Junking!

Some people go partying on weekends. Some blow their money on golf and fishing, or going to ball games. I junk.


I was supposed to be making salsa and freezing blackberries today. But there were yard sales everywhere, so how could I stay home when all that junk was beckoning? Salsa and berries can hold til tomorrow. Sometimes a woman needs to play.


What did we find?


A set of hand-embroidered cotton pillowcases $1.00, a beautiful blue and white soup tureen made in England (Alfred Meakin mark, Parisian granite, Washington pattern) $5.00. I've been looking online for this tureen and pattern, but the closest I can come to it is the same pattern in brown. On Replacements.com there are a few pieces in brown, ranging from about $60 to $200, but no tureen, and nothing in this pattern in blue. Interesting.

More finds: two blue calico rabbits (which shall be for an unnamed friend for Christmas) 1.00 ea. , a hand mixer 1.00(not pictured, but needed because somehow we lost a beater to the old one), two handcarved wooden spoons, , several small candles 1.00, three old books that I think will be useful for storytelling research and one book for a friend 3.00 total, a stainless steel watering can for 1.00 (with its $12.99 sticker still on the bottom), two nice clear glass serving bowls (not pictured) 1.00, and one old, very thin spoon (that the seller told us he found while digging a grave for a neighbor years ago) .25, two old carpenter's rules (a gift for another friend) 1.00, a "grapevine striker" for bricklaying which Larry said was a really good one .25, a lovely matted and framed sailboat print .35, two glass Pyrex pie plates 1.00, two child's silver mugs 2.00.

three t-shirts, a new heavy flannel shirt from St. John's Bay, a pair of dress pants and a Liz Claiborne jacket, two purses, a new tote bag, a linen storytelling shirt, a pair of Earth shoes for me and two pair of shoes for Larry (not all pictured but you get the idea). I feel like I'm writing the 12 Days of Christmas here!

And--two Rogers nickel silver spoons, a set of 4 snack plates and cups in the original box (very 40's or 50's looking) 5.00, 2 handmade afghans in perfect condition, .25 each (not pictured),

and a big green pitcher from the 1960's just like the one I bought for my mother for Christmas for 79 cents in 1962 or '63-- 50 cents...what else? I'm pretty sure I missed a few things.

Best find of the whole day: the man who sold us the spoons, silver cups, carpenter rules and the green pitcher also had a batch of old postcards and photos from the Mason County, WV/Gallia County, OH area from the early 1900's. We bargained around and ended up with the lot of them for $8.00. Then he mentioned that he also had old letters from 1916-1919 that he would give us if we were interested. You can imagine my answer to that.

The letters are mostly love letters between young people. One is from a man anticipating being shipped off to World War I and wishing he could ask his friend who had been killed in the war if it was a quick death. In another letter a friend assured the recipient that the typhoid danger was passed, and talked about the joys and trials of her new teaching job.

In the photos there are some that are disturbing: a man with some kind of terrible, bumpy rash, a baby in a coffin. Others, like the one of the child with puppies are slice-of-life photos. Few have any identification on them, and most are on postcards. My favorite of the purchased postcards has to be the one with the handwritten note on the front telling the recipient to "come get you some cabbage."

The big surprise to me is that many of the letters are to or from a Cora Livingston; that was the surname of the people who had once owned the property in Mason County from which we moved the log cabin in 2003. Could these letters belong to the same family? I would like to think so. I will post photos of the letters tomorrow, I hope, if my satellite will cooperate.

The man from whom we got them spends much time in the woods with his metal detector, and had a box of oddities he'd found--old coins, a Civil War belt buckle and many other things. He was a backwoods sort of guy who knew enough to go to the library to look up information on his finds. Still, he was happy to let us have the things we bought from him at extremely low prices. Perhaps he knew they would have a good home?

P.S. The berries are in the freezer. Better to get them done than to have them spoil. Cobbler tomorrow!