The First Two Weeks Of August

With July behind us and summer moving much faster than we would like, we headed into August with hope that estate saling would pick up. For over a year, the number of sales that interest us has dwindled. We don't think there are fewer estate sales. We just see fewer of our type of estate sales. We've spoken to fellow salers and they say the same thing. We hope that we see more great sales in the future but, for now, we'll have to take what we can get. 

For the first weekend in August, there was only one sale of interest to us. It was the estate sale of Irv Gordon. Who is Irv Gordon, you ask? 

Irv Gordon is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest mileage on one single vehicle. He drove his Volvo over 3.2 million miles! Now, we would be at his home.

The sale was run by a smaller tag sale company whom we have known for many years but have not seen in about two years. They don't advertise heavily so we usually don't know when they are having sales. The sale's ad described the contents as "items from 5 & 10 Store stored in the attic". Vintage toys and vintage games were listed amongst the items. That sounded good to us. We arrived before the opening of the sale but so did a lot of other people. When the sale began, they let everyone in at the same time.

The first thing we learned was that was no attic. Almost everything had been dragged outside or was stored in the garage. There were things inside the house but they were limited to the first floor. This old barbecue, in its box, caught our eyes and we almost bought it but it was not the type with a top piece and that is what would have sealed the deal for us.

We loved this Space Scientist Drafting Set and it will not be the last time you see this. It came home with us.

The garage was where most of the digging was and there really was a lot of digging. We spent an hour in the garage alone.

This great old refrigerator was in that garage, too. Just as the ad stated, there were lots of items you would expect to find in an old 5 & 10 Store and that was fun. We found a lot of things to take home which we will share a little further down.

Even if we had lots of sales targeted, it would still have been a short saling day. That afternoon we were invited to Rob's sister's house for Rob's mom's 79th birthday barbecue. As you would guess, it's an annual thing! 

Our hosts, Rob's sister, Susan, and her husband, Mark

Rob's other sister, Betsy, and Rob's nephew, Michael

The two of us

Rob, his sisters and his mom

Rob's mom...the birthday girl! 

Susan and Mark's cats (Tabasco up top and Pesto on the bottom) even enjoyed the party!

When we got home, we found we had two visitors on the fence...visiting snails.

Snail #1

Snail #2

We, too, could have moved slowly through our Sunday but we had errands and chores in store for us plus we had to take some time to look at Saturday's finds. This is what we saw:

That 1950's Space Scientist Drafting Set

Lots of vintage shower invitations

Vintage Christmas cards

Vintage Mother's Day cards

A vintage Easter care and a vintage birthday card

Matchbooks from Bali-Hai and Momi-Kai, two 1960's Long Island Polynesian restaurants that are no more

Matchbooks from King Fong and Shun Lee, two old defunct New York sit down Chinese restaurants.

Two more old matchbooks whose front covers are...

...pin-up girls!

A few more old matchbooks

A souvenir metal dustpan from the 1939 New York World's Fair

Vintage utility mats

We can put together a vintage clothesline! 

Vintage towel bars

Vintage stove mats

Vintage soap dishes and a vintage toothbrush holder

Vintage birthday cake numerals and candles

A vintage French's Mustard spoon and a vintage Carvel spoon

A vintage chef hat

The underside of the chef's hat

Some vintage pennants

Vintage jingle bells

A vintage die-cut Christmas angel

1940's /early 1950's Vacation Days paper dolls. Fully intact.

Guns Sticker Fun. Fully intact. They don't make books like this anymore.

1957 Clown Capers game

An old Chiclets bucket from the store, a 1960's/1970's plastic saber-toothed, a vintage pocketbook, an old ceramic piggy bank, an old squeak tot and an old package of Scuff Kote

The following week was an even lighter day for estate saling. We, again, only found one sale of any value and it was a stretch. It was, obviously, a family run sale and it had been going on since Tuesday. It listed antiques, vintage items and records among the items for sale. There were no pictures to support it and the only reason we chose to go on its fifth day was that it was nearby and there was nothing else out there.

It was an old house but we knew not to expect much

There were lots of rooms but not much inside for us. The wall hangings in this room were pretty cool. They were actually made using paper towel and toilet paper rolls. 

By the time we finished walking through the house, we only found the 7 inch record...

...and this new Easter Pez dispenser

We had the remainder of the weekend to ourselves and we made the most of it. We have wanted to visit this one hot dog truck and Saturday was the day to do it.

Charlie's Hot Dogs began its hot dog business in 1963 as a hot dog pushcart and expanded to a hot dog truck as his popularity grew. His red onions were the stuff of legend. After a brief hiatus after Charlie passed away, his daughter reopened the business using the original recipe and now Charlie's hot dogs are, once again, available to a new generation of hot dog fans. His red onions are now available in supermarkets, too! The hot dogs and red onions were as great as we hoped and we will be back again! 

One Sunday, it was barbecue time at Monica's sister and brother-in-law's house. Lenny, is as legendary on the grill as Charlie is with his red onions!

Although the number of sales were limited to start the month of August, they were a fun two weeks. Saling, hot dogs, barbecues and time together is a perfect way to spend our summer! 

The Week Began At Noone

The workweek began with a continuation of the oppressive heat we experienced all weekend but it all ended on Tuesday. There was a big drop in the temperature and a great drop in the humidity. It was appreciated especially since we would be outdoors on Tuesday night. 

Our township has several free concerts each summer and we look forward to combing the list when it gets published each year. The lists of shows that interest us seems to become shorter each year. In recent years, the season's lineup has become dominated by cover bands and we just don't get that excited about seeing cover bands. What did excite us is that Peter Noone would be playing again or, more specifically, as billed, Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone. He has been playing free concerts every other year and this would be our fourth time seeing him. 

Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone. If you look closely, you can see that no one is dressed in a tee shirt. It was pretty cool down by the water! 

Peter likes to engage the crowd during his shows

Peter even comes down off the stage and tells some great stories to the crowd during his performances. He is very funny.

Herman's Hermits as night fell

After the show, Peter stuck around to meet his fans and he will sign whatever you bring. He did this tow years ago and we were not prepared then. We were this time. He signed this album "Peter Noone" "Herman" "2019".

He signed this record for us, too! "Peter Noone". He is a really nice guy! 

Rob bought this shirt (because you should try to support the artist) and he signed it, too! 

Closer look at Peter's shirt signature. "Peter Noone 2019"

We don't send for much in the mail so our mail is usually boring but not this week. Rob got two things this week so the mail was exciting! On Thursday, this tee shirt arrived from England, sent by Spizz Energi. Spizz has been making music since 1977 and the band has gone through many lineups and many names. This, Athletico Spizz 80, was their third and celebrates third 1980 album, Do A Runner. 

In addition to the shirt, Spizz sent a personalized GreenSpizz information card. As with the shirt we bought from Peter Noone, we bought it directly from the artist which is our policy wherever we can. When you love an artist's music and wish to wear their shirt, show the artist the love and seek out the artist first wherever possible.

  On Friday, these four cards arrived in the mail. Rob belongs to an online vintage baseball photos group and the administrator was getting rid of a lot of autographed baseball cards at a very low price. Rob grabbed all of the New York Mets autographed cards. 

On Saturday, it was time to go saling and there weren't many sales that appealed to us but there was one standout and then a second one a few blocks away. Those were our targets and we got an early enough start to be at the first sale before its doors opened. 

The sale was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies and was described as a "packed house of accumulations back to the 1950's". That sounded pretty good to us and the pictures in the ad, though having nothing specific that we wanted, supported the ad's claim.

There was a great vintage sunroom on the side of the house that looked great from the outside. There was really nothing in there, though, and there was no access within the house to explore it. 

If we had been on the inside, we would have seen that it had a great view of an old brick barbecue and a garden which probably were focal points at many outdoor barbecues in the 1950's and 1960's. 

There were also two old garages that didn't have all that much inside. This view was through the back window of one of the garages. We had plenty of time to take these outdoor pictures because we did arrive early. That was only reason #1.

The second reason was that we were #28 and #29 on line. We weren't the only ones who thought that this sale was the only game in town. We knew a majority of the people ahead of us and they were all dealers.

Our wait was not very long as the estate sale company tried to get people inside as quickly as they could.

The living room had a monitored display case as there were some valuable and small items at the sale. 

There was a great old, unspoiled, kitchen with great wooden cabinets. No press board for us. We'll take the real wooden cabinets please! 

The basement was the best room in the house and where we found the best items for us. There was the mounted pencil sharpener! That's usually a good sign! 

The basement had a great bar so you know that this house must have had great parties all year round! 

The upstairs was not all that packed but there were some items to browse through on some tables and the bed had dozens of old posters. Rob found an early 1970's (Rob is pretty sure it is from 1973) that we brought home and will eventually frame.

We always have fun at this company's sales. They are usually our type and we always get friendly service and conversation! 

Our second sale was just a few blocks way but that made it worth a shot. There were no pictures in the ad but it did have antiques, records and vintage bedroom furnitures in the description so we were hoping to find something.

There was a pretty cool chair upstairs. Look at the great legs on this! 

Wow! This closet had lots of color inside and it was all pink. Unfortunately, this house was pretty much as empty as this room and we found nothing here for us.

After going home to relax for awhile, we, again, took Monica's sister out to dinner since Monica's brother-in-law and the kids were still in Florida for one more day. We went to Doc Lee Lau, a Chinese restaurant near us that has been around for a long time and, until a few years ago when they remodeled, was kept just as it looked when it opened. While the decor has changed, the quality of the food has not and this remains great old fashioned Chinese food. Monica's sister loved it! 

On Sunday, we had a chance to look at what we found on Sunday and this is what we saw:

An old New York Mets yearbook

Some New York Mets souvenirs: A picture of Ed Kranepool and Ron Swoboda (facsimile autographs), a picture of Ed Kranepool, Tug McGraw and Ralph Kiner, and an actual Ed Kranepool autograph.

A 1964 World's Fair first day cover and a 1964 Oldsmobile brochure

Look at the cool cars that Oldsmobile was offering in 1964! 

An old baseball poster (probably 1973)

New Wave/Punk buttons

Three old banners

A pair of Christmas items. The Santa head mug is marked Japan

It was a fun end to July and a great week spent together! We can't wait to see what August brings!