This Is Drivel

Seems as though there was a city-wide garage sale going on since Thursday and it ended today, which means that, even though My Darling B and I drove around the neighborhood to see if there were any deals to be had, all of the good stuff was probably gone at about seven or eight o’clock Thursday morning, because all that we found at the houses we stopped at were heaps of baby clothes, legions of Hummel figurines, row upon row of pilsner glasses and enough toys to send the most jaded tot into an apoplectic fit.

I did take home a coffee grinder for just two dollars that I managed to get working. It hadn’t been cleaned since the Regan administration and required a thorough scrubbing in battery acid and lye, but even so I always have hours of fun with a new coffee toy, so it was two dollars well spent.

My brother sent me a photo of a Tom Thumb toy typewriter he spotted in an antique mall, apparently because he knows how I geek out over typewriters. That’s the only explanation I can think of, anyway. I don’t have a Tom Thumb in my “collection” yet, mostly because the only places I’ve seen them are in antique malls with price tags on them that make my eyes pop out on springs and waggle around in the air in front of my face!

I say collection in quotes because I don’t collect typewriters so much as snatch them up whenever I find one at a garage sale or in a thrift store and I have enough cash in my wallet to walk away with it. Collectors are people who can tell you a typewriter’s history just by looking at it and know its market value to within ten dollars. When I look at a typewriter, the only thing I can tell you is whether or not I think it’s cool. I’m just a geek.

My Auntie Sue snagged a Tom Thumb just like this one at an estate sale and I think she said she only paid something like five or ten dollars for it – whatever the price was, it made my eyes pop out & waggle, etc.