Autumn … the Year’s Last, Loveliest Smile.

The title is a line from William Cullen Bryant, and it’s the best description of fall that I’ve ever found.  Autumn isn’t sad, maybe just a little melancholy if you’re looking forward and not backward.  The air is delicious and crisp, the nights cool and invigorating.  It’s a time to remember the hot days of summer fun, while still enjoying summer’s abundance.  If it were up to me, it would be fall all year-long; I guess we COULD have a month each of winter, spring, summer, and then nine months of fall!  Of course I’m saying this because it’s still 80°F here in northern Colorado, and my veggie garden is still giving me fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.  Best of all, there are more garage sales then we could possibly visit on a Friday.  My autumnal blinders refuse to let me see that the end is coming–I self-identify as a grasshopper!

We have been to some great garage sales this summer; the best we can remember in a long time.  Not only have we found some good things to buy and bad things to take pictures of, we have also found interesting, strange things like this:

I guess the moral of this story is that Pablum never goes bad, since this looks a lot like it must have when new!  We hope that someone found this waaaay in the back of their grandmother’s cupboard; otherwise we’re left wondering why would someone keep Pablum for 60 years?  The farina, oatmeal, and cornmeal all sound fine; I’m a little more skeptical of powdered beef bone specially prepared for human consumption and powdered, dehydrated alfalfa being good for babies and invalids.  I guess you mix in some cod liver oil, and you practically have manna!

Another weird and wonderful find–an Asbestos Sad Iron:

Ironing always makes me sad, and it would be worse if I had to iron with one of these babies.  So, yes, it does make sense to insulate the core of the iron so the heat goes down towards the clothes, and not upward towards the ironer’s hand.  Maybe you could get through one piece of cotton clothing without having to cool your hand or reheat your iron.  Dang, women were tough in the “good old days”.  The asbestos probably wouldn’t be a problem until you dropped your iron and broke it.

I have an asbestos paperweight that an elderly friend gave to me.  Her nephew carved it in shop class before WWII and then promptly enlisted and died.  She couldn’t bear to get rid of it, and so made it my problem:

When I finally part with Nate’s paperweight, I’ll probably have to take it into a hazardous waste pick up.  It’s fine as long as it doesn’t break, chip, or otherwise disintegrate.   I have to admit that I’m super careful with it, and keep a death grip on it when carrying it over a tile floor!  But then, I also try not to stand at busy street corners and breathe deeply; asbestos is still part of the brake pads, engine liners, and clutches on some cars.

We went to this sale solely so we could see the Shriner cars that were listed:

   

I wish that we could have each bought one; just imagine us roaring up to a garage sale in tandem, honking our horns and throwing candy!  Of course, we would both like to buy the sporty vehicles, but practically, we would have to take the truck along too to carry our booty.

I need to warn those of you reading this at work, that there is an unsuitable for work image coming up.

We didn’t notice the dishabille going on with the vixen on the left.  We fixed it in picture two, but we really like our original take on an unlikely couple:

    

Poor Jack Benny really looks uncomfortable with the young lady next to him.  At first, we were thinking that he was Kevin Spacey, or even a bad Ed Sullivan.  But, those crossed arms are the main clue.  He’s not a decanter, just a statue, so we really don’t get why he exists.  I like Jack Benny as well as the next guy, but he’s still around on TV and YouTube.  Now, the young lady obviously has some skills.  I bet you put a cocktail mixer in her metal frame, push the button on her stand, and watch her shake it up!  I’m sure her top comes off every time she really gets going.  I guess Shriners enjoy other things besides driving little cars.

Another cool thing at this sale was up in the air, not on the ground:

The sled was awesome.  If it were yours, wouldn’t you have it out on your lawn in the winter, all decorated up?  We weren’t sure it was for sale, because like most things at this sale, there wasn’t a price tag.  To the right, you can see a pretty cute homemade bouncing horse.  Here’s a different picture of it–I won’t say better:

All that is needed now is a kid, cowboy gear, and someone standing by for a trip to the E.R., since this looks like it could really get moving like a buckin’ bronc.

That must have been the day for bouncing, spring-loaded rocking horses:

  

I don’t know if you can read it, but he is sporting a St. Patrick’s Day Coors Light hat.  The only thing that could make one of these bouncy things more dangerous would to be putting it at the top of the stairs.  I’m pretty sure that as kids we flew off ours and hit the walls, floors, coffee tables, and everything else within a ten foot diameter.  Our horse eventually broke, and my mom wouldn’t let my dad fix it.  I should say as a side note about this garage sale that the lady having it had a thing about hats.  She said that she had big parties and everyone was encouraged to wear a hat.   That sounds like a fun party–much better than lampshades.

I’m not sure why we stopped at Tuesday Morning after having such a fun time at garage sales, but if we didn’t, you wouldn’t have seen this:

OMG, I liked Donkey as much as anyone, but I’m not dragging these things home, even if they made us laugh like fools.  Are they made to compete with the CowParade Figurines that you see at department stores and online?  If so, Donkey’s not crushing it!

Well, that’s just about enough of that!  If you enjoyed this post, please consider passing it on to someone who needs a laugh, likes to laugh, is a weirdo like us, or, I’ve run out of descriptions.  We’re trying, in the least pushy way we can think of, to gain readers.  If you don’t subscribe, but read us through Facebook or the doll boards, you could always subscribe AND read our posts the same old way.  Either way, we’ll be back next week with something new.