How the East Was Fun

It was a gorgeous day when I turned on today's Casey Kasem American Top 40 re-run. The sun was shining, and while it was dry, it wasn't anything resembling as hot as it has been. In fact, I was downright cold waking up this morning! I was so cold, I pulled on the hooded sweatshirt Mom bought me in Cape May last month. Today is the first time it's been cool enough to wear it.

I wanted to get an early start on the usual Saturday Farm Market/Yard Sale Run. I had a lot of luck today. There were yard sales EVERYWHERE. My first stop was Landis Avenue, near the Oaklyn School. It was a small yard sale, but I did find an almost new copy of the Peanuts book of wisdom, Home Is On Top Of a Dog House. (Guess which Peanuts character that one focuses on? ;) )

Went down the street for my next stop. The Oaklyn Library was having a big Flea Market and fall flowers sale on the street leading up to the library building. I made a great find there digging through a container of random toys. I saw something red and yellow and shiny...and pulled out a Maiden Curly Crown doll. I couldn't believe it! She's part of the Lady Lovely Locks line of girls' toys from the late 80s, and she was one of my favorites. I had her for years. She was missing her shoes and the "Pixietails" clips. There were odd white spots on her legs. She still had her yellow dress, but the two clip-holders were tarnished and had lost their glittery fabric. Her flame-colored curls were a tangled mess. I bought her right away.


Here's a picture of her in her 80s prime.

I checked out a few yard sales across the street from the Library. Those yielded nothing of interest, so I moved on. I saw several yellow signs for yard sales on East Clinton Avenue. That ended up being my next stop.

I had wondered why there were no actual addresses listed for the East Clinton yard sale...and I realized why when I saw that there wasn't one or two yard sales on the street, but dozens! I made some great finds, too. I dug through a pile of 80s and 90s stuffed animals at one house and came up with a Pound Purry. The Pound Purries were the cat versions of the wildly popular Pound Puppies from the mid-80s. I found one at the thrift shop a few years ago, but this one was a bit different. He was a big orange tomcat with tan stripes. I bought him and named him Kit-Cat, and he rode with me for the rest of the morning.

Kit-Cat wasn't my only find on East Clinton. I also picked up five great albums for 50 cents in, all in fantastic shape. I bought the Carpenters' A Song For You, Neil Diamond's Hearthlight, Don McLean's American Pie, and two classic soundtracks from very different decades, The Graduate and Xanadu.

I took a quick look at two more yard sales on the end of the block, then finally made my way to the farm market. I had to eventually. I needed a ton today! Peaches were gone, but I was able to pick up zucchini, little apples, grapes, plums, green peppers, carrots, spinach, an ear of corn, an onion, and a tomato.

Took in a few more yard sales in Oaklyn riding home. I'm so mad about the one on Washington Avenue. I JUST missed a bag of American Girls clothes. A mother was walking off with it just as I arrived! There was nothing at the one on Walnut Street or the couple that were on Kendall. I rode over to Audubon Park to see if there were any yard sales there. Only one, and nothing of interest. After I left there, I went home for lunch.

Lunch was very quick - a spinach and tomato salad, peanuts, an apple and cinnamon muffin. When that was done and everything was put away, I went out again on the bike. I went back to the Oaklyn Library for this week's volunteer session there. Ended up buying two more items from the Flea Market. They had more of those Beanie-type holiday toys Eckards sold in the late 90s. I picked up the star and the Christmas tree to go with my candy cane.

My session as the Oaklyn Library was really quick. Everyone was busy shutting down the Flea Market, and they were supposed to close at 2. It was quarter after 1 by the time I finally got in. I had just enough time to organize the kids', teens', and adults' DVDs.

I thought of looking for more yard sales, but it was almost 2 by then. I opted to stop at WaWa for an Icee instead, then ride home again. When I got in, I decided it was cool enough to do something I haven't done since the spring - bake bread. I tried a Garden Vegetable Bread recipe from a supermarket baking cookbook I bought years ago. While it rose, I finished editing this month's Monkees role-play. (Look for that later tonight, BTW.)

When it had rose enough, I punched it, put it in my glass loaf pan, and let it rise again. This time, I went for a short walk. I wanted to greet Dad, who got in from his work trip earlier this week, and see if he could recommend another internet provider besides Verizon. Yes, he was glad to be home. No, he couldn't recommend another internet provider. He uses Verizon FIOS. I have no need for that. High-Speed internet is plenty fast enough for me.

I just hiked down Dad's street and back up to my place. When I came in, I put the loaf of bread in the oven. When that was in, I swept the porch. Boy, did it need it. Leaves are already starting to fall in piles. There won't be anything left by Halloween this year!

I put on How the West Was Won as I pulled the fragrant loaf of bread out of the oven. I enjoyed it...to a degree. This literally huge western is a gigantic epic tale of the American West, from the first settlers on the Erie Canal to the outlaws and gunslingers most people think of when they think of the west. This movie was one of the first major studio releases to utilize Cinerama, a process that used three curved screens that went around the audience.

The filming process isn't the only thing that's epic about this movie. There's about as many stars as could be stuffed into a western from the early 60s. I counted Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, Carroll Baker, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, John Wayne, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan, Lee Van Cleef, and as the narrator, Spencer Tracy. For all the gorgeous scenery, huge action set pieces (like the buffalo stampede and ride down the river rapids), and stars and more stars, the whole thing feels...flat. And not just because TV really can't replicate Cinerama yet. I feel like I'm watching a 50s social studies textbook sometimes. While the Indians are treated surprisingly well for this sort of thing, everyone is white. There's no blacks, Asians, or anyone else who might have really helped make the West. There aren't even any people who don't speak English.

It's not a bad movie, though. Not for fans of traditional bad guy and good guy westerns, but if you like star-studded extravaganzas and American West tales that take themselves a bit more seriously than usual (and don't mind the awkward split widescreen format), it's great to watch a fantastic cast do what they do in the wide open plains.