And it was good...

The other blond and I had a rocky start yesterday morning getting out bright and early to find a yard sale and then a church sale - family members in need of care, confusion with boys getting dropped for Boy Scout activities, mom stuff -- but in the end, we prevailed and headed out in the van to the nearby town of Red Lion.

But difficulties continued as the first place on our list was a moving sale, and when we drove by, we both thought it looked a little scary - broken plastic kids toys on the porch and questionable looking characters hanging out by the front door with cigarettes dangling from their mouths -- so we passed. We chose instead to regroup at the nearest Rutters and get a cup of coffee and breakfast sandwich and realign our picking karma.

And we did...the next stop was a church sale with, same as last week, a line going out across the parking lot with people hopping from one foot to the other in anticipation. And then the church lady unlocked the doors, the angels sang and the hoards moved in and tried not to trample her.

Much as last week, I had trouble focusing at first on what I was there to do - find neat stuff -- there were just so many people and things and pushing. But what helped was that about a minute and half after I got there, I spotted a very nice enamelware roasting pan with a stand, and once I had that in my bag I relaxed, the ice had been broken. If I didn't find anything else, I would have been happy with my morning. Who am I kidding, I was happy already just getting to poke around, even with the crowds.

The next thing I found took me back to my own childhood. In my grandparents attic - the perfect farmhouse attic with requisite trunks and stacks of old books and photo-albums -- where there was a box of marionettes. I think there was a Howdy Doody and a couple others, my cousin and I would play with them for hours. So when I saw this fortune teller marionette, I grabbed her and placed her in my bag without hesitation.

There was more squeezing past people, trying not to overheat in the crush and a very long line to wait in to pay for your purchases, but it was still worth it. Some really nice items. Even on my way out, only two-people away from the check-out table, I saw this great hand-tooled leather bag for under a dollar and added it to my arm-full of stuff.
So even though its hard sometimes to juggle the mom obligations with escaping for a few hours to hunt down neat old stuff, yesterday morning worked out just fine...and the kids are all still alive and accounted for...so we're good.