Vintage Jingle

Jingle bells,
Jingle bells,
Jingle all the way,
Should I get my cousin Pam
some perfume or a tray
hey!



Jingle bells,
Batman smells,
Robin laid an egg
A coffee pot for Bobby,
And maybe one for Meg
Hey!


A day or two ago,
I thought I'd take a ride,
To the local thrift shop,
to find something for Clide.

I thought a new bread box,
or maybe a pair of socks,
But would he rather have a towel,
or maybe a ceramic owl?
Hey


jingle bells
jingle bells...

Neat Mixer...Neater Lady

When I went to the church sale on Saturday with my Aunt Joan, I found the most unusual mixer I'd ever seen. You can't tell from this picture but the base is actually triangular.
When I went to put it in the trunk of Joan's car, I noticed on the cover of the instruction manual (yes, it still has the instruction manual!) that there was a blender that went with the unit as well.

When I'd paid for my items, the woman who was tallying my order had mentioned that this had been her mother's appliance, so I went back inside to ask her if the blender part was still on a table somewhere in the sale and I'd missed it.

Immediately, she remembered she did have it in her basement but had forgotten to bring it to the sale. Without missing a beat, she asked for my name and phone number so she could call me when she'd found it so I could pick it up.

There was no hesitation that she was going to invite a stranger to her home, no hemming and hawing that it was just a pain-in-the-butt. She genuinely wanted me to have this missing piece and she was old enough to be of a generation that welcomed people - even (gasp) strangers -- into their homes without a can of mace at the ready and poised to scream "stranger danger" at the top of their lungs.

And true to her word, she called me the next day and I arranged to stop by her home on Monday. I found her home easily and was welcomed by three adorable little dogs and this lovely woman in a Christmas sweater holding her door wide open for me, someone she'd met for only a few moments two-days before.
She handed me the blender and then offered me a seat. We chatted for awhile as I looked around the room, where every square inch had been decorated for Christmas. She even took me to her bathroom where all was Kris Kringly too.

In the twenty-minutes I was in her home, this wonderful lady shared with me pictures of her grandchildren, some of the heartaches she had to endure in her long-life, and expressed interest in my own. An authentic, human connection made between two people who had simply been strangers before a 1950 Nutone Power-Maid blender introduced them.

A Perfect Saturday Morning

I feel a little bad...and strange...about saying this morning was about as perfect a Saturday morning as I could imagine. Bad, because I wasn't with my family - which would have made it more perfect -- and strange because I didn't picture the perfect morning as lying on a tropical beach or being served breakfast in bed.

But it was near perfect to me because it was an absolutely gorgeous fall morning and the other blond and I drove over hill-n-dale, the countryside spread out all around us, to find a little country church that was chock full of fantastic old stuff. Heaven.

After two trips to the car, Linda and I closed the doors on the van and went back in one more time, this time for the homemade pancake breakfast being served to raise money for the church. The conversations around us as neighbor met neighbor and teased each other about the things they bought and the things they donated for sale, was worth the trip in itself.Above is a picture of the things I found in this steepled treasured trove.

My favorite was this really big Santa head pitcher made in 1973 (it was etched on the bottom), such a cute vintage decoration for the holidays...and to pour your neighbor an eggnog.