Friday, May 11, 2012

PAWING THROUGH DEAD PEOPLES STUFF

So this morning I needed to go to the gas station and as I was leaving said gas station, I saw a sign that read, "Estate Sale" and I knew I had to follow the signs.


Now I'm a sucker for estate sales for the following reasons:


1.  You can find some swell stuff.


b.  You can find some swell stuff for low, low prices.  And some not-so-swell stuff at "Who are you trying to kid here?" prices.


iii.  It gives you a chance to be nosy paw through someone's stuff and nobody will say, "Hey!  What the hell do you think you're doing in here?"


So of course I must check it out and when I got there, it was apparent that as the sale actually started yesterday, the majority of good stuff had already been snatched up but I took a look anyway.


I wandered from room to room, picking up this, looking at that but not really seeing anything that I absolutely HAD to have.


Until I got into a back bedroom and hanging there in front of me were not one but TWO beautiful satin wedding dresses.


Oh, these were beautiful dresses, one from the 1930s and the other from the 1940s.  Both had cathedral length trains and both still had the headpieces and cathedral length veils as well as the satin shoes.  The satin had yellowed to a gorgeous creamy color and the lace and embroidery were still perfect.  Someone had spent A LOT of money on these wedding dresses.

I wanted these dresses SO BAD, even though I need them like a hole in the head, have no use for them and didn't have the money to buy them anyway but still.  I wanted them.  Sue me.

And then I got sad.  Like the time I went to an estate sale and one of the items was the wedding album of the dead lady. For some reason, that saddened me more than anything else that was in that house.  Someone had lived their life and now strangers were pawing through their personal belongings, hoping to score some good stuff for cheap prices.  

Anyway, I wondered about those wedding dresses.  Why were there two of them from roughly the same era?  Did the lady of the house marry twice in a relatively short time, both times in formal ceremonies?  What was their story?

I finally had to tear myself away from those beautiful dresses and headed toward the door empty handed.

Then I saw a pretty teacup and saucer and something made me grab it, I don't know what or why but I had to have that cup and saucer:
And as I went to pay for them out in the garage, I spied a mirror laying on a workbench and grabbed that as well:
I need a mirror for my entry way and this will be perfect after I've painted the frame.  Sucker weighs a ton, though.

So that was my day today.  Pawing through Dead Peoples Stuff for Fun and Profit.

And feeling sad and guilty about it.

 






5 comments:

  1. Pretty cup & saucer. Maybe the two dresses signify that her first husband was killed in WWII, and she remarried.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking, too.

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  2. I did an estate sale whilst up at my mama's house this past weekend. And it was the "estate" of one of mama's friends. She had recently passed away so it was weird because we knew her. And at the same time it was nice to know that we were going to have a face to attach to the item and say "hey, this was Aline's such-and-such, won't she be proud that it is still being used. And by someone she knows?"

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  3. My husband and I went to an estate sale this past Friday. As we left my husband made a comment that it ripped his heart out roaming through someone's home to see if you wanted any of your stuff. We must not have felt too bad, because we went back by there on Sunday to see if they had sold three candlesticks we would have liked. They were gone. As we started to leave hubby asked one of the people running the event what happened to the people that lived there. His response was, "on nothing, they are moving to Florida and are downsizing to 1300 sq. ft. and are selling everything." Hubby said he was so glad he was nosy and asked.

    Perhaps the wedding dresses belonged to daughters. However, Heather's insight might have well been the case.

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  4. I love estate sales too but it's weird wandering through someone's stuff. I found myself in a back bedroom looking through costume jewelry and old handbags and it was so depressing I had to leave, although I did pick up some vintage linens.

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