Vintage Jackpot: Part One

On Mondays, I travel about an hour from my home to work one of my side gigs which happens to be doing brief therapy at a nursing home.  I love the work, my residents, and get along well with my coworkers.  This particular town is a rural farming community with a town of about 600 residents.  In the tiny downtown area, there are some beautiful old homes.

Last week, I overheard one of my coworkers talking about a garage sale being held at one of those beautiful old homes.  I heard her say that the house had stood empty for many years and family was now clearing it out and that she had bought boxes full for $100.  Standing empty for years...boxes of old stuff...MUSIC TO MY EARS!!  When I was done seeing my residents, I booked it downtown to see what I could find.  

I easily found the sale, but there wasn't much left.  On that day, it was being run by a grandfather and grandson.  They explained to me that the house had stood empty for 12 years (!!!) and they were going to be having an ongoing yard sale for several weeks as they emptied out the (huge) house.  I explained that I was mostly looking for old clothing that was 1970s or older.  They assured me that there would be clothing that I would be interested in and that they would set it aside for me to look through when I returned to town a week later (today).

All week I hoped there would be some good stuff and today I returned armed with cash.  I drove by on my lunch break but didn't see anything set up in the yard.  There was a yard sale sign still up, however, and I could see people moving antique furniture out of the house.  I summonsed my courage and walked up to the house and explained what I was looking for.  The same grandfather and grandson were there as well as two daughters of the woman who had lived in the house, a granddaughter, and another young grandson.  The women pointed me toward at least twenty boxes and bags of clothing on the porch that they had set aside for me.

I spent about an hour going through everything.  The family was SO NICE and helpful and kept bringing me empty boxes to stash my goods in.  The women really got into the spirit and kept trying to locate old pieces that they thought I might be interested in.  One of the daughters of the woman who owned the house showed up partway through my digging.  I could see her going through children's clothing from the 1950s and 1960s.  She told me that she was going through memories by sorting through clothing she had worn in her childhood.  We talked a bit about why I was so interested in this clothing and how I sell it on Etsy.

She finished sorting through her "pile of memories" and brought it over to me.  "Would you be interested in these?" she asked.

To be continued...

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