Saturday 10/18/08

Oxford Ave. - Lake Claire “Yard Sale”

I should have ventured further this weekend since I needed something for a Halloween costume but I stayed close to home and visited only two nearby sales. This sale in the yard of a large old home near DeKalb Ave. was a grungy delight. In the yard was a mixture of old motorcycles, cycle parts, uninstalled home fixtures, clothing and home décor. Dominating the scene were two motorcycles in questionable condition one with the low selling price of $120.00. The debris of abandoned home projects included a laundry sink, heaters, cabinets, glass and Plexiglas, light fixtures and unassembled plumbing items. Home furnishings featured a lamp with the KISS logo and flames, a large white bed frame that did not match the Kiss lamp, some sheets from the Luv-Motel, the usual assortment of small picture frames, a large print of a human eye and a framed Joy Division poster. To complement the motorcycles clothing included a large box of leather boots as well as some stylish purses, a collection of sunglasses, men’s shirts and pair of well-worn pith helmets. Other stuff included six different guitar effects pedals, a few home audio components, a throw pillow shaped like a rat, two silver skulls and a book on planning weddings on a budget.
I bought nothing.

A pair of silver skulls among the debris.

















Joy Division poster with matching boots.



























Dixie Ave. - Inman Park “Yard Sale”

This was a larger sale put on by several women in front of an apartment building. The presentation was well-arranged and featured a lot women’s clothing. While I examine the material on display a frisky tabby cat wandered about the clutter sometime jumping into boxes other times sitting of clothing. I attempted to photograph the feline but he keep moving away from me. Among the things the cat passed by were a pair of slippers shaped liked dogs, a squat effigy of the Eiffel Tower and a container of pubic hair dye. One place the cat did not go was a box filled with old golf balls, I presume he found these toouncomfortable to lounge upon. Other stuff scattered about the yard included old lamps, a variety of house wares and some tools kits that looked as though they had never been used.
I bought nothing and still have no costume.



Dog faced slippers. I guess I should have bought them for Halloween.

Walking again…10/11/08

With the Candler Park Festival happening this weekend there were a lot of sales close enough to visit on foot.


Arizona Ave.- Lake Claire “Yard Sale”

Here I found two sales in adjacent homes. In front of one home was a sizable collection of garden tools, household fixtures, old baskets, lamps without shades, antique looking dolls, toys and house wares. Three inexplicable items included a sliced section of a log, a banner of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a box full of light up plastic American flags.
The house next door had a lot less stuff with just two sparse tables sitting out on the curb. But in the collection here were two zydeco rub boards neatly arranged on the walkway and a framed photograph of a deer crossing a river.

I bought nothing.



Zydeco rub boards flanking the walkway.






















Connecticut Ave. – Lake Claire “Yard Sale”

Two friends of mine who recently adopted a baby put on this sale. One of them is travels the world as a public health official and has brought back a treasure trove of exotic paraphernalia from his travels. A lot of this was on sale today undoubtedly since children should not be chewing on splintery Congolese carvings. They also were like other couples with babies as they were selling off the initial baby items they acquired. So the sale was a delightful and disturbing blend of exotic and domestic clutter. Among the stuff gathered for divestment was a pair of tabla drums, a menorah carved from a Cyprus knee, a wooden carving of a lion that appeared to have no front legs, a variety of primitive musical instruments and a tiny Central American sculpture of a woman giving birth. The baby stuff was the usual new born to six months stuff that does not need to be described. But more domestic exotic clutter included a drinking vessel in the shape of the Westin Hotel, an ashtray shaped like a Ubangi women’s head and a painting of the cartoon French Skunk Pee Pee le Pew. I do not know if that last item was purchased in Paris.
I bought nothing.






Jungle drums and cypress knee Menorah.

















Central American woman giving birth.


















New York Ave. – Lake Claire “Yard Sale”


I had visited this sale last Sunday and it looked no different today except that it appeared abandoned. No one was in sight when I arrived and no one came out the entire time I was there. There was not a lot to this sale so maybe the sellers just didn’t care. The sale was in a booth in the back yard among the stuff there were some toys, garden tools and clothing. There was a cat sitting on some sale stuff, perhaps the feline was trained to watch the merchandise.
I bought nothing since there was no one around to buy anything from.







Ferguson Ave. Candler Park – “Yard Sale”


This was another small sale. With furniture, Xmas décor and some kitchen stuff. Among the notable items here was a chair almost totally covered in silver duct tape and a framed, spooky and dark portrait of a woman.
I bought nothing.












Face found on Ferguson.
























Glendale Ave. Candler Park “Yard Sale”

This sale was very small; here two young women presided over a meager collection of stuff on a table and on the sidewalk. In a box here was a copy of the Dummies Guide to Bartending a six beer glasses.
I bought nothing.












Hardendorf Ave. – Lake Claire “Yard Sale”


This was a large sale just down the street from my home. My neighbors here have always had a talent for creating good yard art and today that talent spilled over into their display of stuff for sale. On the sidewalk they had unruly and jumbled collection of Xmas and Halloween décor. The clutter was mixed with their edgy Halloween décor that features a large six-foot mummy and a torso with a bloody head mounted on their fence. Their zesty mixture of the gruesome depravity of Halloween with bones and plastic chainsaws fused with tangled colored lights, faux poinsettias and the flotsam of abandoned miniature holiday villages holiday villages was nothing less than outstanding. I am so delighted to have neighbors with such flair.
I bought nothing.


Decrepit head welcoming shoppers.

















Mixing the holidays on Hardendorf.





















Dekalb Ave. – Candler Park “Yard Sale”


When I returned home Cindy told me a local artist had been calling me to please go check out this sale because they had piñatas in the shape of male genitalia. So I got in the car and drove over to find a sale in the same site I had visit three weeks ago with the aforementioned piñatas as well as some of the same stuff I had seen three weeks ago. The sellers were delighted to pose with their paper mache creations as indicated in the following photos. I never did ask why they had these creations that were being sold. They were placed next to some very homey and domestic looking crochet work.
I bought nothing.

The Wonders of Druid Hills Redux - 9/27/08

Druid Hills Community Yard Sale Day

Druid Hills the upscale neighborhood just to my north seems in some ways a far cry from Candler Park and Lake Claire to the south. There one finds Italinate mansions instead of craftsman bungalows, Emory doctors instead of drum beating old bohemians, and far more cosmetic surgery than tattoos. So once again I wondered tree lined avenues with names like Oxford and Lullwater to examined the divested clutter of this exclusive enclave. Here even the lemonade stands are a more distinguished and a plentiful supply of large plastic playthings indicates that the upper classes are repopulating their kind and spoiling their offspring.





The participants in the sales were interesting in their own right at one sale a neighborhood teen purchased an epee, fencing mask and jacket. Then he proceeded to chase another teen with sword in hand from sale to sale. The Other teen in turn purchased a pair of nunchucks and the two then began sparing among the assembled clutter. The hoi poloi from less fortunate sections of Atlanta appeared to be having a pleasant time overfilling their pickups and SUVs with upper class castoffs. Several sales that ended in the early PM just moved their contents to the curb with shoppers digging through the clutter. But not everything met this fate for I did see some of the same items from last year such as a large floral painting that was placed in the exact location of the prior sale. Some of the highlights are depicted in the photos below.




Upscale refreshment stand.
















Vehicle laden with a bounty of goods.





















Shoppers scavenging discarded clutter.





















A pair of Furbies, one of the ugliest and most annoying toys ever created.

















Reading matter of the country club set.



















Local canine assisting with sale.


















A defining image of the Druid Hills community yard sale day.

Gas shortages, economic meltdown, faux fruit and little ironies..

The gas crisis in Atlanta continues. I filled my tank returning from Charleston and it’s still a little more than half filled week later. I’m not yet desperate but I don’t know of any nearby stations with gas and those further out have drivers waiting in line for over an hour. So this morning I haul the bike out on the street, pack my camera in the handlebar pouch and go. I’m able to hit half a dozen sales before noon.

McLendon Ave. - Lake Claire “Yard Sale”

This was a small sale in the front yard and driveway of a Tudor bungalow. Here I found plastic bags filled with miniature faux fruit, a trio of monkey hand puppets, a box of pewter drawer pulls, a bin filled with tiny garden tools of undetermined use and some tiny lawn furniture that no human could sit in. In a selection of books was a copy of “One Nation Under Debt”. In the yard under the shade of a small dogwood one of the sellers was arranging a collection of souvenir plates and ashtrays. Among them were tokens from Singapore, the Vatican and the USA Bicentennial
I bought nothing.



Basket of tiny tools.















Today's first faux fruit.



















Ridgecrest Ave. – Lake Claire “Yard Sales”

Pedaling further uphill I came across a small sale and a medium sized sale across the street from each other. The smaller sale mostly featured women and children’s clothing. The larger sale hade a number of tables arranged in the yard of a brick bungalow and a lot of stuff scattered across the grass. The centerpiece of this sale was a single solar panel in the middle of the sale hooked up to a ceiling fan mounted on a wooden bracket constructed of two by fours. The solar panel was aimed towards the morning sun and the fan was turning briskly. But the low placement of the fan four feet from the grass meant only plants and earthworms enjoys its cooling breeze. But it was an appropriate item to come across considering Atlanta's current energy crisis. Sadly no buyers seemed interested in either the solar panel or the fan. Other stuff collected in the yard included a plastic bag of full sized faux oranges (perhaps a theme for today) a framed photograph of an outhouse, a old massive IBM Selectric typewriter, a steam cleaner, a huge propane outdoor heating tower, toys, disassembled lighting fixtures and women’s shoes.
I bought nothing.







Solar panel at work.


















More faux fruit.















East Lake Dr. – Druid Hills “Yard Sale”

For some reason this enclave between Lake Claire and Decatur is considered part of Druid Hills so I guess this sale was part of the Druid Hills Community Sale day, which I will cover, in a later post. But I’m mentioning it now since it was on my bike route.
Here I found a line of tables going down a long driveway leading to a stately brick bungalow. A jumbled assemblage included old house wares, avocado green small appliances, ugly ceramic cats, a framed print of the partying Bama red elephant, old televisions and boxes of tangled Xmas décor. I was impressed that one o the TV’s for sale was the same RCA model I had purchased over 20 years ago. The seller said it still worked but didn’t have a remote for it. The ironic item of this sale was a toy car set that came in a plastic gasoline can. This was the closest thing anyone in this city saw of gasoline today.
I bought nothing.


Children's gas can.

















Ugly cats.

















Flora Ave. - Edgewood “Yard sale”

I rode downhill and across DeKalb Ave into Edgewood to visit this sale held on the front porch of a small frame home.
Here a tattooed man presided over an unopened collection of Star Wars figures, some CD, men’s clothing and baby items. This was the classic ‘it’s time to get over the things of your youth and move on to raising you kid sales’. The Mom or the baby were not in sight. The ironic item of this sale was one book sitting alone on the porch entitled “You Are Being Lied To”
I bought a nice black short sleeve shirt and took a hand full of coverless CDs he was giving away.
I took CDs by the Pogues, The Smiths, Violent Femmes, Beastie Boys and The White Lines. I declined to take any of the plentiful Iron Maiden recordings here.







Degress Ave – Inman Park “Yard Sales”

There were two sales on this short street off DeKalb Ave. The first was a tiny sale in the front yard of an old Stone church that had been converted into a private home. The only stuff here was a small assortment of items laid out of a tarp in front of the church. On the tarp was more faux fruit, an air mattress and a copy of Josef Koudelka’s book of photographs entitled “Chaos.
I bought nothing.












Images of chaos and an inflatable bed.

















The second sale was down the street and visible from the first sale. Here was a larger collection of stuff gathered in the front yard of a brick bungalow. Among the clutter here were three disassembled ceiling fans, a primitive mask of unknown origin, clothing and a large selection of cutlery.
I bought nothing.




















Mansfield Ave.- Candler Park “Yard Sale”

Heading back toward home I stopped at one final sale near Little Five Points. I visited a sale at this location last year and the sellers remembered me from my prior visit when I brought out my camera. They reminded me that when I visited then they were poking about the web on a laptop on their porch and visited my site while I took photos. They were not online today but had a few of the same items I saw last year. But the large collection of dogs painting that I documented then was gone. This years items included a large selection of art supplies, women’s clothing and three ceramic pigs.
Among some books I found “Really Important Stuff”, “A Wellness Way of Life” and a few biology textbooks.
I bought nothing.






Divestments of an artist.