Weekend Junking

I have a three-inch-thick manuscript on my desk screaming for revisions that are due back to my editor at the end of October. My house is so full of stuff for the under-construction beach house that it looks like a furniture warehouse. There is no room in my antique booth at Seaside Sisters on Tybee Island. Did that stop me from junking this weekend? NOOOOOO. On Friday I flew solo. Went to an estate sale at a ’50s brick ranch house a few miles from my own house. The sale was my favorite kind–a true estate sale of a hoarder. Even the dealers running the sale seemed overwhelmed by the volume. They told me people had started lining up outside the house at 6a.m. I myself made it over there around 11a.m. I’ve written before about my love of old linens, and this house had some goodies. I bought exquisite monogrammed banquet-sized damask napkins with entre-doux hemstitching, a dozen of ’em, for fifty cents apiece, along with six matching luncheon napkins, same price. A sweet blue cross-stitched bridge cloth for a buck. A darling organza apron, also a buck. A straw coolie hat (halloween costume for a neighbor) a buck. Also a nifty German silver bar set, with two monogrammed tumblers, matching tray and six thimble-sized shot glasses. I was going to sell these in my booth, but when I got them home and examined the monogram, it turns out to be KA–my daughter’s initials. So she got herself an early Christmas gift. Yesterday was another neighborhood-wide yard sale in Ansley Park. Ansley is another beautiful in-town Atlanta neighborhood very near the High Museum of Art. Posse members Ellen and Susie joined Katie and me. At first it looked like dreaded yard sale fare: lots of strollers, plastic kid’s toys, low-mileage exercise equipment. We resigned ourselves to just enjoying seeing how the other half lived. And then we hit a goodie: a 1920s house with an adorable carriage house in back. The home-owner was wearing yellow rubber gloves–always an interesting wardrobe accessory. She’d been hauling stuff out of an attic or basement that hadn’t seen the light of day in thirty or forty years. I scored a huge old glass jug. I think those are called carboys. It’ll look dandy with palm fronds at the beach house. She had three beautiful hand-done candlewick bedspreads, but she wanted $50 apiece for them, so we passed. A few houses later, Susie found two folding luggage racks, one for a buck, the other for two bucks. She’s been hunting them for months now, wanting to needlepoint straps for them as Christmas gifts, but they’re usually $20-$30 when we see them. One of these already even had needlepoint straps. Score! At that same sale, I found four gorgeous old oak hoop-back windsor kitchen chairs–for $40. They need re-glueing and clamping, but Mr. Mary Kay is good at that. At first I was going to put them in the booth, but now I’ve decided to keep them for the beach house. If you’re counting, I now have probably 14 kitchen chairs for the house. Something will have to go. Later, I found a charming and unusal painted watering can. That will go to Seaside Sisters. Also a matte white USA pottery vase. Favorite find of the day: Ellen found a case of cobalt blue water goblets. They were alongside other cardboard boxes full of Ritz-Carlton logo wineglasses and Delta Crown Room wineglasses. The seller told us they’d been collected by a now-deceased friend, who liked to drink, and who liked to take the old five-finger discount. He especially liked to go to the Buckhead Ritz for drinks, and every time he dined there, he’d steal his drink glass. Same thing with the Crown Room. The friend was a skinflint, so he’d take the MARTA train out to the Atlanta Airport, (this was before 9-11 security measures) and he’d happily while away the afternoon drinking for free at the Crown Room. And before he left, he’d steal himself a wine glass. The thief’s friends had kept his stuff in storage after his death, and were selling it all off. Ellen got herself great-looking glasses, and a great story, for the price of a ten-dollar bill.

1 thought on “Weekend Junking”

  1. I feel like Linus in the Great Pumpkin. I got a rock.

    Seriously I went Friday, hit the local thrift stores and a couple of early yard sales. I got nothing. Not even a pie plate.

    Can I go junking with you and your friends???

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