Fourth Of July, Parts I & II

July arrived and our first week would be a short one. With Independence Day falling on a Thursday, it would make sense to take July 5th as a vacation day, wouldn't it? We did. We each had three very busy days at work before settling into four day holiday weekend mode. The Fourth of July would be different this year. 

It would still be a celebration of Uncle Sam. That part wasn't different. What was different is that we usually have a Fourth of July barbecue over Monica's sister's house but not this year. Monica's brother-in-law was in California and he is usually the official Fourth of July Barbecue chef. Monica's brother couldn't make it either so it was just the two of us, Monica's dad, Monica's sister and our nephew and niece. We were not going to have a barbecue but we had to eat, right? Monica's dad was in the mood for Chinese food so that is what we ordered. We know...not very American and we refused to take any pictures of the food though we ate it and enjoyed it. 

We had plenty of sparklers and the plan was to light them as soon as it got dark though Monica's dad left before dark as he had a doctor's appointment in the morning.

Dusk arrived and out came the sparklers. We didn't light them all as we wanted to save some for the second weekend in July when everyone would be there for our delayed Fourth of July Barbecue. 

Later that night, we drove down by the water where five separate fireworks shows could be seen; one of which was professional.

More fireworks

Although, we didn't have a barbecue, we had a great Fourth of July together.

Monica's sister's bird, Sweety, enjoyed it, too! 

With Friday off, we were hoping for some estate sales that would intrigue us but, alas, that was not to be. There were sales but none for us. We spent a majority of the day doing work around the house and getting some rest in as well. 

Our garden is looking good with several flowers, like this pink gladiolus with white center, in full bloom. 

Red gladioli

Dark pink gladioli

Rose of Sharon flowers

We'll see more flowers bloom as the summer goes on and, hopefully, will have lots of tomatoes, too! 

On Friday, having that craving for the burgers we missed out on the day before, we went to our favorite hamburger place...All American Hamburger Drive-in! Open since 1963, it draws crowds all year round!

Both Saturday and Sunday were rest days for the most part as, once again, there were no sales of interest. Of well! We got some things done around the house and there would always be next weekend! Next weekend is when Fourth of July, Part II, would come in.

When Saturday arrived, we put together a list of four potential sales. We wouldn't be able to go to all of them as we had a barbecue in the afternoon so we chose two that were near to each other. The first one seemed like the best of the bunch so that made the choice easy. It was described as 50 years of accumulation and the pictures showed lots of old stuff. No company was mentioned in the ad but we had a feeling that it might be an unnamed company who has had popup sales for many years and they are always good. Upon arrival, we found that we were right.

Out first search was outside because there were lots of things on the lawn...

...and lots of things in the garage.

Monica's sister had one of these Krazy Kars when she was a kid. Monica wound up breaking it when she was an adult. We did not buy Monica's sister another one. We did, however, find a few other things outside. We paid for them, brought them out to the car and then went inside for the second segment of this sale.

The basement was where we searched first and we found this great old refrigerator. As cool as it looked on the outside, it looked even better on the inside.

Look at the inside! 

We found this amoeba-shaped vintage table in the basement. We were considering it but there was some damage to the hardware for the legs so we passed on it.

There was a small vintage bar which Monica seemed to like.

The Coleco Telstar home arcade system.

This was so cool! If we only had the room for it! 

The mounted pencil sharpener in the basement! We should have known! 

A small vintage table with chairs

A vintage rocking horse

The main floor and the upstairs also had plenty of things. When we opened this small linen closet upstairs, we think we, accidentally, opened up a portal to the 1970's. 

The upstairs also had a vintage table and also a schoolhouse desk with some old Mets stickers. We found lots of good stuff at this sale and we knew that we made the right choice of sales.

We chose the second sale only because it was two blocks away from the first sale. There were no pictures of the sale and it was simply described as contents of the entire home. It was a quick stop. There was nothing here for us except two kneehugger elves that we saw in a box but they weren't for sale. They belonged to the mom and she still wanted them. Oh well!

We had enough time to stop for a late breakfast and then go home to rest a little before Fourth of July, Part II.

The annual, yet delayed, Fourth of July barbecue was on and everyone was there for this one. Dad posed with Marissa.

Rob and Grill Master Supreme, Lenny

When it got dark, the new fire pit was broken in.

Sparklers for all! 

More sparkler fun! 

A great time was had by all! 

We had Sunday to do our chores, run our errands, relax a bit and also to take a look at what we found at the Saturday sale. This is what we saw:

A Jaye P. Morgan country record

Chuck Barris approves

Some other records

Some more records

Some Slim Whitman records

A few more records

Cookbooks

Some more cookbooks

Even more cookbooks

Pillsbury cookbooks

More Pillsbury cookbooks

Even more Pillsbury cookbooks

Some other books

More cookbooks

The July, 1963 edition of Better Homes and Gardens

Inside that Better Homes and Gardens magazine is a recipe for potato salad pie which, by the way, has not been ruled out as a dish we may try making in the future. 

A Better Home and Gardens Landscape Planning book

Some paperback books

Travel guides

Travel maps

An old baseball glove

It's a Hank Bauer model. He played Major League Baseball from 1948 through 1961, mainly with the New York Yankees. 

A Hawaiian shirt

Another Hawaiian shirt

Both shirts are Pomare Tahiti shirts made in Honolulu

Space Race card game from 1969

New vintage noisemakers and a vintage Christmas pin for Monica

A vintage musical birthday tray, a vintage flour sifter and a set of small vintage ask trays. 

It was a busy weekend and a fun weekend and all we have to do to get to the next weekend is get through four work days as we both took vacation days the following Friday. We'll get there together soon!