Gentle reader, I would like to say that I make it to this annual sale every year, but that might not be the case, as I only have posts for it in 2016 and 2017. But that might mean that the gleanings in other years have not been that good as far as books and later books/records/movies go. I know I bought a couple of TI-99 4/As there one year. But the silence of this blog puzzles and worries me. But looking back at those two dates, I’m pleased to see that I have read a couple of the books listed therein, so they’re not all still waiting on the to-read shelves.
At any rate, I took the opportunity presented between three hours of driving and three hours of lawn mowing to make my way to the Trinity Lutheran Church gym (which was not as hot this year as apparently it was almost a decade ago) and looked through their offerings.
I got some books and whatnot.
Books include:
- Calypso by David Sedaris because I confused him with Jason Sudekis and thought, “Oh, he wrote a book?” In my defense, the author might have come to Springfield at some time and did a thing at a venue where a comedian might perform. Or maybe that was the other guy.
- The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz, a self help book from back in the day which is somewhere between your Norman Vincent Peale and your Robert J. Ringer. The sale had two copies of this side-by-side and maybe another Schwartz title elsewhere.
- The First Day of the Blitz by Peter Stansky about London when the German bombing began in World War II. For when I get older and start reading all the World War II books I own.
- Edward the Second by Christopher Marlowe. I don’t have many Marlowe plays. And he was the person Chandler named his detective after.
- Ancient Mines of Kitchi-Gummi by Roger Jewell. I picked it up on the title alone, as I read fifteen or so years ago a book about copper mining in Michigan by the natives (and a quick search has not yielded the book report for it). But the subtitle is Cypriot/Minoan Trade in North America. Which fits right in with the Bucky and the Lukefahr Ladies books I’ve read this month (Walking the Labyrinth and Songs of Three). I wonder if this book is mentioned in the acknowledgements I skipped. Or if it’s fate telling me I am destined to write something in the extended Buckyverse.
- The Decameron by Boccaccio. I might have a copy around here somewhere, but this is a nice, thick heavy former library book from the Springfield Public Schools libraries. Jeez Louise, you mean school libraries used to have books like this? I am not sure my high school library had books like this. But they had books from the Agatha Christie book club, which was good enough for me at the time.
- I also picked up an Air Fryer cookbook for my beautiful wife because those things are all the rage now, but in a decade or so, they will read like cookbooks for the microwave oven or the George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine. We have cookbooks for both, although I think we’ve parted with our various grilling machines in favor of actual grilling.
I picked up some DVDs and videocassettes, including:
- Fools Rush In
- Ghost
- Joe Vs the Volcano
- A collection of Bob Hope movies
- Saving Private Ryan on two videocassettes, which was how they did it in those days with high, high fidelity VHS.
- Pearl Harbor on two videocassettes, and I was surprised they were still doing that that late.
- The Pink Panther. “The original?” I thought briefly, but, no; it’s the Steve Martin remake which I might already have picked up.
- Shanghai Noon. After all, I’ve already seen the sequel (two years ago? Already?).
- Ghost. Which I would like to say, I have only seen once, so lay off, man. Although I have seen The Bodyguard like five or more times, including several times in the theater during its original run. So maybe although I was not the target audience for early 1990s romance films, I was in the market for tales of stoics who broke their reserve for the right woman.
I also picked up five LPs from two small boxes of the same:
- 80’s Ladies by K.T. Oslin. PWoC. Bonus for being a PWoC from the 80s, and the album title even says so.
- For the Working Girl by Melissa Manchester. Also a PWoC, but I think my wife likes her. Or liked one of her songs, which has led me to buy all of her records that I find.
- Auf Wiedersehn by Ralf Bendix, Germany’s favorite singer. We will see. But it’s a nice cover, with a TWA plane. Ask your grandpa what TWA stood for. Especially if he grew up in St. Louis.
- Too Stuffed to Jump by the Amazing Rhythm Aces. I thought I recognized names of band members and thought it was an obscure super band. But apparently not.
- Los Favoritos de Todo El Mundo by Trio Los Panchos. Hey, if they recorded with Eydie Gorme, they’re good enough for me.
I also picked up an electonic device for a couple of bucks that I was not sure what it was. After putting in new batteries and pressing the three buttons (On/Off, Light, Reset), I think it’s an early touch screen calculator or calendar, but the touchscreen is no longer good. I’m not sure what to do with it, but I will likely throw it in a box with the thought that I might replace/upgrade the screen, but likely I will discard it in a purge of some sort in a decade.
What I did not really look at: Cheap supplies for any of the handicrafts that I might have thought to do in the past. In sales like this in the past, I’ve picked up wood to burn, things to make into clocks, and sometimes glass to paint, etch, or something else. But I have decided recently to clean the garage a bit and maybe discard some of the unused materials. So my perhaps 90-day resolve is still in effect. Next year, or perhaps the next garage sale I go to (which might be next year), the resolve might be gone (but not likely the junk in my garage).
The total was under $20, but I told them to keep it. I can fit the books on my book shelves. The films are piling up. And, oh, lawdy, the records are still stacked on my parlor desk from the wedding gifts in May. I really, really, need to build additional shelving. Maybe that should be my goal this weekend.
