The season opener

Today my mom and I went to our first two garage sales of the year!

I got a round Crock Pot which looks vintage but I believe is a reproduction because it has a high and low setting. Old Crock Pots did not. They had only Off and On. Also the ceramic insert comes out. That is a must in my book. Normally when it comes to vintage I prefer the real thing. But Crock Pots are an exception! It is hard to wash a Crock Pot correctly if the insert does not come out.

I also bought a pile of clothes. "All the clothes are a dollar," this guy said. Music to my ears! Apparently he was selling off his wife's or daughter's clothes, fine by me. I got a bunch of beautiful sweaters and tops in colors I love, black and coral and gold and pink and pale green.

It is funny about me and garage sale clothes. Remember that wonderful sale on Harlem Road that I went to twice, and where I found all those treasures? That is it pictured up above.

One of my friends was telling me about how once on Thanksgiving her dog was once going from the kitchen into the dining room when someone was going by carrying a turkey, and a big piece of the turkey fell off the tray. The dog instantly devoured it. What a treat! And ever since then she has noticed that when the dog is in that doorway, the dog always looks up. As if lightning is going to strike twice.

That dog remembers that treat!

And somehow it is always alive in the dog's mind, the possibility that it could happen again.

I am like that whenever I drive down Harlem Road!

I always look wistfully in the direction of that sale. As if it could happen again.

As if that sale could reappear like Brigadoon and I could score more.

La la la la la la la.

Back to the real world. My mom and I also went to one estate sale today but I came up empty-handed, alas. It was too bad because it was an interesting estate sale. The people were a lawyer and his wife who were downsizing, moving to a smaller place. The books they had -- Dickens, Thackeray, "Wind in the Willows" -- showed they had fine taste in literature. They also had several books about music which makes me certain that at one time they had had Leonard Pennario records. Alas, the records must have fallen victim to an earlier downsizing.

Or, more likely, the couple hung onto their Leonard Pennario records. That is a very real possibility.

We open the season on a nice note.