Jumble sale haul

[vilakins]

I just got back from a big church 'garage sale and fair'. I hate shopping in general, buying most of my clothes on line--and I'd get the groceries that way too if they lowered the delivery charge--but I love fairs and markets. I didn't find any of the 20s and 30s Boys' and Girl's Own annuals I collect, but I did quite well. My haul (each item $2 to $5):

• Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, with the dedication kalypso_v said was later removed: "To the six for whom it was written in exchange for a pair of slippers." :-) It smells very musty; I shall have to air it out in the sun.
  
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I love this book.
  
• The House at Pooh Corner by A A Milne, original illos but colour-washed; beautiful! When I went overseas, my mother threw all my possessions out, and these three go some way towards getting some of my childhood things back.
  
• Frank Muir's A Kentish Lad and a book of 'My Word' stories by him and Denis Norden (we already have one of the others).
  
• The Romans, a large coffee-table book with sumptuous illos.
  
• A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Too big to borrow from the library now they have such a draconian renewal policy and only $2.
  
• A wonderful find: The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Ideas and Dreams. Another coffee-table sized book, it's full of the most wonderful illos from last century's SF mags and novels up till the 70s. There's a woman in a 50s picture who looks just like Servie gone a bit to seed. I shall have to scan her in.
  
• Two cappuccino cups made by the same pottery (Petra Ceramics) as my existing ones, and four espresso cups with stylised brightly--coloured cats on them, exactly the same pattern as some teacups my sister gave me a few years ago. :-D
  
• What I thought were two old silver egg cups but are actually Selangor pewter. Do you polish pewter?
  
• Some Thai brass cutlery with ebony handles.

Comments

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Whoa, you had a great day hunting jumble shopping. I'm working hard to keep my jealousy in bounds. :^)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You don't have jumble sales and second-hand markets?

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I have a whole row of permanent thrift shops about 5 minutes away. It's not lack of opportunity I'm mourning, it's having to resist it.

I have *way* too much stuff. One of these days I hope to move, and I've got to cull out, not add to. *grin* That's another reason my inviolable naarmamo rule is 'use what you've got, don't buy *anything*'.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I took a car boot load of stuff (mostly clothes) I didn't want to the church hall earlier this week, so I've come out ahead. :-) I used to get rid of unwanted stuff every year to another church that had annual fairs, but until now I didn't know about any in this neighbourhood.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Last January I dumped about 30 huge (40 gallon size) bags of stuff in the trash (plus a lot of crud furniture), and took 3 'boot loads' to the thrift store. I keep a couple boxes in an out-of-the-way spot to fill up whenever I see something that should go.

I'm hoping to eBay lots more stuff, too.

[trixieleitz]

Sounds like a fantastic pile of loot! I love those original Winnie the Pooh illustrations - is it the Ernest Sheppard ones?

We got our groceries delivered in the UK; the main reason we don't do it here is that the delivery times are rubbish for our location. We can only get deliveries until 6pm, Monday to Friday!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

is it the Ernest Sheppard ones?

Yes! The only ones I consider the correct ones, and beautifully coloured.

I'm not sure what the times are here, and there's a supermarket on the way home from work, but sometimes it's such a pain, esp when it's wet.

[trixieleitz]

I'm with you on the Sheppard drawings :)

It's only Foodtown/Woolworths that deliver here - that address is of a frame on their website which lets you search for delivery info by area.

Home delivery (at least with Sainsbury's) had its own inconveniences, mostly when stuff wasn't in stock and they made mysterious substitutions. But they always packed subs separately, and we could send them back with the driver for a refund if we liked.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Huh. They'll deliver up to 8:30pm weekdays in my area. I signed up. It could be useful for if I'm ill or bird flu hits.

[trixieleitz]

*envious muttering*

Yet another benefit of living in a higher-population density area :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And only 2km from a Foodtown!

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

Oh excellent finds! Gotta love garage sales. The Swallows and Amazons copy sounds fab.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's a good find. I just have to get the smell out. [wonders if vanilla would help]

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

If it's a mildew odor, and you can get the original scent spray Lysol, that's the only thing I know that will remove it, because it kills the mildew. You might have to spray, wait a day and spray again if it still smells. I can't *promise* it wouldn't stain the book, though.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's a bit stained already. Thanks! I'll look for that.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

It's even easier than that, if it's not actively mildewing. (She says it just smells musty, so there may not be mildew on the book itself.) Stick it in a closed container with some baking soda, and it'll be fine.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

(BTW, there was a comment you posted in my LJ that isn't there anymore...) :)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I took it out because after rereading your post I realized I wasn't responsive to the main point & I hate looking like a dweeb, so I removed it. :^)

It was one of my brain-rot days when I see everything different from what people mean.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I think it very much addressed the point! :)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, I'm sorry I vanished it, then. :^) I do tend to take stuff to do with the airlines personally because my father worked for them forever (and my ex-sister in law is still a stewardess). I flew starting about... age 4... ah, a DC-10 was a lovely plane. So sometimes I get carried away when I compare it with today's airlines' hostile treatment of the passengers.

My father worked for Eastern, then National and then Pan Am. National had a fun attitude- they were based in Fla so they decided to dress their stewardii in citrus colors. :^) And they gave out sytrofoam sheets to punch out airplanes (that actually could fly) whose body was in the shape of the state of Florida and printed with National's route maps. I sure wish I still had one of them.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wanna go jumbling with you, I do I do I do... a fabulous haul you got there, I think The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Ideas and Dreams. is the one I'd try and steal.

You like My Word too? We have a couple of the books, they're just... brilliant :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That book is fascinating, and I adore those old illos.

I love My Word! Those guys are so clever and funny.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Yep. My Music, also with Muir and Norden (along with John Amis and Ian Wallace IIRC), was excellent too. There must be a chance of repeats on one of the BBC's digital radio stations (which are available over the Net).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I think there is. I just have to find the time. They used to be on the radio here at midnight.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I love those kind of fairs - it sounds like you got a good haul! :-)

That illustrated sci-fi book sounds like it was a good buy...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It is! I'm tempted to use some of it for photo manips.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

What I thought were two old silver egg cups but are actually Selangor pewter. Do you polish pewter?

You can do if you want but make sure you use a non abrasive metal polish and a very soft cloth pewter scratches easily. Mostly You only need to polish if they have been left in a cupboard for years. Otherwise just wash them in warm soapy water and dry with said soft cloth. Don't put themi in a dishwasher to abrasive.

I love car boot sales and jumble sales I always find things I didn't know I needed until I see them. I haven,t been to one in months, must find one.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And I'd never put them in a dishwasher, don't worry. I just wondered if I could use silver or brass polish which I have, but I won't; I'll do what you suggest.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

When you're drying them give them a good rub, this brings a bit of a sparkle, for a short while anyway.

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

What a fab haul. 'A Suitable Boy' is well worth the effort. Bummer about your library's renewal policy - I think I had to renew it about 3 times to get through it!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You only get four weeks now instead of six, and one renewal of two weeks and only if no one else has ordered it. :-( I shall have to pay the fines on the one I have out now.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Nice haul!

That's such a shame, about all the things that your mother threw out. I had to throw out quite a few childhood books at one point, but I'd be very sad indeed to have lost all of them like that. Did you know that she was going to do it?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

No. I just came home from overseas and found she'd chucked the lot when she moved. I mourn my train set especially.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Ouch. That must have been hard, I'm sorry.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I feel angry whenever I think about it. I suspect she resented me for being off having fun.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised you feel angry, even now. *hugs* I'm glad that some things, at least, you can find again.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thank you. [hugs] I've found a few of books over the years, but some things I can never replace.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Bah, I want books and things... maybe after I move.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I sort of miss not owning much though. For about five years, everything I owned went in two suitcases, but once I had a flat and had to get furniture, the rot set in. I'll never achieve that Oriental simplicity of decor again.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

I love The Little Prince, and oh, oh, the Illustrated Book of Sci Fi... sounds FANTASTIC. Scan in the picture, pretty please! I wonder if I could get it on Amazon? It would make me so happy.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's old. It was published in the 70s before B7 even! The most recent pic in it is of a poster for the first Star Wars. It's lost its dust cover but the inside covers have colour pics of Buck Rogers (I think). It's wonderful; full of illos from past eras. I straight away recognised an illo for James Blish's Cities in Flight. [loves]

I shall definitely scan the 50s Servie in at some point, and others. Maybe I'll get some ideas for the rest of NaArMaMo month.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

My brother just told me of a connection I wouldn't have suspected; he says Roger Altounyan knew Alan Turing at Cambridge. I'm guessing that this was postwar (we know where Turing was during the war, and Roger was in the RAF; I think he went to Cambridge afterwards).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Huh! Interesting the way people are connected. It could have been before the war; Turing was at Cambridge from 1931 to 1936 I think, first as am undergrad, and ending as a fellow at King's. Did he go back there after the war? According the Wikipedia, he went to the National Physical Laboratory in Richmond, then to the University of Manchester.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Has to be after the war; Roger was born in 1922. From an account at www.blackwell-synergy.com (I pieced this together using Google because the site demands an online subscription): "He intended to follow his father Dr Ernest Altounyan to read medicine at the University of Cambridge, but the Second World War interrupted his studies. In 1946, after a distinguished wartime career as a bomber instructor pilot for which he was awarded the Air Force Cross, he commenced his preclinical medical studies at Emmanuel College Cambridge followed in 1949 by clinical studies at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London..."

And later in the Wikipedia article on Turing, it says "In late 1947 he returned to Cambridge for a 'sabbatical' year. While he was at Cambridge, ACE was completed in his absence and executed its first program on May 10, 1950. In 1949 he became deputy director of the computing laboratory at the University of Manchester..."

So that places Roger in Cambridge 1946-1949, and Turing 1947-1949. It's not immediately obvious how they'd meet each other, being in different disciplines and different colleges; my brother didn't go into detail about what Roger had told him. Maybe they drank in the same pub!

My brother also talked about the time he met Ransome, as a child. He says he remembers very little of it apart from a visual memory of Ransome and his wife standing in front of the house, and hearing afterwards that Ransome wrote to my father to say he was welcome to visit, but never to bring the children again.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

!!! How very odd, considering how well known Ransome was for a children's book, and how well he got into their heads.

Yes, I wonder how Altounyan and Turing met. Maybe they shared a hobby (didn't Turing like cycling?) or had mutual friends.