Our Adventures Amongst The Ducks: 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.