Leftovers Day 13 -- Little Pink Houses for You and Me

Back in 2015 I attended the estate sale of a bona fide hoarder. On the property was a dump where the homeowners threw out things they apparently no longer needed, but couldn't let completely go (or maybe they just refused to pay for trash service).  I decided to take a look through the dump just to see what I might find.  I came across a disintegrating cardboard box filled with pink plastic wall tiles.

Leftovers Day 12 -- You've Got Mail!

This mail signal is meant to trigger a flag when the mailbox is opened.  You can then visually see if mail has come without hiking your 1/4 mile country driveway.

Leftovers Day 11 -- $5 Fill a Bag

There are a couple estate sale companies in my area that have a unique end to their weekend sales.  On Sunday afternoon, the sale is closed down and then re-opened a short time later as a $5 fill a bag sale. Some companies require you to use their bags, but others will allow you to use your own, within reason, I'm sure.  They would probably have an issue if you showed up with a lawn bag.

I do not traditionally attend these kind of sales, but a while back, I passed on a vintage space-age aerial antenna I wanted. Priced at $20, it was more than I wanted to spend.  I figured if I could get it for my $5 bag along with some other ephemera I had left behind it might be worth it.

Just like the opening of any sale, there was a line at the door. I was about 15th in line.  I was not prepared for what happened when the door opened.  As soon as it did, the line surged like a wave and I could see people in front of me grabbing everything in sight and throwing it in their bag.  One person took their entire arm and swept everything off of a table into their bag.  I heard glass breaking and objects falling everywhere.  It was chaos. It was like that episode of "Laverne & Shirley" when they won the free shopping spree at Slotnik's Grocery store.

Leftovers Day 10 -- What's the Combination?

Combination locks date back to the Romans when multi-dial locks were used. The first commercially-viable single-dial lock was invented in 1910 by American Lock Company.

I found this Elgin lock with it's original instructions at a garage sale some time ago.

Leftovers Day 9 -- Ai Yi Yi Yi

Given the current political climate, you might be surprised to know we once not only welcomed our friends South of the Border, but in fact immortalized them in crude caricature rubber pencil toppers.

Leftovers Day 8 -- Dog 'n Suds

I'm starting to see a pattern with the things I buy at garage sales. A lot of them stem from things I always wanted, but didn't have as a kid.  Today's offering is no different.

Leftovers Day 7 -- Queen Mary

Kellogg's offered this cardboard Queen Mary (some assembly required, okay, a lot of assembly required) as a premium from Cornflakes cereal in the 1930's.  It doesn't appear to be made from the packaging itself, so it was probably a mail-away premium.