A Busy Fourth Weekend In March

As slow as the previous weekend was, this weekend was busy and that was just what we wanted! It was the first weekend of Spring and the temperature wasn't especially warm nor was it cold. It was right around the 50 degree mark which is what we expect on Long Island right now. We would have plenty of sunshine and that made it feel like warmer days were right around the corner. We had several sales on our list but only one was a standout. It was a sale we had thought about for weeks simply because it had been postponed three weeks in a row. On Saturday, it was on and that sale would be our first target.

The sale began at 9am and, although we got there before 8am, we were #41 and #42 on line. We had time to kill after securing our places in line so we went for breakfast and then returned about fifteen minutes before the doors opened.

Clearly, it was a popular sale and the #1 thing that Rob wanted, vintage baseball pennants from the 1950's, would not be there when we got inside but there was a lot more of interest to us. The sale was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies and described as a "packed, mid-century home" and we saw pictures of Christmas things, old toys and more. Not all of the forty people ahead of us waited around and we were inside within thirty minutes of the opening but not before we already found some things for us. While waiting to get inside, Monica took a walk back by the garage and found a box by the garage, earmarked for the trash, with lots of vintage greeting cards which came home with us at no charge. 

The basement seemed to be the place to go first and those running the tag sale told us that we should go there first as that was where the good Christmas stuff was. 

They were, of course, right. There was lots of Christmas stuff to look through! 

The basement had so many things including vintage games and vintage children's books. 

They won many awards! 

Every nook and cranny seemed to have things hidden. 

The former owners had a great basement, a great schoolroom floor and a very unhealthy infatuation with Tom Selleck! 

We liked the storage bench a lot. 

As much as we were enjoying the basement, we still felt a little uneasy in what seemed to be The Shrine of Tom Selleck!

The basement had a great bar and lots more Christmas stuff to search. We probably spent an hour in the basement and even made a second trip to the basement (when Tom Selleck wasn't looking) to make sure we didn't miss anything we wanted. 

The kitchen had some great old cabinets with boomerang drawer pulls!

Above the cabinets were these decorative plates which Monica found fascinating because her grandparents were named George and Helen.

On the main floor, there were vintage trains for the train enthusiast

While the crowd and staffed crowded the living room, we went upstairs to look around 

Monica posing with the staff

There were lots of old toys, especially old metal cars

More than half of the good stuff that was on this table had disappeared before we even had a chance to see it.

It was good to see some friendly faces (two members from the host company and, in the middle, one of the owners of another estate sale company we like. He was just shopping today. It was a really fun sale and we spent almost two hours inside. By the time e left, it was with lots of Christmas things, some books, some vintage towels and much more!

By now, it was already past noon and we wanted to visit Monica's dad before heading home for the day. We decided to select just one more sale. None of them looked especially promising so we chose the best of the rest and here it was. Why did it win out over the rest? It was the closest to Monica's dad's house and it seemed a couple of Christmas items in the ad for this sale though the pictured items weren't close enough to see if they were old or not. 

It was a fairly quick stop. The rooms in the house were huge but there were not a lot of them. Most were fairly empty unless you were looking for furniture. There was a bar in the corner but it was not our style. We did find one old Christmas item and one record so the stop was not a waste of time.

After visiting with Monica's dad for awhile and then going home where we would spend the rest of the night at home but we had plans for Sunday.

On Sunday, after a slow and relaxing start to the day, we had plans. At Stew Leonard's, several members of the 1969 miracle New York Mets were going to be there for free. Of course, we would be there! 

We were here one hour early. We were not the only ones

There were free hot dogs for all who wanted one (like Monica) or three (like Rob)

The Stew Leonard's cow turned his back in disgust at all of the beef eaters in the crowd!

Before the festivities began, there were seven New York Mets. Bud Harrelson (on the far right) stopped by but he did not stay for the autograph signings. He is, sadly, battling Alzheimer's disease.

Ed Kranepool, Ron Swoboda, Jim McAndrew and Duffy Dyer (Art Shamsky and Cleon Jones are hidden from view.

Ed Kranepool, Ron Swoboda, Art Shamsky, Cleon Jones and Duffy Dyer (Jim McAndrew is hidden from view)

Cleon Jones and Duffy Dyer

A friend of ours was there but he did not stay for the signings as his knee is healing from a recent operation and the wait was not good for him. Before leaving, he handed Rob a baseball and said he should try to get a signature for himself. Rob offered to try and get signatures for him but he wanted Rob to keep anything he got. Stew Leonard's was not allowing outside items to be signed but Rob held it ion his hand as he met the players to see what would happen. Ron Swoboda reached out his hand and said he would sign it and he did! 

All six players (aside from Bud Harrelson) signed for us. Rob got to shake all of their hands and exchange some small talk with each of them. He enjoyed that! We each got one of these sheets fully autographed. We will give one to our friend who gave Rob the baseball.

It was a fun weekend and we had little time to rest but we did put as little time aside to look at what we found on Saturday. This is what we saw:

Vintage greeting cards from 1947. These are the ones that Monica found for free even before we could get inside the first house.

More of those free greeting cards from 1947

A record from Ella Fitzgerald and Luis Armstrong

Some old cookbooks

Some more old cookbooks

Two books about space (1954 and 1958)

More books (1954, 1954 and 1950 respectively)

 A DVD set capturing 1001 classic commercials. The commercials are from the 1950's, 1960's and early 1970's. We will enjoy this a lot!

Vintage kitchen towels. They are slightly yellowed but the picture makes them look really yellow. We will be able to clean these up very nicely.

A vintage toaster cover and another vintage kitchen towel

The two sides of a vintage oven mitt from Sinclair

Some bar items

A major award (second in prestige only to the leg lamp) and a Q*Bert wind-up walker

A box of vintage Shiny Brite ornaments. One ornament went crashing to a premature demise before a picture could be taken.

More vintage Christmas. A vintage Sparkl Lite box (only two lights inside), some bank giveaways, a package of stencils and more.

More vintage Christmas! A pair of stockings, a foil Santa, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year banner, a holiday card holder (marked Japan), a plastic bell with hanging elf (marked Japan), two different Santa sleighs, two illuminated Santa faces, a blow up Santa and Magic Snowman (marked Japan and still with his original box)

More vintage Christmas! Two plastic snowman candy containers, two packages of Double-Glo Mica Snow, two Gurley candles, a ceramic Santa (marked Japan), a package of Shiny Brite ornaments (pictured in an earlier photo), a Rosbro Santa and sleigh and a package of six honeycomb snowmen.

It was a very busy weekend but a great one! We'll go into the week a little tired but we'll make it. We always do...and we always have each other's arms into which we can fall.