Perennial sales and unwanted Tiki items 7/11/09

As I approach the half-decade mark of this odyssey of clutter one of the things I have found in my limited realm of in-town Atlanta is that some sales occur on a repeating basis every year. These sales appear and blossom much like the azaleas in the yards of so many southern homes. Like those flowers sometimes there are good years and sometimes there are drab years. In my neighborhood I have visited several sales in the same yards of some home four years in a row. One not so interesting sale I visited for four years. In that time they have attempted to sell a used breast pump without success. One the fourth and most recent sale the pump was not in sight. Either they had sold it or given up on trying to sell this somewhat highly personal device. Most of these perennial sales seem to evolve, some things reappear some thing remain retreating back to basements and garages to hibernate for another attempt the following year.
This morning I visited two homes that I have visited multiple times in the past.

Elmira Ave.- Candler Park “Yard Sale”
The painted plywood sign nailed to an oak tree on the curb was my signal that this was a return visit for me. I told the seller upon arrival that I have photographed the large yellow smiley face sign at least twice in the past. She told me a man who had done some work on her house had made it and she kept using whenever she felt like having a yard sale. In years past the contents of her yard featured a selections of house wares and older home furnishings. This time around the yard was dominated by a selection of new age media. A card table held a number of bumper stickers (Led by spirits, Follow your bliss) pins and cards.
On another table was a large selection of mostly new age and spiritual books. Among them I found “Create Your Own Goddess”, “The Earth Path”, “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga”, “Smile for no Good Reason” and “Reality Adjustment”. On another table were a CD player and a large assortment of recordings that matched the spiritual essence of the books. The discs were sorted out in boxes with labels such as “guided meditations”, “chanting”, “Native American,” “music for meditation and healing” and “dance music”.
I bought nothing but talked for sometime to the seller about the publishing industry.
Selection of new age bumper sticks.
















Elmira St. - Candler Park Yard Sale

At the end of the same street was another sale hosted by a friend from my days in Ormewood Park. On top of his van parked in the street was a large sign directing customers to also visit the sale down the street. It was evident by the age spread of the toys that he had not had a sale in some time. Among the toys was A Real Meal Oven, Junior Monopoly, bins filled with small plastic cars and airplanes and a large box of PlayDoh. Hanging on a pole in the large was a child’s costume of one of the characters from Monsters Inc made with blue fake fur. It looked too hot to wear. Adult stuff in his yard included a bowl of golf balls, some candles shaped like stars, some silver serving dishes, two trench coast, four boogie boards and a collection of glass insulators.
I bought nothing.



Hot costume. Note: It could also be worn as a Where the Wild Things Are costume.





















Bin of plastic toys.


















Mansfield Ave. – Candler Park “Yard Sale”

This was the other perennial sale of the day. The women hosting the sale remembered me when I arrived. She recalled two years ago when I was documenting her sale she viewed pictures of her sale on a laptop at this website while I was there. Each year here something stays the same and something changes. The seller is an artist. Last year she had the remains of a series of paintings large and small she had created of dogs. There were a few elements of this series remaining on this visit. But presently she is creating exotic headgear using bandanas, feathers and jewelry to liven up people’s heads.
This sale always has a lot of leftover art and craft supplies. Today I found clothespins, stencils, and old copies of Tole World, yarn, glue and lots of scrap pieces of fabric. Other stuff found here was a selection of women’s clothing, an old painting which I’m trying to decide is a self portrait, a copy of Lou Reed’s Transformer ( a personal favorite of mine) an empty Turfurky box, a copy of “The Customer is Always Wrong” and a Pippi Longstocking looking wigs that was brunette instead of red. She posed with it and said it was for the Asian Pippi Longstocking.
I bought nothing but hope return again next year.


The seller's current project - Head decor.




















Seller with Pippiesque wig.




















Brownwood Ave. – East Atlanta “Yard Sale”

This was a small sale without a lot of stuff worth remembering. A pair of tables was arrayed in a yard where the owners had failed at growing grass. Here I found a harlequin doll, a large plush Kermit, some small picture frames, a pedicure tool a book on cuddly cats. There was also a large old box spring leaning against a tree.
I bought nothing.












Emerson Ave. - Ormewood Park “Yard Sale”

Performer extordinaire Chico Nunez told me I needed to visit this sale the previous evening. I had started on Friday but when I arrived there was still a lot left. In the driveway in back of a small house a large collection of Tiki decor and other barware was piled up outside the garage. The seller told me he was changing his bar motif from a Tiki theme which he felt had peaked ten years ago to a more suave and sophisticated sixties look. In his redecorating efforts both large and small things were being divested. Among the stuff gathered in the driveway was a set of faux bamboo living room furniture, a massive two foot long varnished blowfish, a dozen paint by number paintings, a chocolate fountain ( not really a Tiki or retro item at all) one of those old vibrating belt exercise machines, numerous Tiki headed drinking vessels, several large Tiki heads, a salon floor model hair dryer and two pink artificial Xmas trees. Various other things that the owner was probably just tired of looking at included a large fax machine, a pair of platform boots, a pair of slippers shaped like women’s feet with painted toenails and a large collection of old light up magnifying make-up mirrors.
I bought nothing but the seller did take me inside to show off his new 60’s bar room décor.

Collection of old make-up mirrors.


















One of the many paint by numbers works on display.



















Platforms and old fax machine together at last.






















Other footwear for sale.





















Nelms Ave. Lake Claire “YaRd SaLe”

This sale was not very noteworthy but I wanted to mention it just for the sake of their poster and yes everything they had was cheap.