Tags
Antiques and Collectibles, Business and Economy, collectibles, Connecticut, Etsy, Home and Garden, humor, New England, picking, Shopping, Staples, teapot, Turtle, yard sales
It’s midsummer, and yard/rummage/estate sale season is in full swing here in New England. One of my favorite annual sales is at the St. Mary’s School in Baltic, CT. A four day event, it’s always packed with amazing goodies, and this year was no different.
Outside the church there are oodles of furniture and outdoor goods. In the gym, there are tables piled high with clothes, jewelry, and miscellaneous items. There are classrooms full of toys, housewares, and craft supplies. The stage is covered in books. A vintage lovers dream.
I went into the housewares room first, where all the vintage dishes, glasses, and kitchen goods can be found. I found a great ivy teapot, Anchor Hocking Lido glasses for my mother, a set of Harker Pottery snack plates and cups, and some coffee cups for my sister, who just moved into an old farmhouse. I paid for them and they were wrapped up and put in an old Staples copier box for me, complete with lid. I then left them behind the main table in the gym to pick up later. They wrote my name on the side of the box and promised they’d take good care of it.
I wandered around the rest of the sale, picking up a fantastic knit turtle in the toy room, and then headed back to get my box of goodies. I gave the volunteers behind the table my name, and they put a box in front of me.
A plain brown cardboard box, with no lid. It had my name on it. But it wasn’t my box.
Apparently, a sweet little old lady named Helen had come to pick up her box while I was turtle shopping. One of the boys, naturally, decided to carry the box out for her. The problem was, it wasn’t her box. And she didn’t realize it til she got home.
So, they got Father Joe, who took my number, told me to fill another box, just in case they couldn’t get my box back. And put my first AND last name on it. So, I picked up a donkey and cart planter I was going to sit on until the next weekend, a chalkware ballerina for my daughter’s room, another turtle, and some other cups for my sister. But my heart wasn’t really in it.
It took less than 24 hours for Father Joe to call me back, but a whole week for Helen 2.0 to return the box. So I ended up going the very last day, and not only got my first box back, but they gave me the second one, and I was able to fill a third for only a dollar more.
Woohoo! Sometimes delayed gratification is worth the wait!
But you don’t have to wait a week to share in my goodies, I’ve already posted this cute little donkey on Etsy, and more is soon to come:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/106127404/donkey-and-cart-planter