Flashback - The First Half Of October, 2019 - Mill Neck, Birthdays And A Few Sales

As you may have noticed, we took a six month hiatus from our blog and we are now catching up flashback style. Our first real time post in awhile was posted the other day and we will detail our adventures this past weekend in a few days. For now, it is another flashback...The first half of October, 2019.

For the first weekend in October, we had four sales on our list; two on Saturday and two on Sunday. Our first sale on Saturday was described as "Vintage Christmas and Partial House Sale" The company running it was one we never saw before. The pictures supporting the ad were primarily of Christmas items but most looked new. We did see three older things of interest and so we set our sights on this sale first.

The sale, for the most part, was a garage sale. Many of the items were displayed on long tables along the driveway and in the garage. There were a few items in a very isolated part of the house. We showed up early and they let us come right up. It was run by the family but they sell items regularly and we assume the name they chose might be the name of their online shop. We didn't see the three items we noticed in the pictures which led us to believe that other shoppers were here even earlier. We did, however, find a few Christmas things of interest to take home and we did. 

After getting some breakfast, we went to our second sale which was run by a company we like. It was described as "Treasure trove - blast from the past" and had a few old items in the pictures but we tempered our expectations. 

There was a tiny dog in the cage in the driveway but it was a toy. 

There were some old books here and a few other things but not a lot. We did leave with some vintage greeting cards, a poster and a few other things. 

On Sunday, we had two more sales and the first one was sponsored by a tag sale company we really like but who only runs a few sales a year now. We see the owners of the company more often as patrons of other sales than we do of hosts of their own sales. It was described as "an estate sales clean out sale" and the readers of the ad were told that there would be "vintage items" and "1960's toys" and we were told to "bring a flashlight for the basement". Although we saw nothing in the few pictures in the ad, the description was enough to draw us in.

We got there early but not early enough to get better numbers than #10 and #11. Nonetheless, these numbers were good enough to get us in immediately upon its start. 

The basement was as described and a flashlight was a really good thing to have down there. 

The television was unique. Although we had no interest in the television, we did find some things of value. When we left, it was with some Christmas things, a velvet Elvis painting, some squeak toys and a few other things. 

Our last sale of the day was a privately run sale on its second day. We usually steer clar of second day sales but it was only a few blocks from the first one and the pictures in the ad showed a few old Christmas things. We did not expect to find them on this second day. 

A table outside had a cool vintage bread box which looked even cooler...

...when closed. 

We love these overhead metal shelves. We do expect to get one next day when we are ready for the,. Although neither this nor the bread box came home with us, we did find some books and a 1960's Domino football player cinnamon holder.

We had a chance later that day to see what we found over the weekend. This is what we saw:

Some sports books

Vintage greeting cards

More vintage greeting cards

Some more vintage greeting cards

Even more vintage greeting cards

Vintage squeak toys

A Valentine's Day clown (marked Japan), a 1960's Domino sugar football player cinnamon holder

A vintage poster from NASA

A velvet Elvis painting

A 7 inch record

A Spike Jones record for children

The inside of the Spike Jones record

Some Christmas 7 inch records

A vintage Christmas stocking

Some 1960's and 1970's Christmas figures

Lots of vintage Christmas stuff! 

Before the second weekend of the month arrived, we had two birthdays to celebrate. Monica's brother-in-law and Monica's brother have birthdays a day apart.

The birthday boys! 

The second weekend of October was a three day weekend for us but not a saling weekend. We took a vacation day of Friday but there were no worthwhile sales at all. We did go to a new thrift shop that opened nearby just to see what might be inside. 

It wasn't the typical church thrift shop. It was a private thrift shop. There were plenty of things inside and the shelves were packed. We didn't find too much but we did find a couple of things that were cool. 

We brought home a bunch of slides that were taken at New York Met games in 1986. Some pictures had been developed of those slides and the owner let us have those for free.

We found some old cookbooks to take home

We also found these three Christmas cards that were taken of the same family, in different years, of the kids meeting Santa.

These are the insides of those pictures. 

Saturday was the annual Mill Neck Apple Festival which Monica and her family have been going to since she was a kid. Now it has become our tradition each year and, after the festival, Monica's sister has us all over for sandwiches which double as a late lunch and an early dinner. 

The first thing we always do is see the Pickle People. They sell all kinds of pickles in containers and separately on sticks. We always pickles on sticks!

Pickles on a stick! 

Lots of mums for sale! After all, it's autumn! 

Pig Mobile! 

We always go to the cheese shop where we sample the cider and buy some cheese for the sandwiches later that day.

Group photo! 

Pumpkins! 

Beautiful Mill Neck Manor

There are a number of photos we take every year and this group shot at the pavilion is one of them.

We enjoy spending time here each year

Roman Gods

Peter posing as a statue

Marissa as a statue

The Big Rock! Peter, Marissa and Monica on the rock! 

It's a beautiful day with family and a beautiful day spent together! 

On Sunday, we went to Uncle Bobby's property to do a little more cleaning and exploring the property. The property will be sold at some point in the future. The house in this picture is where Uncle Bobby lived. He built it with his father. 

A view of the back of the house

The double garage near the main house which is used as a double shed

The main house which was built in 1930. Uncle Bobby had been renting this house every summer for more than thirty years. 

The long look up the driveway from the front house to the back of the property (three acres)

There was a very large spider web on the big tree in front of the main house...

...with a very large and very scary owner. 

We did some exploring in Uncle Bobby's basement

We have been down here many times before but the mounted pencil sharpener always reminded us that there would be more surprises in store for us. 

Lenny enjoyed searching through all the tools

There were lots of things to hold Lenny's interest

Richard found this old Esso sign

The kitchen in the main house

The view up to the attic in the main house. The entrance is through a closet

Fun in the attic

Monica had fun searching through the attic again.

Richard leaving through the only way out of the attic

This area, to the side of Uncle Bobby's house, is where we often see deer but there were none to see that day. 

We did see wild turkeys in the back of the property that day

The tree was sorry to see us go but we will be back! Everyone took a few things home. Here is what took:

Some brochures from 1969 vehicles

An Old Maid card game from the 1960's

An old deck of Las Vegas cards with Vegas Vic, the neon cowboy

Some old Marx handheld games

A vintage tobacco tin, a post office thermos with Zippy on it and a ceramic rooster scouring pad holder (marked Japan)

Uncle Bobby's war ration books

We may not have gone to any sales that second weekend in October but it was filled with adventures and time spent together. Who could ever ask for more?