Come Along with Me and I'll Garage Sale with Thee

I have a special treat for everyone today.  Well, "treat" may be a bit strong.  But if you've ever wondered what it was like to garage sale with me, this is your lucky day. Okay, "lucky" may be a bit strong.

Okay, let's not quibble with words.  You're wondering, What is Tom babbling about?"  I'm babbling, I mean, talking about my first (and maybe last) Garage Sale Finds vlog.

I've been toying with the idea of creating some vlogs of my garage and estate sales adventures for a while now.  I've been on the fence whether I wanted to go that direction, but thought I'd give it a shot.  I've watched other garage sale vlogs and have thought, "I find better stuff than that".

My next concern was, is it legal?  Of course, there are countless Youtube videos out there doing exactly this, but I was curious.  From what I've read, essentially, even if you on private property, but are "asked" to enter, you may videotape.  Kind of like a vampire.  I didn't plan on filming any actual people, so I decided to proceed (more on that later).

So this past weekend, I took my camera with me along for the ride (or walk as the case may be).  Videoing the sales was the easy part.  Editing them was something else.

My first challenge was, for obvious reasons, I didn't want people's faces to be shown.  There are a lot of people at garage sales these days.  Not like the old days when I'd be the lone person there.  Consequently, they bounce in and out of the video.  I tried to point the camera to shoot at waist height, but still ended up catching a lot of people. So finding software that could blur faces was my first task.  I ended up playing around with the online video editor Flixier.  It wasn't terribly hard to figure out how to use, although the blurring feature is fairly clunky.  It doesn't follow faces, so you have to blur out large blocks of video and move the blurring area frequently.  I did my best.

Second was adding some narrative to let you know what was going on.  I didn't talk too much during the actual video and I didn't feel like doing a voiceover, so I added some text explaining what I was looking at and my thoughts.

One last warning: it's long.  It's 17 minutes and 36 seconds long.  I'm sure there are long sections I could have edited out, but if you want the full effect of just 1 garage sale (I went to about 5 garage sales and 4 estate sales that day) it's all there.  You can always double the playback speed and watch it in 8 minutes and 48 seconds.

Will I do this again?  I guess it depends how much everyone enjoys the video...and if I can find some decent video editing software.

P.S.  I'll follow up with a later post in more detail of the actual items I bought.

P.S.S. That's my daughter with me in the video.  The garage sale force is strong with this one...

Coffee and Toast

This past weekend I attended a rummage sale at a local church, St. John's Evangelical in Mehlville, Missouri.  Rummage sales seem the last bastion of bargains.  Unfortunately, their primary way of advertising is by signs in front of the church, so I rarely know of them.  I just happened to be driving the route past this church last week and saw the sign.

Universal Toaster

Toast indeed is universal. Who doesn't love toast? (p.s. we can't be friends if you don't love toast).  And this is a Universal Toaster, patented 1914.  I found it at a private estate sale a few weekends ago.  It still amazes me people have these 100+ year-old toasters laying around.  And based on its condition, this one apparently was laying around in a dark corner of an attic or basement.

What was on TV April 21st through 27th, 1979

After a long hiatus (since 2020!), "What was on TV" returns with this April 21st through 27th, 1979 issue featuring Walter Cronkite who would retire from "The CBS Evening News" in 1980, though he would continue to work until his death in 2009.

Who's Your Friend When Things Get Rough?

I remember "H. R. Pufnstuf" playing on Sunday mornings when I was kid.  Being around 1974, it was in syndication.  I always thought it was kind of weird and wasn't one of my favorites, but when you're a kid and it's Sunday morning, pickings are slim.  Now, when it came to Sid & Marty's Krofft's later offering "Land of the Lost", I was completely in.  Dinosaurs, Sleestaks and Pakuni monkey men; what more could you ask for?

A few years ago, I discovered (via another garage sale find) that Six Flags once had a Krofft Puppet Theater and mascots dressed as Pufnstuf characters.  It didn't last long as the Kroffts attempted to open their own theme park, The World of Sid & Marty Krofft,  in 1976.

But I found this odd remnant of their association with Six Flags at an estate sale a few months ago.

Saturday Evening Post Uncovered

 Back in 2015, I posted about a collection of coverless comic books I picked up at a garage sale.  This past year, I encountered just the obvious.  Covers without books.  In this case, they were Saturday Evening Post covers.  Obviously, the original owner liked the covers, but for space consideration, didn't keep the magazines.  They date from 1953 through 1961 and feature a variety of Saturday Evening Post artists, although Norman Rockwell is notably missing.  That could be because at the same sale were full copies of Norman Rockwell-covered Saturday Evening Posts.  I picked those up as well and may post them at some future date.

I've posted any interesting ads that appeared on the reverse side as well. Enjoy!

Thornton Utz

A Not-So Sticky Mystery

As new as this looked, it was sitting on a shelf without a box in the basement of a recent sale.  However, by its design, I knew it wasn't new. It sported that 1960's space-age/UFO aesthetic.