More Beach junking

When last we left our intrepid author/junker, she was lounging around Tybee Island for a couple days.So. Monday morning I went wandering around Tybee, and what did I spot? A table–in the ditch! Yes, friends, people really do throw out perfectly good furniture. Because the back of my car was already full of junk, I went back to my friends, the Garners, and told them of my find. Ron Garner is a dream man. He loves to junk, does household chores, and is a fabulous dancer. And yes–believe it or not, he’s straight! He and his wife, Leuveda, even met at one of the shagging conventions at Myrtle Beach years ago. A couple years ago when I was staying at Garner Cottage, I was out for a bike ride when I spotted a huge dumpster in front of a cottage that had been moved to a vacant lot down the road from the Garners. Peeking out of the top of the dumpster was the corner of something metal and jadeite green. I pedalled back to Garners just as fast as my chubby little legs would go and alerted Ron and Leuveda. We all went back to stare at the dumpster. It was very tall. But so is Ron. And Ron loves a challenge. So he performed an amazing feat of dumpster diving–actually climbing up and crawling inside this giant trashbin. Once inside, he told us that the find was an old two-door locker cabinet–about six feet tall. He promptly fashioned a chute from a couple of discarded boards, and slid the locker down the chute to where we were waiting. Today, the cabinet sits on the “veranda” level of their cottage. It has watering cans on top, and gardening tools inside. Quel cute! Monday’s find was a little pine table, painted lime green. It has snazzy turned legs. Leuveda has plans for that table. I spent the rest of the day–which was sunny and glorious, painting the little Eastlake dresser I’d picked up at the yard sale. It is now a sweet jadeite green too. I supposedly sold it to my friend Diane, who owns Mermaid Cottages. But it turned out so cute…I’m having second thoughts…Later that day, somebody told me that when you find good stuff on the curb/ditch, that’s called “shopping at the Tybee Mall.” In the meantime, I’m having a little family reunion down in my hometown of St. Pete, with my sister Patti, who is an actress/playwright/director in England. We’ve had a couple of great junking trips on Central Avenue already, and have plans to hit some estate sales this morning too. On Thursday, I scored a pair of large yellow McCoy flowerpots, a pink and teal chenille bedspread, a great little watercolor painting of Bermuda, and a large paint-by-number hibiscus picture. Yesterday I got a rusty red metal toolbox–for fifty cents! Of course, St. Pete is where I honed my junking skills with my mom. One time she and I went to an estate sale down the beach from her real estate office–and she ended up buying the house and everything in it. I’ve actually also managed to fit in some writing this week. THE FIXER UPPER is now officially at the 105 page mark! Yay me!