Rocky start, but smooth ending

Friday was off to a rocky start. Had me singing:

Rocky Start
You’ll always be
So annoying
To me……..

Ricky started his vacation on that day. Of course, he’s the only one vacating. I’m still at work. But on a rare whim, he decided he’d go with me to the sales in Birmingham. One said something about some trains. We were already running late – I’ve never been able to get him to understand that you absolutely have to get there early. But off we went. We got about 5 miles down the road and he realized he didn’t have his medicine with him. He needs to take it with meals or it makes him sick. Back to the house we go. Knowing how I’d be flitting around quickly then and knowing how slow he drives when it’s not somewhere he feels the need to be, I told him to stay home — which he was more than happy to do.

First sale. I’d written down the wrong sale I wanted to go to first. I was confused. This one turned out to be a shop that said “estate sale”. Well, doggone-it. I’m sorry, but once a dealer has pawed through it and done away with the junk drawers, icky bathroom stuff, picked out the things of value, thrown away the stuff I like, well, it’s just not an estate sale any more. Estate items, but not an estate sale. I politely walked around and headed to the next sale. The one I’d intended to hit first. The one that sounded so good.

Toys, toys and more toys. Older toys, but none I recognized as good sellers. I bought a bag of wine corks and something else already forgotten.

Next sale. Very small sale. 15 miles from where I was and it had already been in progress over 2 hours. I got these:

I collect the little bar things. Actually I just like the little people. Don’t really care about the rest. I thought the chicken was cute and I also got a cheap, dollar store “egg” Easter bunny. It was really looking like Saturday was going to be a total waste of time. Then the phone rang.

Someone told this fellow that I might be interested in his momma’s stuff. Be still my heart! Here’s the story. A sad one, but good for me.

He was laid off and between that and finding another job, he lost his house. Or his mother’s house. I think he might have been living in Mom’s house. Or maybe he was just responsible for paying for Mom’s house. I never understood the situation exactly, except that Mom had gone on to her mansion in the sky. A local real estate got the house to sell – however that works – and he told the agent that he needed to sell his mother’s furniture. Lots of antiques. Another agent, a friend of mine, overheard all this and gave him my number. Yay, friend! The sad part is I had very, very little money. No way could I buy any furniture, but he said all the nick-nacks had to go, too.

When can I come?This afternoon? I’ll be there.

Now, I honestly wasn’t expecting anything. I was expecting to see the typical newish junk and just grabbed a few boxes and a roll of tape I happened to see as I was walking out the door, thinking I’d probably jinx things by having even those few things. I couldn’t have been more surprised! We made an easy deal. He knew he wasn’t in a position to dicker and I told him I wasn’t in a position to offer a fair price, that I’d do all I could afford to do. He figured anything was better than nothing, so I got all the nick nack-y stuff. Lamps, pictures and glassware galore. Not my typical fun, funky things, but stuff that will bring a little money. Here’s a teaser:

I cleaned crap for two days! Still cleaning the odd piece here and there, but am now beginning the photo session and listing. This stuff will be on the web site, in the eBay store and on auction. If I could raise the money this week, I’d go back and buy the furniture, too. And there are a couple of things I didn’t grab that are haunting me. We were in such a hurry. If you watch American Pickers, the episode where they feel they wore out there welcome by staying in the barn too long? That’s how we felt. Oh, did I say Ricky was with me? Another reason I was rushing. He’s been sick with allergies or a cold and I could sense him fading on me. Running out of steam.

So, I’d better get to work. I’ll try by tomorrow to have a gallery of all the stuff.

• 3 fabulous junking friends have chatted.