Labor Day Weekend 2017

Labor Day weekend is supposed to be the unofficial end of summer. We think summer can be viewed as three overlapping periods of time. One way is the calendar summer (June 21st through September, 22nd). A second way is using Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend as bookends. A third is the school year summer which was our primary reference as kids. Where we live, this meant midway through the third week in May through Labor Day weekend. By two of these three measures, summer ended yesterday.
Rob likes to look at it a fourth way. He tends to think of three consecutive calendar months as belonging to each season. Most of December, technically, belongs to autumn but December, at least in our neck of the woods, is more like winter. Most of March belongs to winter but the signs of springtime start showing up. For Rob, December through February are the winter months, March through May belong to springtime. June through August is the summer. September through November is autumn. By this measure, summer is also over. That's okay. We embrace the best of what each season has to offer and why shouldn't we? We are are powerless to change the passing of the seasons.

Labor Day weekend was, by choice, a quiet one for us. We have been going 100 miles per hour most weeks and weekends and this would be a weekend of rest. That, of course, didn't mean that we didn't have saling on our mind. There were no sales for us on Sunday or Monday but there were two on Saturday and that's how we would begin our weekend.

  Our first sale was located about thirty minutes away. We liked the sound of "a 60 year accumulation" although there were no pictures to support its claim. We were sure that it would be a sale run by the family and not a tag sale. When we arrived and saw so many things out on the lawn, we hoped there would be things inside, too. Just look at this great 1950's house! We needed to go inside! 

This was the basement and there could never be enough good things to say about a basement like this! Look at the couch bench built into the wall on the left...and that wall lamp on the wall just above it! Look at that great floor and the 1950's wood paneling! Look at the old television set and that great rounded bookcase on the right. This was the entertainment room sixty years ago as the daughter confirmed. None of this stuff will remain when the basement is remodeled in the next few months as the daughter moves back home to take care of her elderly parents. It may be recycled, though, as she is a big believer is not throwing useful things away! The daughter took our phone number and wants to give us the wall lamps (yes, there is a second one not pictured) and the rounded bookcase for free! In a few months, when the basement is remodeled, she will call us to pick these things up! 

The basement also had this little bar section and why shouldn't it? It was where all of the entertaining was done sixty years ago!

Most of what we found here was outside though we did find a few small vintage cocktail glasses in the kitchen. When we left, it was with several books, those cocktail glasses, some cocktail stirrers and two vintage ashtrays. 

The second sale on our list was in our town. it was listed as a multi-family garage sale with antiques and vintage items. There were no pictures in the ad but why not stop by since it was close to home. It wound up being a drive by. We could tell that everything in that driveway was not what we would call vintage.

As we drove home, we saw this sign on a telephone phone advertising the sale. We have to give them credit for one of the most clever yard sale signs we have ever seen! 

The saling portion of our weekend was done by midday Saturday but we did like what we found. He is what we unloaded from the car:

These cookbooks. They are a set. The box which houses the two books is on the right.

Home entertaining books

Nature books

Two nature books and a book on Long Island (all from the 1960's)

Cocktail stirrers from Golden Nugget and Stardust casinos

TV Guide "pix"

Vintage cocktail glasses

A "drunk on a pole" cast iron ashtray/bottle opener from 1953

A Gadzik cast iron sportsman ashtray/bottle opener from 1953.

We spent Saturday afternoon and into the evening at Monica's sisters house for a great Labor Day weekend barbecue and then spent much of Sunday and Monday relaxing, pausing only to take care of the necessary chores (laundry, some housework and some food shopping). We needed the break and enjoyed the slower pace if only for a couple of days as autumn arrives.