I remember going with my mother to Garage Sales, Yard Sales, Rummage Sales. They were just part of life.
We were far from wealthy, barely even solvent, but we were never in real need as far as I knew. My parents did well to not make me feel we were any less than normal and I thank them for that.
Even if it was just ham and beans, for more than one meal in a row, we had food. Although I think most of my clothing came from rummage sales or my mother sewed them. She was a consummate seamstress for sure.
I recall her making me two of these dresses, and remember posing for this picture, the sun was in my eyes but my mother wanted a picture. Good thing because I managed to tear and destroy one of them the first time I wore it. I was not a girly-girl.
In the small Wisconsin town (Ellison Bay) we lived in, our closest neighbors, a quarter-mile away, only had boys and that resulted in my tomboy behavior which was very hard on nice clothes.
Fast forward to adulthood I recall again living in a relatively small town. Sparks, Nevada. Okay, now, it is not so small. But back then it was compromised mostly by a large casino, a lot of fruit trees and some truck stops. I remember the town motto. “Reno is so close to hell, you can see Sparks!” LOL.
I worked evening shifts at the casino as a cashier so my days were wide open. I loved to get up early and drive out to Garage sales and Yard sales. One memory that stuck with me was seeing the wild quail running around with their head feathers bobbing about in the morning fog.
So cool. I loved the sales so much that I would become extremely anxious and agitated until I found something really good.
Today I went to a local Garage Sale, less than a mile away. I got there 15 minutes early but I could see it was already swarmed by the locals.
This was the last weekend for this family’s estate sale. Anything that could fit into a shopping bag was $5.00. The garage was very dimly lit, but I adjusted and managed to fill two bags full of treasures.
A nice 10″ stainless fry pan filled with a load of scissors, nail clippers, tweezers, whistles, a squeaky kewpie doll, and many other cool things.
The one item that really made my day. An antique metal hat rack for $5.00.
I was super thrilled to find this item as my husband Mitch has been collecting fedoras and he can really use it. It also was complete with two real hat hooks along with 6 other original hooks. I have since found the same hat rack online but without the hat hooks so this one is even better and it really made me happy.
It is metal with an unusual copper finish that I discovered is called Jappaning which was a unique way of treating metal and makes it a very unique piece. As you can see, Mitch couldn’t wait to hang it up and add a hat.
These two lovely nicely framed pictures measuring 25 x 13 each have already been mounted on the showroom wall. Yes, I am a sucker for almost anything with a bird on it.
Amongst the other items were a number of household products I usually don’t seek out at Garage sales but when filling a paper bag, stuffing it with more useful things causes them to truly come into play. Just a handful of the items more than made my investment today a worthy one.
A box of Brita water filters, we use them daily currently. The new inbox bottle of Wright’s Metal polish was already on my shopping list and I am looking forward to cleaning the copper bottoms of my many Revere Ware pans that I picked up over the past few years.
You can see them at this blog post about nonstick cookware alternatives for birds.
A new can of WD40, a brick of Post-its, a pile of scratch pads, 2 boxes of Bic type pens, assorted plastic bags in sizes we already use.
A fun weighted stuffed fabric cat doorstop, a couple more wood birdhouse pictures and a small birdhouse with plastic plants that have also been placed around the store for decor. A couple vintage ashtrays and bowls. Overall my $20 purchase was da bomb.
However, this really has only gotten me all warmed up and ready for the big fall rummage sale next week at a local high school.
Happy Rummaging
Catherine
