While the subject of this post stretches the boundaries of a garage sale, I thought it worthy of writing about considering it came free, and I owe a friend big time for it. About a week ago, a friend of mine, who belongs to the St. Louis Freecycle Yahoo! Group, received the following Freecycle post:
"Wind-up 78 rpm phonograph console. 50" tall. "Singerphone" model made by Singer Talking Machine Co. of Milwaukee."
My friend, John, shot a message to me asking if I wanted it. "GET IT!" was my reply as fast as I could type. He replied back, but then heard nothing. We'd given up on it, although he had never seen a "taken" message. Then last Wednesday evening, he heard back from the person offering it. It seems the person who was going to take it was a no show and it was mine to get. My friend John arranged for it to be picked up today at noon in Kirkwood, MO.
The post didn't say whether it worked nor what condition it was in. I've become accustomed to being disappointed with freecycled items, after all, they are free. When we showed up, it appeared no one was home (the person offering it had been out of town leading up to today), so I thought it was going to be a wash. But suddenly, the owner came speeding up in his car, just in time. He opened the garage and we found the phonograph to be in very nice condition, and much larger than I initially expected. I was concerned it wasn't going to fit in my van even with the seats out, but laying it on it's back, it did barely fit. John and I thanked the gentleman and after dropping my friend back off at his house, I brought it home.
After a little cleaning up
