Saturday Dec. 25, 2004

Hardendorf Ave. Lake Claire - No yard sale but lots of holiday décor

Since this journal is about things in other people’s yards and that no other people have things for sale in their yards I should note what’s in my own yard.
Aside from easily storable paper items such as brochures for failed roadside attractions, one of the things I am always on the outlook for at yard sales are plastic interior illuminated Christmas yard figures. My collection started over ten years ago when I purchased a snowman at an after Xmas sale . The following year I acquired a Santa. I later inherited from Cindy’s parent’s two oversized candles. A friend gave me a Nativity starter set about seven years age. The starter set had only Joseph and Mary. For a number of years I used one of Cindy’s old childhood baby dolls (who did not glow) for the baby Jesus figure. Later a friend who came to our Christmas party said he had a baby Jesus figure he wasn’t using and gave it to me. The baby figure has peeling paint that gives the skin a piebald look. When the figure was given to me it was not wired and I rigged the light myself. But Cindy sometimes claims that this is the reason the whole set blows a circuit when it rains. At a yard sale I found the greatest addition to the collection when I came across four wise men and a Shepard. The wise man is not the lost magi foretold of somewhere between Amos and Nahum but just a back up copy of Caspar. Since he’s kneeling I have considered customizing him to give the set another Shepard.
The penguin was the last traditional figure added to the collection when I found it at a Target store a few years ago. The penguin was pictured in a Creative Loafing column on tacky Christmas décor a few years ago. Two years ago a friend secured Gloria, the flying angel for me from a post Xmas sale at Wal-mart. I was hoping to add a sheep to the scene this year. But these are hard to find. There was one on the internet for thirty some dollars but I am hoping that in my constant visits to sales a better priced one will work its way into my life. One on again off again figure in the set is the goose. We used the goose when we first set up the scene this year. But he kept falling over and was removed. In addition the power also was getting tripped a lot when the goose was lit. The goose was never intended to be used in an Xmas display. But it has a good bit of history. The goose, which was sold as a lamp was one of the first items of home furnishing I purchased after graduating from college. It has survived a house fire and numerous attempts by Cindy to sell it at yard sales. He may not be a full time figure in the scene but he is a survivor.
A few of the figures aside from the piebald Jesus are showing some signs of wear. Baltazar, the Frankincense bearing Ethiopian, was blown down by the wind and suffered a blow to the nose this year. Melchior is missing one of his plastic jewels. It fell of last year when I was getting him down from the loft in my shed. But Mary has the most extreme damage. When Mary was given to me she had a piece of her head missing. The head wound has expanded over the years. This year Cindy in an act of homespun art restoration fixed Mary’s noggin with some Tupperware and a plastic garbage sack. The figure is looking better than in years past but her condition is at best -guarded.
This is the first years that the display is around the water garden. To prevent hapless trespassers from falling into the water while handling the electrified icons we have placed an old door from our home over the pond. This undoubtedly makes for an even gloomier winter for our goldfish (the same ones who survived the savage raccoon raid a few months ago). It’s not only cold in the water but dark as well. Perhaps they will turn white like the trout someone put in the underground lake at the Lost Sea near Chattanooga.

O’Henry Lane - Storyville

There is not much I can say about this seemingly sad sale that a young married couple was having in their front yard. Among the items there were long beautiful strands of the wife’s hair with a note that said they could be used for a human hair wig. The man was selling an old but quite attractive pocket watch that had been in his family for a long time. The watch needed a fob.
I bought nothing but wished them a merry Christmas.