Equal Opportunity Junkers

hey y'all,

it was a wild junkin' ride yesterday! we were short one of the girls (jannetta ... we missed you!), but as they say, the show must go on ... so bon and i stepped up to the plate. it's hard work, but somebody's gotta do it.

not being a weather prognosticator, i believed the local forecasters when they predicted it would rain on our yard sale parade. so when organizing the sale list (a responsibility i take v. seriously), i paid particular attention to any estate sales or other inside sales listings.

as it happens, the rain gods were kind to us yesterday. which was a good thing because our first stop was a church sale ... on the outside. they did have several lovely tents set up but a lot of their wares were on the outside as well.



it didn't take us long to size up the situation (being the junkin' pros that we are) and realize that this was going to be the best sale of the day. we hit junking. paydirt.





lots and lots and lots of junk here, folks. as i said to one of the sales ladies, you methodists sure know how to collect and sell junk! they were super organized, efficient and v. well staffed. is that a methodist thing? i don't know. but it was rare to find something that hadn't been priced ... and extremely easy to look up and find a worker willing to price it for you.



a sweet lady named kenda noticed my arms were full and proffered a box to me. see? this is a church jumble/rummage sale working at its finest. eventually i graduated to a much larger box and it became difficult to drag around with me.



but drag it i did. because other shoppers ... well, y'all know how they can be. i caught some digging through my box. even though i was straddling it between my legs. sigh. people.

check out time: my HUGE box filled to overflowing with crap = $12.75

bonnie had fashioned one of the larger rubbermaid-type bins for her haul, not intending to take it or buy it. just use it for hauling. some sweet methodist woman came running over to her at the checkout: "that's our bin! you can't take it!!"

well, so much for the methodists. some people just have no social skills what. so. ever. is it really, honestly, worth it to offend a possible non-believer ... thereby causing them to think poorly of "christians"?? i'm just sayin'.

of course.

anyhow, it was agreed that we shot our wad (sorry, faint of heart) at the v. first sale of the day. my camry's trunk was packed, the backseat too. yikes! we still had hours of junking ahead of us!

after a pit stop at chick fil-a, we headed east to the belton/temple area. there was an indoor sale at a strange little white building (the listing said something about a church being nearby ... blah blah blah) just past the junction of I35 and 190, for you central texas folks. i say this only because it was in an impossible location.

now, stay with me here. i'm going somewhere with this story.

i ended up taking the first belton exit and then driving the wrong way on a one-way street just to work my way back to the church. there were throngs of people in the parking lot, so i figured that was the sale.

not. so. my first clue: a black hearse under the portico. second clue: church people dressed for a funeral. third clue: no junk in sight. fourth and final clue: bonnie laughing her arse off.

upon re-reading the sale listing, it's the white building on the hill BEFORE you get to the church. and we're still on the one way street. did i dare? no, i didn't. i risked our lives to get us to a funeral, i figured i shouldn't press my luck.

so we looped around and finally got ourselves to the sale. we figured, as it usually happens this way, that with all that effort, the sale would be a bust. but it turned out okay.

bon found this terrific leather jacket (purple!!) for a steal. and i picked up a $3 unopened box of star wars legos for matt. woot!



i'm sorry. it's become an obsession with me now. they. are. EVERYwhere i go!!



moving on, an estate sale in temple. complete bust. furthermore, a total irritating and aggravating experience. everyone ... and i mean EVERYone in temple was at this sale. the narrow street was packed. parking was near impossible. just getting through the street was a challenge because of all the cars. ack!





and the damn sale wasn't worth a hoot. people everywhere. and i mean annoying people. you couldn't browse at leisure because folks were elbowing and bumping into you. really, really made me cranky.



normally, i enjoy little children. honestly, i do. but this busy little angel took it upon herself to latch on to me (why?!?!?!) ... and followed me from room to room to room. asking. question. after. question.


haylee. she spelled it for me.

"what is this??"

"what is that??"

"what do you do with that?"

"why is this ..."

dear. lord. in. heaven. i. must. get. out. of. this. house. NOW.

next stop was a place called bartek's station, out on hwy 53. whatever. never heard of it. plugged it into my GPS and when we arrived, there was nothing there. wilderness. texas fields of nothing. whaaa?! so we drove back toward town. nothing.

back out to the wilderness. i think we performed this fruitless exercise about 3 times before we decided to give up ... or ask someone for directions. and that someone just happened to be none other than a man named larry, who was sporting a brand new zztop t-shirt.

he was hanging out with some other dudes in the parking lot of a church-type community center. i think it was a family reunion, as they all seemed to have that, well, familial look about them.

actually, an elderly lady approached our car and when she couldn't help us (she was busy chewing on some cauliflower ... that flew out of her mouth through her missing front teeth as she spoke), she summoned ol' larry to the rescue.

yes. larry knew exactly where bartek's station was.



"why are you two looking for bartek's?!" he was incredulous!

"they're having a yard sale," bonnie replied.

"did you know that place is a bar?"

well, hell.

no. we did not know it was a bar. we just figured it was a gas station.

he pointed us in the general direction (back toward the city limits sign) and walked away with a silly grin on his face. i'm not sure how i felt about larry. but i did ask him if he knew that zz top had just appeared at the bell county expo center. he said yeah, that's where he got the t-shirt. i told him a friend of mine was at that concert (that's YOU, dana!).

sooooo, we found bartek's station. and yes, it was an old, worn-out looking bar/club place. my oh my. how far we've come. starting the day at a sweet church jumble and ending up at a run-down saloon. but hey, we are equal opportunity junkers. not that we don't discriminate. but it's the junk we're judging, not the location/people. case in point: we did a drive-by of a sale not on our list. the junk was not suitable. we did not stop.

we did stop at bartek's and rummaged around, while enjoying santana's oye como va blasting from the open door. eventually a man (and later a woman) ambled out and greeted us. it's all negotiable, they say.





and just when we thought we were done (it was 1:30, late by junking standards) we realized that another church sale was nearby and was open till 2pm. we slid into the parking lot and being the heathen that i am ... nevermind being exhausted from the long day of junking and the heat, i could NOT resist the closest open parking space.





we hopped out of the car (with only 1/2 hour to shop!) and were greeted with this sign!







that's the good thing about hitting a sale late in the day. sure, it's picked over. but what's left is usually marked down. i can't (or won't) list all the crap i got here ... but look at the pictures carefully and you'll get an eyeful. :-)

i call this my bar clock, since i got it at bartek's station. all of a dollar. just loved the look of it ... and without realizing it, i've begun a clock collection lately.



score!!! a HUGE baggie filled with old spools of thread!!!!! marked $1. 1/2 price = $0.50!!!



found this beauty at the last stop (church sale). i remember my mom and grandmom wearing these "housecoats" around the house. love the style, colors. so sweet and feminine, retro/vintage

love its tag! lazy u.

$5 for this entire sweet set. LOVE the colors and pattern. it's a comforter, shams, bedskirt, solid blue curtains

it's a lady's vintage travel bag ... with a tie to keep it closed.

inside, it is FULL of vintage goodies ... scarves, gloves, lace, etc!!! $0.50!!

wow. what a looooong day we had. finished up with a treat from chick fil-a ... ice cream ... and then headed home, exhausted and a little overwhelmed with our purchases. it was one of those frenzied days of junking. the prices were sooooo low and the junk so plentiful that you scarf up more than you normally would. and therefore, forget what you bought until you start sorting through it at home.

that's how i junk, ya'll ... oye como va ... listen how it goes ... my junkin' rhythm.

love and hugs,
terry lee