day of the sale (the next day). They didn't sound all that hopeful and, because we had other sales planned for Sunday, we chose plan a second trip here the next day. We did find a great vintage Christmas card list box, some records, some books, some Gurley candles and more. It was a good sale. 

After getting some breakfast, we went to go see something that Rob has wanted to see for many years...old time baseball. 

There are some teams in our area that play old-time baseball and admission is usually free. The games they play are governed by certain rules of play. On this day, the games were played by 1864 rules. 

We were told that it takes a couple of weeks for new players to get their uniform so, for today, the catcher was dressed in overalls

An action shot

Even when playing by 1864 rules, baseball players grabbed their crotch during the game.

It's a hit! 

This was the score at the end of the first game. The home team won! We couldn't stay for the second game but we had a fun time and we will definitely be back! 

We went out to dinner in town on Saturday night. We didn't go here but we laughed at the sign! It was a beautiful night for a late summer walk.

On Sunday, we were ready for more saling. We had three sales on our list and we were determined to get to all three. Our first sale was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies and, unfortunately, we encountered the dreaded line! It didn't surprise us. It was listed as a "packed house and basement" with "old toys". 

The line got short quickly enough and, when the chance arrived, people were rushing inside! 

An old pencil sharpener. It wasn't mounted but that was close enough for us! 

The upstairs offered plenty of areas to search and that made everyone smile! 

Dennis and Ron were happy to see us! 

There were lots of Christmas things but none of it was our style.

There was a downstairs bar.

This room, downstairs, had a great old refrigerator and an even better old cabinet.

The cabinet had a rounded end and shelve. Rob loves this style!

That countertop, while in need of a good cleaning, was boomerang! 

This was a good first sale for the day and we came home with some books, a souvenir Mets giveaway hat from the 1980's, two Christmas records, a ceramic baseball bank and more.

On the way to our second sale, we saw a very sad sight. The picture is a little blurry because it was taken while we were driving past this spot but you see a lot recently emptied of what was there before. 

What was there was one of our favorite restaurants, Palace Of Wong, which closed its doors, for good, almost two years ago. All of this is gone now.

The iconic chow mein sign is, sadly, just a memory now. 

Our second sale was run by a tag sale company that we like and who have had some great sales over the years. The sale was described as "vintage treasures" and the pictures supporting the ad did show that there were some old things here.

The basement had a great bar. Monica searched it thoroughly.

There were these great old couches in the basement. Look at the legs on them!

If you look closely, you can see that the corner table had the same legs. It was a fun sale and we found a few things to take home with us. A vintage poodle duster, a vintage package of sewing needles and one cocktail stirrer came home with us. 

Our final sale of the weekend was described as "entire contents". There were no pictures in the ad but antiques and collectibles were listed in the description. The ad also said "Sorry. Cat is not for sale no matter how much she loves you".

When we first pulled, we thought that this might just turn out to be a garage sale but it wasn't. There were two rooms inside with stuff for sale, too. We left with some books and a "Kentucky Derby" hat for Monica. We also met Lucky the cat who was, as advertised, very friendly and loveable! 

When we looked through the stuff we brought home from our three days of saling, this is what we saw:

Some Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 records

A few more records

7-inch records

Cookbooks

A few more cookbooks

More cookbooks

Peanuts paperbacks

More paperback books

More books

A pair of sports books and a picture book giveaway from the New York Mets in 1974. This is one of the two booklets they gave away. Rob always has both of them because he was at that game. Having a backup, according to Rob, is not a terrible idea.

Football books

Sports Illustrated magazines from 1970 and 1971

A "Kentucky Derby" hat for Monica and a matching pair of gloves.

A promotional baseball cap given away at a New York Mets game in the 1980's.

A Looney Tunes glass, a bugs bunny salt shaker (missing its mate), a ceramic poodle feather duster, a ceramic Easter decoration (marked Japan), a cocktail stirrer and Skunk, the party game.

A ceramic baseball bank (marked Japan), a Gurley Thanksgiving candle, a ceramic fish bathroom wall decoration (marked Japan), a set of sewing needles from Grand Union and a cat trophy with a starburst on it.

Some Christmas stuff

Christmas records, two Gurley Christmas candles and a vintage snow house door ringer.

Two moor Christmas records and a vintage metal Christmas list holder

It was a great three day weekend spent together and we knew it would be hard to go back to work on Monday but, after getting through the workweek, we would have another three day weekend to spend together because Labor Day was right around the corner.