My sister Erin and I went to our Grandmom's house in Northeast Philly on Sunday to help clean out her basement and attic. She has the most organized junk I've ever seen. Everything was labeled in rubbermaid containers and boxes. I thought I was going to open this shoebox and find some Chinese stars or maybe a small dagger:
Nope, it was just this:
Whew. We're safe.
We focused on removing the junk and donating it to thrift stores. For the most part, this was not fun vintage junk. It was just stuff like old mugs and vases and gifts that her five children, 16 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren have given her throughout her 89 years. Erin and I would hold up a bowl or a vase or a mug, and ask if she wanted to keep it or donate it. Her response was usually, "One of you kids gave it to me". She didn't want to offend us, but what the hell was she going to do with 30 coffee mugs and 347 clear glass vases? Most of it went to the thrift store, but I did keep a big pasta bowl that I gave to her ten years ago.
She gave me her bowling ball & bag:
My grandparents were avid bowlers. Granddad was even on Bowling For Dollars in the 1950's - and won. My Grandmom warned me that the ball was for a left-handed female, so I probably wouldn't be able to use it. That's when I heard the story (not for the first time) about the nuns in her school who used to call her Boobie Gibbons because she was left-handed. (Gibbons was her last name - they weren't calling her a monkey.) As was typical in those days, they forced her to write with her right hand. She is ambidextrous now. It's true - my Grandmom swings both ways.
On the way to her house, Erin and I spotted a flea market near the Tacony-Palmyra bridge. We made a quick detour, and searched for a parking spot. As we drove around the block a few times, we second-guessed our decision. The neighborhood wasn't so great. We eventually found a spot and hid all of our valuables under the seats. This was the fastest flea market visit ever because I kept imagining a brick going through my car window. At one point, I heard someone say, "If one more f*cking person bumps into me, I'm going to have to throw a bitch down". I slowly and carefully turned around to make sure that Erin wasn't the bitch who was to be thrown down, since she can be very fidgety at times. Luckily, it wasn't her.
After a quick sweep of the place, I ended up spending $13. I bought five glass floral frogs, a black & white metal hamper, a big picnic basket with plasticware, and a glass doorknob set. Lesson learned: bad neighborhoods can make for super flea markets. And lesson #2: if you want to make it home alive with your great finds, don't bump into anyone ever.
At a yard sale on Saturday, I spent fifty cents on this greenish-teal transferware bowl, marked WR & Co Tyrolean. I looked up the mark, and found that the pattern is called Tyrolean and the maker is William Ridgely & Company, circa 1834-1854. It isn't cracked or chipped or anything. Amazing.
At the next sale, I saw this: (cue singing from the heavens)
I took off the heavy lid, said a little prayer and turned it upside down. There it was...the holy grail of yard-saling: a piece of Le Creuset enameled cast iron cookware for three bucks. Holy $hit!
I initially thought it was a fish poacher, but it seemed too narrow (12" x 4" x 3"). You'd have to cook a skinny fish in that thing. No fatties allowed. The homeowner told me that it was fish poacher, but he used to bake macaroni and cheese in it. When I got home, I searched for "le creuset fish poacher", but didn't find any results. Then I looked on the Le Creuset website and learned that it is a Paté Terrine. Wow - this is just great. Now I can make my kids' peanut butter and paté sandwiches look so much more professional.
Actually, this will be coming to an eBay auction near you. The retail price of a new Paté Terrine is $130. But I don't know if a "vintage" piece of Le Creuset is worth more or less than new ones. Does anyone know if there is a way to tell the age of it? Unlike the newer pieces of Le Creuset, this one is all one color, and doesn't have the label on the front.
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OTHER STUFF
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Last year, I contributed some photographs (pre-D40) to a new book by C. Dianne Zweig called "Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes". I don't know which photos were selected, so it will be a surprise for all of us! It isn't available until October, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon. Dianne also wrote "Hot Kitchen and Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, and 50s", which I love. It has all of the kitschy stuff that I am always buying at yard sales and thrift stores. A definite must-buy.
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I'd like to give a big THANK YOU to reader Janet P. from Delaware, who emailed me with a tip on a yard sale a few weeks ago. It was a sale that wasn't on my normal yard-saling route, so I wouldn't have known about it. This was all she needed to write:
"I thought of you when I went to a garage/estate sale this morning...They have a pile of chenille bedspreads- the prettiest one was $15. There weren't a lot of shoppers..."
I hauled ass to Delaware and I bought a pile of chenille bedspreads! The top one is white with flowers, and the bottom are yellow, blue and green popcorn-style spreads. The white one needed an overnight soaking in Biz, but it turned out great. Thank you, Janet!
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Anyone who has read this far into this long-ass post gets to find out some top secret information. I'm starting another blog. Yes, it's true. I'm launching it in a few weeks. Oh, but what will be the subject? An in-depth look at cock socks from around the globe? Perhaps a haunting discourse on picnic baskets and the women who love them? What is your guess? (Family members better keep their damn mouths shut.)
In celebration of my new blog, here is a list of keywords that people typed into Google, and happened to find my blog in the process (but I have a feeling that they weren't looking for vintage finds). I shared some funny keywords last December, but I've noticed some even better and more wacky ones lately:
