What's in Mazda?

It's another two-fer day here at the Eddie-torial Comments house of glee and mayhem!  That's right!  You're getting two Mazda shots!  I love spoiling you all like this.

There was a plentiful plethora of large, fruitful sales in our neighborhood yesterday, so we decided to do a house drop off before heading to the community sale across town.  I actually remembered to get a shot before taking the stuff out!  (Don't count on it ever happening again.  These early unloads often throw me for a loop when it comes to the Mazda shots.)

Here's shot one.

Ignore Keith's box of fire logs in the back and whatever that blue thing is in the front.

This is the second shot, complete with one of the day's coolest finds in plain view.  And it's not the one you think it is.

The two bags in the very front have groceries in them, so they don't count.

There are lots of stories that come with this batch folks!  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, what do you see in Mazda?

Retro Y'all!

Ask Eddie Anything: The Keith Thing

It's a two-fer day!  You get not one question answered, but TWO!   Who says this isn't the Eddie-torial Comments age of bargains and extra value?

First up, Judy asked:  "Inquiring minds want to know.....How did you and Keith meet?"

Keith and I have kind of a long and complicated relationship.  Once I finally came out to myself and the world, I set out on a journey to find my knight in shining armor and ended up stumbling ass-backwards into the love of my life, who'd been there the whole time.

In other words, it happened pretty much like everything else in my life.  That's how I roll, I guess.

We met in seminary (Baptist), where we were both studying.  Keith was going social work degree and I was studying for Christian education.  Honestly, seminary and I were not a good fit, for a lot of reasons.   One of which was the fact that I was trying to deal with some personal questions of identity in a place that wasn't very supportive of what I was realizing about myself.

Keith had been out for years, and had somehow managed to get in anyway.  Never did figure that out, but it was also very risky for him, as he could have been kicked out on a whim.

A mutual friend introduced us.  I was taking a class that required a daily, typed personal reflection, and Keith offered to let me use his computer.  This was in the late 80's, when having a computer was not commonplace.  I ended up typing most of my reflections and other papers in his room, and we got to know each other.

We became pretty fast friends, and were soon inseparable.  It wasn't always an easy friendship.  While we could talk about anything, sometimes things got to close to topics I wasn't yet willing to face up to about myself.  During those times, I would back off for on the friendship for a period of time.  I know I hurt Keith a lot during those times, but he never cut me out of his life.

Eventually, I ended up leaving the seminary, realizing that I had, for my own good, to come out of the closet.  I knew that begin the kind of person I am, that I would not have been able to live in secret, afraid of being found out, so I left.  Keith left about a year or so later.

We started getting active in the local LGBT community, and were pretty much seen everywhere, but always together.  Most people just assumed we were a couple, but we were just friends.  Friends who hold hands.  And kiss each other goodbye.  It was very hard to get a date, trust me.

A couple of years later, we moved in together, as roommates.  During this time, we were internally out of sync which each other.  There were times when he would be wanting more of a relationship, but I didn't.  And then there were the reverse times.  And, of course, we never ever talked about this.

Finally, I started talking about this with a couple of other friends, one of whom said:  "It sounds to me like you're working awfully hard not to be in love with him."  Wiser words were never spoken.

When he and I finally had "the talk" we were walking to a bus stop after some meeting or another.  In my own smooth, suave style, I blurted out:  "I've fallen in love with you."  I walked on a few more steps, babbling about something or another, before I realized that I was walking by myself.  Keith was stopped back where I made my admission, with a dumbstruck look on his face.

That, as they say, was all she wrote.  It's been me and him and a flock of cats ever since.  No looking back.  No regrets.  Thick and thin.  Better and worse.  Richer and poorer.  Sickness and health.  Keith and Eddie.   Seems right to me.

 Also tying into this is the question that Roger lobbed at me, inspiring me to do this in the first place:

"Oh, I know. we need to ask you questions, which you would have to answer. Such as, if you knew that Obergefell was going to happen so quickly, would you have waited and gotten married in Kentucky?"

Obergefell, in case you weren't aware, is the name of the Supreme Court case that settled the same-sex marriage question a few weeks ago.

Honestly, I think we would still have gone ahead and jumped the gun and gotten married in December.  For one thing, there were still too many health questions up in the air for me at that time.  For another, the wedding is part of our "two year plan" getting ready for Keith's upcoming retirement.  I think we would have still proceeded down that path when we did regardless of what we knew or didn't know.

I still want to have a local ceremony, if we can swing it.

Well, that's it for this round!  We're coming to the end of the questions.  There are only three more to go.

Weekend Finds

Lots of stuff to show this time, so buckle your seat belts.  It's gonna be a wild ride!  I'll try to keep the comments to a minimum, but you know me.

First off, from the Sidewalk Sale:

The yellow dots are the price tags from the sale.  I haven't had a chance to log all this yet, so I've left the tags on.  I got all this from one vendor, who was clearing out his stock at the sale.  His prices were great!  Even better, I picked up all this after he went to half-price.  I ain't stupid!

The wooden piggy bank has a cork in the bottom.  The smiley/frownie saucers are Hadley Pottery.  The white vase on the top row is from the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows.  Just good stuff all the way around.

There were a couple of larger items that I put right in my booth:  a vintage Last Supper pic, a woven bottom child's chair, a wooden trash can, and a vintage wooden magazine stand.

Now the Big Flea:

These are just the highlights.  I left out the DVD's, manga, modern toys, and books for brevity's sake.

I think you can kind of see the plastic shield looking things on the top step.  They were just odd enough and just cool enough to attract me.  The Holgate Toys block sorter has all the blocks with it.  The Snoopy pull toy in the middle of the second step is the only thing I got from that 5 buck F-P table in yesterday's post.  The paper masks on the end of that step are from the 60's.  The castle jewelry box is in rough shape, but it has loads of charm.  I can see someone with talent spiffing it up nicely or giving it to their kids as is to play Legos with it.  The pans came from a dealer I really like because he's so easy-going.  He finally decided to start making a dollar table on the last day.  Yay!

Bad Blogger Photo!

 I'm kind of ashamed this photo is so freaking bad.  Forgive this bad lazy blogger.  The glass pieces on the first and second row were the last minute treasures I got mentioned yesterday.  I am kind of obsessed with that lady head on the lower right.  The F-P clock came from the new dollar table dealer above.  It's filthy, but it works.  (It's in better shape than the one from the five buck table.)  The white cups are Disney, but I turned them the wrong way when I put them out.  (Ack!)  The red thing on the top step is a vintage Mickey kazoo megaphone, which rolled over before I got the pic taken.  (Double Ack!)  The Hulk bowl and cup are from the late 70's.

As for those funky feet at the top left, they belong to these two candle holders.

I got them through the time-honored game of "looking intently and expressing interest enough to catch the sellers eye, but walking away for a suitable length of time, then coming back and getting offered a lower price from the seller."  I love that game!

Of course, there were comics.  This is just a selection.

Comics for the booth.

Comics for me.  

More for me.  I might have that Hercules comic, so it will go the booth in that case.  I used to be able to remember everything that was in my collection, but that was a long time ago.

This one is pretty much regarded as one of the oddest comic covers ever.  

Let's take a closer look at that caption. 

I think I know the answer:  SHE'S LOST HER FREAKING MIND!!!!!! 

One of my fave comic finds four me were four more issues of Treasure Chest.  I have been slowly but surely building a collection of these things.  I think I may be the only person in the country collecting these.

I plan to do a post on these babies sometime in the future, after I've had a chance to get some scans of some of the really awesome covers.  Briefly, these were published for distribution in parochial schools on a weekly basis from the 50's to the 70's.  They contain religious stories, Catholic doctrine, and wholesome serialized adventure stories featuring wholesome boys and girls as protagonists, jokes, games and other stuff.  I'm most interested in the Catholic angle, of course, but the other stories are solidly written and well drawn.

Due to the serialized weekly nature of the stories, it's hard to read one from beginning to end.  I'm starting to get good chunks of stories gathered together.  These are my main comic collecting obsession right now, along with 60's romance comics, and Classics Illustrated.  If anyone ever runs across any of them, let me know.  I'll gladly pay for them.

BONUS:  Stuff from junking with my uncle yesterday.  I had intended to go to the booth yesterday, but he texted and asked if I wanted to go with him.  Since that was the first time he ever texted me, I felt like I should go.  We had fun and found some stuff.

Believe it or not, I had to be talked into getting that folk art with the cross and music notes in the upper left.  My uncle kept saying that I'd never find anything like that again.  I'm glad I finally decided he was right.  I've been needing a big glass jar to make a junk jar out of, but have been having a hard time finding one. I love the Jesus print, which is dated 1942.  The troll monk doll was a no brainer.  

Come with me!

Come with me

and we will see

what there might be

at the Big Flea!

Wheeeeeee!

First off, we need the proper equipment.

Granny Carts Are Go!

I've had that Granny Cart for almost six years now.  I bought it at a yard sale right after I got my first booth.  It's indispensable for the Big Flea.  I'm not one to be lugging loads out of the big-ass building across the big-ass parking lot to dump them in the van.  With the cart, I don't usually have to (although there have been a couple of times that became necessary).  

I love this cart because the front wheels rotate.  A lot of carts have their front wheels on a fixed axle, which makes them harder to turn when loaded.  I can wheel and spin on a dime with this baby!   The liner is about trashed, but still has a little life left in it.  I got this one cheap, so I'm not going to replace it until I find another cheap one.  If this one totally goes, I'll go back to using a trash bag like I did before.  I had a Spider-Man liner one time, but it wasn't very sturdy.  It didn't even make it through two Big Fleas.  A liner is a necessity, because it keeps stuff from falling through the gaps in the cart bottom.

By the way, that's not the only Granny Cart I own.  I actually have three.  Yes, I know what that means.  Make of it what you will.

 We've arrived at our starting point!  Even though there are antique sellers all over the whole Big Flea, they get their own special section at Labor Day and New Year's.  Many of the sellers that come for the Antiques Section only come for those shows.  

I've been doing this long enough now that I know who I'm going to hit here as I'm going in.  Many of them are in the same spot show after show.  I've also learned that if I wait until the last day, there are lots of bargains.  Several dealers have tables of great stuff cheap, usually to get rid of it.  They may start out as $5 tables on the first day, but by the last day, they're $1 tables.  My kind of tables.

One of all time favorite sellers only comes for the New Year's Antique Section.  They take out a dozen or more tables that all end up as dollar tables by the end.

I got a little worried as I was going in this section yesterday, because it was early in the day and sellers were already tearing down.  That's usually a sign that it's been a bad sow for them, and they're cutting their losses and heading out.  It turned out that there were still plenty of bargains to browse.

I always work this section three times.  Once when I get there to get the must haves and case the joint.  A second time right after that to pick up stuff that wasn't quite a must have.  And a third time before I leave to get the stuff I earmarked to get after I finished the other section, if I had money left.

On my last trip, I scooped up some prizes from one table and the dealer looked at me and said, "I guess it pays to wait until the end."  I could only grin at him.  It's all about strategy, sometimes.

There are always so many interesting things to see in this section, as well.  I learn a lot from checking things out here.

I think the expression on her face would indicate that the stockings are not particularly effective.  She certainly doesn't look as if her legs are being eased.

Uhm, I have no words for that one.

I've got no clue that this thing is, but I loved it!  Sadly, it was $150.  It probably would have been too much for the Granny Cart anyway.

There were lots of lovely (and pricey) icons all over the place.  One of my favorite things to do at the Big Flea is look at icons.

Naked Dennis the Menace doll!  I love his little molded on undies.

Sweet, sweet handmade doll furniture.  ($395 worth of it!)

Uh oh!

 I think I may be in trouble....

Now that we're done in the Antique Wing for the moment, it's time to head out and check the rest of the Big Flea.  But first we've got to do something about this cart.

Even more so than Mazda, the Granny Cart requires lots of packing and repacking to effectively use all the space.  I got some odd-shaped items this time (also some heavier items), which made careful packing both tricky and essential.

There's a little eating area outside the Antique Section, and I like to wheel the cart in there, get some fries, and unpack the whole thing.

 Then it all gets carefully repacked in the cart.

Keith has pointed out that this little exercise usually brings some stares and pointing (and sometimes laughter) from other people in the area.  Haters gonna hate, I guess.  My shopping and packing skills have been known to reduce other mortals to piques of jealousy.

With everything all squared away, we head out into the regular part of the flea market, which is always a wonderous smorgasbord of banana boxes, socks, sheets, Avon, Hallmark ornaments, fudge, music, movies, antiques, vintage, toys, junk, comic books, and anything else you can imagine.  I cruise every aisle and check everyone out, looking for last day deals the whole time.  There are also several regular stops I make in this section too, but they are not always in the same locations each time.

Picture taking is a lot harder in this part.  The aisles are narrower and the crowds are larger, so I kind of gave it up for the most part.  

 I stood by this sign for the longest time, but no one gave me any money.

Finally, all the booths have been seen, wonderful finds have been purchased, and the Granny Cart is full (and then some).

And from the back.

Anyone can fill the cart.  It takes true gusto to start tying stuff on the cart!

It's time to have the end of the Big Flea ice cream cone.

MMMMMM!

 

It's also time to look at my feet.

WHEEEEE!

I love the Big Flea.  I've grown up with the Big Flea.  Booth or not, I don't see myself ever giving up the Big Flea.  When I'm 97 and in my wheelchair, my niece and nephew (or their kids) will be pushing me through the Big Flea.

So, that's the story.  What do you see in the Granny Cart?  I'll have the finds tomorrow or Thursday.

EXTRA CREDIT:

What's in the tub of stuff from the Sidewalk Sale?

Monday Rambles

Happy Labor Day Everyone!  I hope everyone has had a safe and happy holiday weekend.  The last blast for summer, as it were.

It's the last day of the Labor Day Big Flea, so I'm heading out and looking for some bargains in the Antique Wing.  Plus comic books.  Plus whatever else I can find.

It has been ungodly hot here this past week.  Saturday was the worst.  Just awful.  It really killed the business at the sidewalk sale, unfortunately.  Even though the sidewalk outside the Peddlers Mall is covered, the shade doesn't really take effect until mid-afternoon.  It was a roasty, toasty morning.

The real problem was that no one wanted to linger outside and shop when they could go inside and shop in the air conditioned comfort.  And I did not blame them. 

Still, fun was had.

C'est moi!

I did sell a lot of stuff.  When your top price is a buck, things do move pretty quickly for you.  I wanted stuff gone and it went, making every hot sweaty minute worth it!  Towards the end of the day, I corralled a shopping cart and dumped some stuff in it with a big FREE sign on it, and even more stuff left. 

I'm going to take the leftovers, dump them in some large bags, and put a really good lot price on them and blow them out of the booth.  (Those plastic zipper things that linens and sheets come in are wonderful for this!)  A few of the larger things will get another mark down and then get shoved in a corner to fill space until they sell. 

There's about a trash bag full of stuff that's headed to Goodwill as well.

The only thing that did not move at all was that damn glass.  I'm leaving it in a box, shoving it on a bottom shelf, and letting it sit until my yard sale at home.  Diggers will hunt through it, if they want.  Everyone else can ignore it on the bottom shelf as easily as they do when it's out in the open.

The sidewalk sale was part of a special event to raise funds for one of the cashiers who is going through chemo and can't work as much as she usually does right now.  There was a bake sale, raffle, and cook out, with all the proceeds going to her.  It was pretty awesome!  A pair of customers out of the blue made a fifty dollar donation!

Sales inside were really brisk this weekend.  Saturday, I had my best day ever at the mall and came within a couple dollars of my best one day total ever.  Friday was super too.  On both days, I sold a ton of those manga volumes.  A serious ton.  I gotta get my hands on some more of those.

I was actually worrying about September, because the first three days were way off.  Now, I'm way ahead, so we'll see what's going to happen.

I have all my Halloween out, right now.

The skulls are back and they're FESTIVE!

It's not quite blog worthy at the moment, so this is the only peek you get right now.  After a bit of tweaking, I'll do a full reveal.

Oh, all right.  One more little look.  Just because you've been good.

A bowl of HALLOWEEN CUTE!

I haven't sold a lot of it as yet (or the fall decor stuff), but it's starting to pick up.  I think it's hard for people to think acorns, scarecrows and pumpkins when it's so freaking hot.

I'm still doing really well on the steroids.  I did learn last week that I really should still take treatment day and the day after to rest.  I wasn't overly tired, but I did move much more slowly than I had been doing.  I'll be keeping that in mind.

This week, I'm planning on taking a few days to totally chill.  I need to spend a couple of days at the booth to put it back together after the sale, but I'm taking the next 3-4 days after that off.  Since starting on the steroids, I've finally been able to get to some things that needed to be done, so I can take some time to do nothing and not feel so badly about it. 

Last week at the cancer center, they added something new to the free snacks.

LORNA DOONES!

I love me some Lorna Doones!

Like I said before, the doctor thinks I am looking much better, so we're both happy.  It's time for another scan, which I'll get next week.  We'll go over the results at my next clinic visit, the week after.

Due to the sidewalk sale, I didn't go to any yard sales, but I did shop a couple of the other sellers and picked a few things up.  I'll do a post on them (plus any Big Flea finds) later on.  Late last week, I found a bunch of Libbey jar style drinking glasses in various colors on clearance.

I know these are supposed to evoke images of drinking iced tea and lemonade on the back deck on summer nights, but I look at that red and green and think "Egg Nog!"  The red and blue also make me think about the Wildcats and the Cardinals, as college football gets started.  These will be in the booth this week.

This coming Saturday is the community sale for our neighborhood.  Everyone sets up on an empty lot, and there are always lots of good finds.

It's time to get the granny cart out of the shed and start my Big Flea warm ups.  If you don't stretch and properly prepare, you could hurt yourself, you know.  Junking ain't for sissies!

Let's close out this ramble with a picture of a blue-eyed ape riding a tiger!

Seriously

Well, why not?

Retro Y'all!

If you checked in early last week, you might have already seen this one.  I made a midweek change to the Moody Blues, then forgot to reschedule this one.  Oops!

I'm at the sidewalk sale at the Peddlers Mall today, so I'm in seller mode today.  Hoping to clear out some stuff that really needs to go!

And this will be my theme song for the day.  Hope it's yours too!

Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!  Don't forget your floppy hats and sunscreen!

Helping Hands

This is what I'm calling my steroid now.

Thought you'd like to know.

Seriously.  The doctor on Tuesday said I looked like a whole different person!  I'll take it.  I have never been a fan of having to take a lot of meds, but this is really helping.

I made a new friend at the cancer center during my infusion.

Her name is Lily and she's a therapy dog.  She was a true sweetheart!  She just laid her head in my lap for a long time and let me pet her.  She also got a big kick out of sniffing around in Keith's beard.  Everyone loves Keith's beard.

I think I'm pretty much past the point of emotional distress during my infusions, but spending time with her left me with a huge smile.  In all the time I've been going there, this was the first time I was there with a therapy animal.  It was way cool and I loved it.  I hope to see Lily or one of her friends again soon.

There was a parade of helping hands through the cancer center on Tuesday, in fact.  None of which I have ever seen there before.  Over the past couple of years, I've seen the chaplain come through a couple of times, but that's about it.

On Tuesday, we had Lily, followed by a wandering violinist, followed by the massage therapist (who had a cancellation, so she came to the clinic to see if anyone wanted a quick massage).  I kept hoping the arts and crafts lady would be next.  I haven't made any macaroni art in ages, and I totally rock at macaroni art!

Ask Eddie Anything: The Junk Thing

Let's see now....

Where were we?

Oh, yeah.  I remember.

Linda asked:

"Questions, how did you get started in the junk business?"

A lot of this has been covered in other posts.  I think the best way to handle this is with some quick links to those posts for background, then I'll fill in the blanks in this post.

First off, all my posts with the "junking memories" label.  A couple aren't totally relevant, but the ones called "Family Ties" and "Leitchfield Flea Market" kind of lay the groundwork for my junk history.  I've kind of let the thread drop on this series.  I need to pick that up again.  I know I've got a couple of drafts for new posts somewhere in my list.

Another one to read is this one that I wrote after moving out of Dixie earlier this year.  It tells the story of my growth there.

Finally, here is the very first post featuring my very first booth, practically from the very first day.  You can see pics of a tubby, slightly more clean-shaven, pre-cancer Eddie in this post.  I got so wrapped up in doing the booth (plus a few other things) that I didn't blog again for a whole year!

Now that the groundwork has been laid, here are some of the finishing details.  Keith and I had been doing some heavy duty yard saling for a couple of years, usually getting stuff for the house, presents (for a long time almost every birthday and Christmas gift we gave was yard saled or thrifted), or stuff for us.  From time to time, I would grab something and say that when I got my booth, this would go in it.  I had a "someday booth" kind of like Laurie's beach house.

Right after we moved into the house, we went to our very first Peddlers Mall and I was in love with the idea.  People were selling junk!  I had junk!  I could sell my junk!  But it was just a dream I never did anything with.  A little later, the friend we used to have yard sales with took a booth in a secondhand store.  We kind of had a ringside seat at learning how to do it.  When I finally bit, I had an idea of what to expect.

What finally pushed me over the edge was a combination of factors.  I had talked with the store where my friend was, but gotten turned down, as that owner only took vendors he knew and selected.  I had also placed my name on a waiting list at a Peddlers Mall.  I was told they had a six month waiting list.  I never heard back from them.

I went to the opening of the Dixie Peddlers Mall and they had open spaces, which would mean no waiting list.  Anyone could sign up.  No funky vetting procedures.  Keith was away that weekend, and I wanted to talk to him before I actually took the plunge.

At that particular time, I needed an outlet badly.  I was trapped in a job that I was coming not just to hate, but to despise.  Too many reorganizations and shuffles.  An overly bloated top tier loaded with incompetent cronies.  A toxic atmosphere where secrecy, favoritism, and backbiting were the order of the day.  I had watched both a good friend and a supervisor become targets of scapegoating and witch hunting.  The supervisor got summarily dismissed.  A few months later, it became pretty obvious that my ass was in the target zone. 

I needed something to help me keep my sanity and restore a very badly-shattered self-esteem.  I had no idea how badly wounded I was by the whole experience until the day I finally got canned along with almost ten other people, barely a month after my mother died.  I was pretty shattered.

The booth kept me sane that last year of employment by giving me distraction--something that I could do where I only had to answer to myself.  I only had to please me.  I could do things my way and learn my own lessons.  With so much else out of my control, having something where I was making the decisions meant so much to me.  Any money that I made was a bonus. 

Doing well proved to me that I was not the incompetent fool that I was being made out to be by the people who kept changing the rules at work to make it so.  Having a place to put energy, initiative and creativity that I was not allowed to exercise at work allowed me to reinvent myself.

After I lost my job, grieving my mother and full of a lot of rage, I threw myself into selling junk.  Keith says it saved me.  I tend to agree.  Junk healed me, as melodramatic as that sounds.

There are the germs for two or three Junkin' Memories posts in this one.  Look for a flurry of those to come sometime in the future.  After I finish all the Ask Eddie Anything questions, of course. 

Climb Every Mountain!

This is not Sorrow Mountain.

This is Sorrow Mountain's younger cousin.  His name is the Somewhat Rounded Hillock of Minor Despair and Slight Melancholy.  (SRHMDSM for short.)

We got this unit in order to get some stuff out of the house for a little while, so we could figure out if we still needed it or not. Unfortunately, during that time, I had to start the move out at Dixie when it closed. 

I don't have a lot in there, junk-wise.  Mainly, it's the last bits of stuff from the storage room I bought last winter, my unsold holiday merch from last year, and my religious book section, which is in the milk crates.

Non-junkwise, about half my personal books are in there. I went through the half in the house for the big spring extravaganza book sale.  Now it's time to start to work on these books for the fall version.

I spent some time there yesterday, just getting this it all organized.  I pulled most of the religious books to take to the booth and got all the books and all the holiday stuff together in their own sections.  I sorted the last bits of stuff from the buy-out, tossing a couple of boxes of crap.  Now that it's all grouped, I can just go in and pull what I want to take or need to work with and go. 

After I get my books ready for the sale, most of what I'll have left here can be transported to Sorrow Mountain, since I've been making some room over here.  At this point, I cannot imagine either of us keeping any of the household stuff that is in there, as neither of us can remember what it is!

This is one hillock that isn't long for the world.  (But it did serve its purpose and definitely helped out when needed.)

Downsizing.  Feels good.  This is another one of those tasks that I wanted to have done (or at least started) weeks ago.

And then I found an antique frame with the glass and an old ceiling light fixture in the dumpster.  I told Keith that I made a trade.

Weekend Finds (The Smalls)

First things first, as always at this time of the month, we have Your Chiquito of the Month for September.

He stretches out like this, on his back, front legs extended all the time.  I swear, if he weren't a cat, he'd have to be a rag doll.  I love that rust colored fur on his belly.

And now, the junk.  I'm sparing you all a lot of the more repetitive usual kinds of stuff that pops up a lot here.

You can't shop at a closed preschool and not buy a tub of wooden blocks. Or, at least I can't.

Lots of them have that wonderful wear that only hordes of four and five year olds can create.

There was one little block with cute blue stars on it.  I saved it for something else.

There were also two tubs of these small colorful plastic animals.  I guess they were given out as rewards or something.  You'll see some of them again, just as soon as I get something worked out in my head.  You have been warned.

That's a lot of red!

Vintage letter tray.  I love these!  Don't you?

There was another one of those cross hooks, but I forgot to bring it out for the pics.  Oh well.  Bad blogger strikes again.  Captain America guards my treasures.

Fun assortment of items.

Handmade wooden altar.  The seller told me his father in law used to make them.  I want to keep it so bad, but I've been keeping a lot of religious articles lately.

A bunch of 1980's school folders.   Everyone I knew had that mountain scene folder back in the day.  The presidents folder ends with Reagan.  There were five of the Muppets folders.  I got them all.  Muppets rule.

This was my "fortune favors the bold" moment.  The box of shutters was in a church with a sign that said "make offer."  I found the dishes, put them in the box, and went to pay.  They were looking at the dishes, and I offered them five bucks for the shutters.  They countered with five for the whole lot.  SOLD!