Too many kids, too much Aunt Jamima

They sucked the life out of me today.

I don't know if it was the incessant begging for QT, the squabbling over Nerf weaponry, or the half dozen plastic whistles, but somewhere around 8 AM I knew I was in trouble.

I yardsaled today with the 6th grade regulars: Donny-Devin-Bobby, plus JoJo and Oscar. They were as sweet and silly as usual. It wasn't their fault that I was crabby. It was all me. My head was not in the right place or something. I just couldn't appreciate their childish essence. Bottom line: I took a nice long nap this afternoon.

This was out first sale of the day. It made me squeal with delight so I photographed it for future study:

Let's analyze the scene:

• It is obviously early morning because the shadows are long.
• The sale has plenty of merchandise sprawled across the lawn.
• At first glance, my eye is drawn to the white chair...
• Then what looks like a book shelf...
• Some clothes,
• Toys,
• And a mysterious wicker circle!!

And the squealing begins!

Upon closer inspection, the sale was just as good as I had first thought. I bought a basket-full of items both practical and decorative. But, as usual, the best blog photos are of the stuff I did not buy. Like this wickedly frightening clown doll:

God. Just looking at that thing makes me want to go to church tomorrow.

The second stop on our bnd.com itinerary was a sale at 5400 North Belt West. It sounded like an industrial address to me so I approached with suspicion. Sure enough, this sale was held in the parking lot of a local oil company. The relationship between Vogt Oil Co. and yardsales? Even oil moguls have to clean out their basements! We met the Vogt clan, hawking wares in their parking lot. Brilliant use of real estate, Ladies!

Another unconventional yardsaling venue was this weird place on a service road called "Service Rd." in Swansea.

They rented out tables to individual sellers. Was it a benefit of some sort? I don't know. They had a decent bake sale, thank God.

The merchandise was wildly varied: used DVDs, WW2 artifacts, new-in-box jewelry, housewares, and the usual assortment of mom jeans. I snapped a photo of these "choice rabbit pelts" just before their owner asked if I was from PETA. (I think we've met this guy before!)

I was taken aback by this extensive collection of Aunt Jamima kitchen accessories.

Seriously.

What is the current PC view on Aunt Jamima and her bald husband the butler? Forget PC... these are just stupid looking. I think I can confidently make a blanket statement, right here on the YSA blog, that no self-respecting home owner should ever outfit her kitchen with so much of one kitschy motif. This Aunt Jamima offender is almost as bad as the crazy watermelon lady we met at one sale who had thousands of dollars worth of watermelon paraphernalia for sale. Apparently she had redecorated her house and watermelons were out. The lingering question: with what did she replace all those watermelons? I suspect it was black and white cows.

Of course, the Swansea Improvement Center (whatever it is) had owls for sale. Always there are the owls. They haunt me.

Thanks for reading. Tune in next week for the end-of-summer Labor Day Lollapalooza! Let's hope for sun and a child-free shopping experience.

Nancy