Saturday, September 21, 2013

An Excellent Yard Sale Adventure

I slept until 8:30 and only got to hear the last half-hour or so of this week's American Top 40 re-run. September 1984 was a very busy time for me and my family, as I began kindergarten and my parents prepared for the arrival of a third child. Songs on the radio helped get me through that change-filled early fall included "What's Love Got to Do With It" by Tina Turner, "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince and the Revolution, and "She-Bop" by Cyndi Lauper. That week's number one song was the ballad "Missing You" by John Waite.

I finally got out the door around 9:30. I didn't get back in the door until after 3:30. There was just so much going on today, starting with East Clinton Avenue's bi-annual street-wide yard sale. I did pick up two things there today, but there really weren't all that many sales out. I may go back there tomorrow and see if anyone else is going to have tables.

Hit the Farm Market after one more short yard sale stop in Collingswood. It was about 10:30, much later than I usually get there, and the place was absolutely packed. The weather probably helped. It was once again sunny and beautiful, but warmer and slightly more humid than it has been, probably in the lower 80s. I ducked around people long enough to buy peaches, Chinese beans, a tomato, a cucumber, mushrooms, two little eggplants that looked more like mini striped tomatoes, and a beautiful, sunset-orange decorative gourd. Grabbed a recipe for mushroom-pasta soup at the mushroom booth that looked tasty, too.

Hit up two more sales in the neighborhood between Haddon Avenue and Cooper River Park that I explored last week. My getting lost last Saturday was not in vain. I now knew the street names and got to both sales and one on East Cuthbert without incident.

By that point, it was past noon. I was hot and sweaty and feeling burned. I managed to dodge the heavy traffic on Cuthbert and get over to Primo's. A medium pumpkin water ice went a long way to cooling me down. So did a heavy wind that started blowing across Haddon Avenue.

I followed the traffic down Haddon Avenue, and then over to Westmont Avenue. I was surprised at all the traffic down there. I realized what the mess was about when I arrived at the Haddonfield Bus Terminal (briefly stopping for lemonade at a yard sale a block away). There was a gigantic flea market at the parking lot behind One Centennial Plaza, a huge office building. Since the parking lot is just as big, there were probably over a hundred tables there. Most of their wares were collectibles or antiques that were beyond my budget, though. I finally moved on.

I had far more luck at another event just a block away. The reason for all the traffic on Westmont Avenue was part of the road where the Haddon Township Library was had been blocked off for their Book Sale. Unlike the Oaklyn Library's two tables and cart of books, this was so big, there were two tents filled with book-laden tables, three tables and a cart of other media like DVDs, videos, and CDs, and four boxes of records. I bought a bottle of water from the bake sale, a coffee-table book, two videos, and three DVDs.

I was just about out of money at this point. I did have enough for one last multi-family yard sale on the other side of Cuthbert, where ended up with two records. Needless to say, by 3PM I was pooped and broke and sunburned. I hadn't even had lunch yet! I made one more stop at WaWa for a small turkey hoagie and to hit the ATM machine before I finally made it back to the apartment.

My total haul for today was:

Four books: Two coffee table books on Broadway musicals and teddy bears, and two young adult novels, the Dear America story Dreams In the Golden Country and Clarice Bean, Don't Look Now, by Charlie and Lola creator Lauren Child.

Three DVDs: Little Einsteins Legend of the Golden Pyramid (which for some reason was in the case for Mission Celebration!), The Backyardigans Movers and Shakers, and the Christmas special Merry Madagascar

Five CDs, all classic rock related: AM Gold 1966, Rock and Roll Hits '67, the two-disc Time Life set Classic Soft Rock: Into the Night, and Have a Nice Day Vol. 9 and 16

Three Videos: The Doris Day musical By the Light of the Silvery Moon (still in it's original plastic!), the John Wayne/Lauren Bacall action flick Blood Alley, and the serial Zorro's Fighting Legion

And two records: The original Broadway cast for Carnival, featuring Anna Maria Albergetti and Jerry Orbach, and the 50s studio cast album for The Desert Song, featuring Nelson Eddy and Doretta Morrow

It goes without saying that I didn't do much else today. When I did get in, I put on Little Einsteins and relaxed and ate my hoagie before I even put everything away. My favorite art and music connoisseurs headed on three exotic adventures to Egypt, China, and San Francisco. My favorite was the last one. Art of the 1980s and Edvarg Grieg's music highlighted the tale of Annie's purple toy airplane trying to rescue a green helicopter stuck in a redwood tree. I loved how the kids used the busy yellow and black painting as downtown traffic and had to dodge the traffic "blocks!"

I practically required a very long bath after my own adventure today. I put on Rogers and Hart songs and slid into a relaxing hour in a hot tub, paging through the Broadway Musicals book. There were fat clouds on the horizon even as I was going home. As I slid into the tub, the world grew darker, and the wind picked up considerably. It was raining a little after I got out, but not heavily.

I switched to The Backyardigans while making that mushroom-pasta soup recipe from the farm market to go with my leftover turkey meatloaf for dinner. Three of my favorite episodes are on the Movers and Shakers set. "Cops and Robots" features Uniqua and Tyrone as intergalactic police officers who have to stop bad 'bots Tasha and Pablo from turning all the robots in the galaxy bad! The "Can't Stop the Cops" song here is one of the show's catchiest tunes. In "Sinbad Sails Alone," Tyrone plays the famous sailor of legend, who is determined to find the end of the rainbow all by himself. Pablo, however, wants to be a sailor too, no matter how much trouble he causes. Uniqua, Pablo, and Austin are "The Best Clowns In Town," but they need a circus to appear in. Tyrone is a ringmaster, but he's humorless and not a fan of clowns. The other three try to make him smile as they help him catch up to his train.

Oh, and it did rain about an hour or so ago, and hard! It's still raining now, though not quite as heavily. I hope it'll be gone by tomorrow. I always take a nice walk on Sundays when I'm off and there's no football games on.

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