Ron Darling, Vintage Homes, Kitchen Tables And Christmas In April

March went out like a lamb just as we have always been told it would. We had both cold days and warmer days during the month and that is what you get in March around here. The month ended with temperatures piercing the 60 degree mark. That's a comfortable temperature when waiting on line to get into an estate sale! It was a busy weekend of saling for us but even before we got to the weekend, we had one event to attend.

On Tuesday, Ron Darling of the 1986 World Champion New York Mets was appearing at the local book store to meet his fans and to sign a copy of his new book. 

Ron spoke before his fans and then did a short Q & A session before getting to the business at hand which was to sign his book.

He was really nice and we enjoyed meeting him and getting a signed and personalized copy of each of the last two books.

The books

Personalized signatures to Rob and Monica

After the book signing, we stopped for pizza. This is the educational portion of this post. What you see in this picture is called pizza. It is only available in the lower sections of New York State (Long Island, the five boroughs of New York City and some parts of Westchester County). If you have not eaten pizza in the lower sections of New York State, you have not eaten pizza, just a cheap substitute. Sorry. The truth hurts sometimes. 

When Saturday arrived, we had several options. Two sales seemed to show the most potential. A third sale also looked promising but it was on its second day and it was separated from the other two by some distance. We chose our first sale based on the fact that, to us, it looked to be the best option and its start time was slightly earlier than our second choice. 

We arrived about thirty minutes before it started only to get #15 and #16. That really wasn't bad and, based upon the size of the house, we had a shot at getting in when the doors opened. The sale was run by a tag sale company that we like and was described as a time capsule sale. In the pictures, there was lots of Christmas a lots of old toys as well as some old furniture. There were also a lot of stamps for the philatelists in the area.

We were inside the house just five minutes into the sale and this was the first thing we spied. This was a great vintage kitchen table. Rob's grandmother had one in red when Rob was a kid but his grandmother had much better chairs. 

A great stereo inside the house

A close-up of the stereo

There was vintage Christmas here and we seemed to be the only ones interested in it.

A creepy clown head taunted everyone in the basement. Try to look past the clown and notice the great knotty pine walls.

Another look at the basement. There was a lot there and a distant picture of this basement would have been great but there were too many people in the way.

There were a lot of great things in this basement like the great wooden cabinets with great hardware, the vintage exhaust fan and the chrome tiling surrounding the fan.

That countertop had an original boomerang pattern! 

A horrible but groovy rug. Don't look directly at it! 

Some more great vintage furniture in this house. Look at the china cabinet and the chairs! 

We tried not to dawdle as we had more destinations on our list but we didn't move too quickly either, instead trying to enjoy every corner of this house. The sale turned out to have lots for us, too! We left with lots of Christmas stuff, some salt and pepper shakers, some ash trays, some books and much more!

Our second sale looked good on paper. It was described as a moving sale with vintage items from the 1960's and 1970's. There were only a few pictures to support the sale and there were old things in those pictures. As it turned out, it was a family run garage sale. 

Items like the starburst clock and the bar stools were very cool but we have lots of starburst clocks already and we have no room for the bar stools. We weren't here very long but we did find a few things for us. A vintage baseball glove and a pair of records came home with us.

It was time to stop for breakfast. This is, once again, another education break. What you see in this picture is called a breakfast sandwich. It consists of eggs, bacon and cheese on a poppy seed bagel. Bagels are only available in the lower sections of New York State (Long Island, the five boroughs of New York City and some parts of Westchester County). If you have not eaten a bagel in the lower sections of New York State, you have not eaten a bagel, just a cheap substitute. Sorry. The truth still hurts sometimes.

Our third sale of the day was simply planned as a stroll through a great vintage house. It was the second day of the sale and seemed to be run by a realtor. There was nothing in the pictures that led us to this sale other than the house. We loved the house! 

Here was the house. It was built in 1959 and we couldn't wait to walk around inside! 

Another view of the outside of the house

The garage had several boxes of vintage turquoise tiles. maybe we should have bought some.

The kitchen was perfect! Monica clearly agrees! 

Look at those great wooden cabinets and that pink countertop! If we lived here, the floor would be replaced quickly.

Starburst hardware on the cabinets

A great vintage top-loading pink dishwasher! 

Another view of that dishwasher

A closer look at the pink countertop

Another view of this great 1950's kitchen

More cabinets in that kitchen. More starburst hardware.

The dining room was great! 

This was an amazing living room. It would look even better with our furniture!

Another view of the living room from a different angle

A third view of the living room

A blue bathroom

The entrance to the pink bathroom

Another view of the bathroom

A third view of that pink bathroom

The amazing Florida Room! We have a set of furniture that would be perfect for this room.

Another view of that Florida Room

The backyard had this vintage portable hose reel. We were tempted by this but, in the end, passed on it. We didn't get a single thing at this sale and we did not expect that we would. We enjoyed it so much. We have no intention of buying this house but we did envision our things inside of it. This was a blast from the past and we loved walking into that past together.

It was a really fun saling day but Saturday was not the end of it. We had two sales on our radar for Sunday and we were not going to miss them!

Our first sale on Sunday was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies. It was described as the "contents of vintage home". The pictures showed some vintage Christmas items, a great vintage kitchen table and lots more. We got here just after the open and had to wait our turn but we did make it inside pretty quickly.

The basement was large but fairly empty with the exception of some shelving and some random boxes, many of which had Christmas things. This sakle started off nicely! 

Another great 1950's table! This one only had one chair.

Could this room be any greener? 

Much of this bathroom was unchanged from its 1950's origin.

We had a great time at this sale and got most of the vintage Christmas things that the sale had to offer. We also picked up a vintage cast iron drunk Hawaiian guy bottle opener.

We were hungry at this point and decided breakfast was our priority before we went to the second sale. Mineola Diner was our choice. They have been serving delicious breakfast since 1948! 

Just around the corner from the Mineola Diner, we saw this great vintage 1963 Chevy Impala. Monica has a soft spot for this car because Monica's dad had a 1963 Chevy though her dad's car was a four door model.

Another view of the 1963 Chevy Impala

This was the house where the second sale was staged. It was run by another favorite tag sale company. It was listed as an "all vintage estate sale". There was a set of great Christmas blow molds in the ad picture as well as some other cool things. We were ready to find out if there was anything here for us.

The basement was the first place and we looked and, much like at the first sale of the day, there was some shelving and  some boxes down there but not much else. We always like the 1970's Warner Brothers glasses and we have them already. We passed on these.

We liked this box and wished its original were around because we would have bought it.

Another great vintage 1950's kitchen table. We saw them all weekend long! This one is the same color as the one we have at home

We loved this vintage blow mold carolers (which is what we spied in the ad) but the price was a little out of our range so we passed on them. We did find a vintage cooler, some vintage Christmas things, some records and some books.

Here is what we found over the weekend:

Some records

Booklets and a book on Solitaire

Sports books

Mets books. The Gary Carter book is autographed.

A book on Lou Gehrig. This was the 1942 Armed Services Edition

A vintage baseball mitt from Sears. This was a late 1960's glove. It needs a little cleaning but it can be done. Rob's first glove was also a Sears glove. It was a Ted Williams model. 

The inside of the baseball glove. It is a "Bob Clemente" model. Roberto Clemente went by "Bob Clemente" for many years.

Some vintage Starburst spoons. They are silver spoons. Ricky Schroeder sold separately.

A ceramic indian ash tray (marked Japan), some McDonald's ash trays and some Burger King ash trays.

Ceramic fish for the bathroom walls. They are marked Japan and come with their own ceramic bubbles.

A vintage cast iron Hawaiian drunk guy bottle opener, A Bryan's Peanut Butter jar (Bryan Trottier), an old tiki mug, a vintage bowl and a pair of Thanksgiving salt and pepper shakers (marked Japan)

Some vintage metal buttons

A 1950's Poloron metal cooler. Of course it has a bottle opener built into its side!

Ceramic Valentine's Day candle holders (marked Japan)

A Holt Howard candy dish (with its box to its left), four sleeping pixies, a Santa and a felt Santa decoration. Everything except the Santa are marked Japan

A small Santa blow mold, a wind-up Santa (marked Japan), a set of Holt Howard salt and pepper shakers with a napkin holder (all marked Japan), a ceramic napkin holder (marked Japan) and a pair of reindeer

A Shiny Brite Musical Santa Face (Japan), a Christmas record, several bottle brush trees, a ceramic Christmas tray (Japan), two pairs of ceramic salt and pepper shakers (Japan) and several Gurley candles

A 1950's plastic jester ornament, a large plastic angel, two small ceramic bells (Japan), a pair of Noel Cherub Candle Holders with its box behind it (Japan) and three small ceramic Santa head mugs (Japan)

Another weekend went by and it was a fun for us. On to another week...simply a passage to our next fun weekend together.