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.

On Vacation

I've been on vacation the last few weeks. YSA will return next week with new reports and images from the yards of clutter.

6/13/09 The day after portable TVs became useless.

Euclid Ave. - Candler Park “Yard Sale”


The seller gave me a warm welcome as I was an old friend as I approached this sale on his porch. I had a vague memory that I had been here before some time back but I recalled not a man two older women selling a lot of antique like stuff on this porch. I also had a vague memory that I had seen the selection of Elvis collectibles and the collections of old glass electric insulators before. But one insulator looks like any other two me. Insulator are one collectable that I have never understood. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone to actually collect these but there were a lot of them on this porch gleaming in the harsh morning sun. I didn’t spend much time here looking at a copy of the Da Vinci Code, a few old Pez dispensers or the unopened bottle of Woodbridge wine, which may or may not have been for sale. I told the friendly seller to have a good sale and left buying nothing.




Elvis stuff on Euclid Ave.

















Euclid Ave. - Candler Park “Yard sale”

Just a few homes down was another sale. This one featured a man and two women presiding over a collection of clutter in their front yard. One of my artistic schemes for another exhibition is to create a series of portraits of sellers with their goods. So I spent most of my time here convincing the sellers to pose for me. The man posed holding a large Chinese style wall hanging that appeared to be crafted from plastic. The women posed on a very ugly sofa they referred to as big orange. “Oh we’re going to be in a coffee table book” one remarked. I took this to be a sign of fortune and made a mental note to get out at least one query letter to some publisher this week. I need to do something with the 7000 plus photos in this series.
Among some stuff found in the yard were two chairs badly in need of recaning, a red union suit, a pillow embroidered with “the best is yet to come”, a door, an old gaming console, a vacuum cleaner and women’s clothing. There was a sign that said “Popcorn 50 cents” One of the sellers remarked that their son had sold not any popcorn thus far on this hot June day.
I bought nothing.


Seller with Chinese wall art.



















Village Walk – Decatur “Yard Sales”


I had taped an interview the previous day on the local AM arts station WMLB and the host had told me that he was having a sale today so I felt obliged to visit. He had remarked that he collected a lot of stuff so I wanted to see what he had accumulated. One the way towards Decatur I made some stops at two totally forgettable sales and one that I am trying to forget. The later was a so-called estate sale that consisted of two tables of old décor items in the front yard of a tiny bungalow. It wasn’t the size and misleading manner of the sale that I want to forget but the odious smell. In front of the yard was a large open dumpster fill with damp broken things reeking of mildew. The molding smell was so strong I was able to taste it in my mouth for two days.
Village Walk an infill community in Decatur had no noxious smell there were three sales happening in the small community when I arrived. My host from the radio station did have a lot of collectible items. Most notable was a large animatronic singing and talking bust of Elvis. The eerie android King rolled his eyes curled his lips and talk and sang the entire time I was there. Other stuff neatly displayed on several tables included a selection of bobbing headed characters, a plush M&M dressed as Luke Skywalker, a bread maker, an unopened copy of the urban myth game, a storage rack for baby food complete with a sample bottle of baby food marked “bad” and an end table with a base of faux books.
I bought nothing but thanked my host for telling me about the sale.
Two other homes in Village walk had smaller sales. One mostly had a lot of modern house wares and a large collection of sweaters. The other had a large cat maze. I bought a portion of the cat maze. My cats have yet to play in it.




Singing, talking, lip curling Elvis bust.

















One of my purchases for the day. A cat toy my cats don't like.



















Russell St. - Forrest Hills “Street Sale”

This was a relatively small street sale with about six homes hosting medium to small sales. Yesterday marked the final day of analog TV broadcasting and strangely I found three old portable and now totally useless TV here. One was the once fashionable and high end Sony Watchman. Today it is just a curiosity that just picks up static. I did get a woman at one sale to pose with an especially dreadful striped sweater for my portrait gallery. Among some other stuff I found here was a replica of a grass hut, an extremely ugly baby doll with removable hair, a table full of holiday décor selling for 25 cents an item and a large vibrating lounger with a built in cup holder with instructions not to use it as an ashtray. I bought some pieces of copper pipe that I need for a sculpture I’m creating in the fall.






Seller posing with ugly sweater.
















Useless electronic device.


















Ugly and scary doll.



















Forrest Ave. - Forrest Hills “Yard Sale”

This was an extensive yard sale with a lot of stuff covering the front yard of a brick ranch home. Much of the stuff was baby items. In addition, they also had a used motor scooter, yet another non functional portable TV, several pairs of Crocs that appeared never to have been worn, an unopened package of toe separators, a Marilyn Monroe doll and a sweater almost as ugly as the one a the prior sale. I bought nothing but as I was leaving I encountered a large snapping turtle walking across the road towards the sales. I took this to be a good sign.









Marilyn doll overlooking baby items.
















Why is the turtle crossing the road?
















Delmar Ave. Ormewood Park “Multi Family Sale”
I headed from Decatur to SE Atlanta but several of the sales listed in Craigslist were not happening or were tiny events not worth documenting. The sale on Delmar was spread across the yards of two neighboring homes. Sadly most of the stuff was more baby items. I view baby items as the reverse of old home health care items. The later stuff often marks the end of a life and carries with it a certain amount of pathos. Baby items have no dramatic pathos but do mark the beginning of a new life and the dream of more clutter to come. Regardless of its promise of clutter to be I don’t find strollers, diaper bins, basinets and the like interesting to document. But there were other things going on here, such as several tables covered with older popular Cds selling for 3 for five dollars. Next to this they were selling Obama t-shirts and buttons. I do not know if they had over invested in Obamabelia or had created the stuff just for this sale. Other stuff here included a novelty rock star wig, two motorcycle helmets some women’s clothing and another now useless TV.
I bought nothing





Obama stuff on sale.


















Clocks and helmets on Delmar.

Big Church Sale redux- 6/4/09

The Yard Sale, Decatur

This is a yearly sale that actually generates talk on the street. “Did you see that church with all the crap in front of it?”, “It looks like a 747 carrying the contents of 10 Goodwill stores crashed at a church in Decatur” or “The stuff goes on for miles”. People were calling me and sending me emails. When I heard church and yard full of junk I knew it was a reprise of the sale I had documented last summer. The sale is a delight not so much for the uniqueness of its goods but more for the massive volume of its clutter. It is a sight, a veritable field of clutter all scattered in a somewhat organized manner across several acres of grass.
Today I was just getting around again. I had had surgery only last week and was not moving to well but I decided that this event would be a good way for me to return to normalcy. While I mostly needed to protect my still bandaged abdomen I cautiously proceeded around the sale hoping no one would jostle my midsection with bedrails or curtain rods. I also found it challenging to bend and dip to inspect sundry goods and take proper photographs.
The sale this year had been dampered (as nearly all local sales for the past two months) by on and off rains showers. But while I was there the skies were clear. The organizers of the sale clad in “The Yard Sale” t- shirts had separated the contents by use and type much like in a large thrift store. Some things were more organized than others.
The art section (one of my favorite areas) had the work divided by size with tiny five-inch framed works on one end and sofa size art on the other. Among some of the better art work was a wonderful naïve painting of a duck family, a painting of a drooping palm tree, a print of a busty fraulein and a hand carved boy scout plaque.












All manner of holiday décor was represented here in no particular order. It appeared that at the start of the sale Xmas, Halloween, Easter items had been separated but by the actions of so many shoppers the seasons had been mixed into an tangled endless sea of holiday charm. I was most impressed by a highly degraded light up Nativity set that now presented the Holy family as a trio of lepers.












The technology section is notable for its excess in dated devices, most of which I fear will end up being recycled. In some ways it looked like the last stand of the cathode ray tubes as old TV and monitors were huddled together hoping to have once last chance at life and utility. The sale also demonstrates how disposable ink jet printers have become as these nearly covered the front steps of the sanctuary. Telephones, CPUs, cheap small speakers and masses of tangled cabled completed the mix.
Two surprising pleasant displays were the old baskets and luggage gathered underneath two large blooming magnolia tress. Nothing says the deep south more that a bunch of old crap piled under a magnolia. It was at this point that my doctor called me to come in and have my bandages removed. I would not see the rest of the sale but I felt I was now fully on the path to recovery.



Tangled mess of holiday decor.

















Duck painting.

Revisiting the Land Trust 5/23/09

Lake Claire Land Trust Yard Sale

Not far from my home is a unique green space known as the Lake Claire Land Trust. The Land Trust is sort of an unofficial peoples park, it hosts drum circles, is home to an emu, contains many community gardens, a sweat lodge and a small pond filled with algae and bullfrogs. Strangers who wander into this remarkable green space often remark “So this is where the hippies went to”
Each year the Land Trust puts together a fundraising yard sale and for the past several years I have documented the curiosities that its supporters donate to help with the upkeep of this urban oasis.
Today’s sale was in the cul de sac on Arizona Ave. the same locale used in past sales. Many of the same things or things that were more of less identical had returned this year. These included a well used looking pile of plastic toys, outdated electronic devices with tangled cords, mismatched cookware and kitchen utensils.
As I perused the book collection a volunteer was sorting the philosophy volumes. Among some titles there were “Bhagavada Gita”, Love Magic”, “Who Moved My Cheese”, “The Whole Soy Cookbook”, “Art of Serenity”, “Getting Rich” and “Beyond Pendulum Power”. A selection of tattered board games dominated one whole table. One notable game was entitled “Don’t Wake Daddy”. Clothing was much more orderly this year than last as item were hung neatly an arranged fashion. Last year the apparel was randomly dumped atop a massive pile of wood chips and mulch.

There are always a few surprises at this event. A very tiny sailboat with trailer was parked in pavement looking for a buyer and a small hatchback was loaded with old TVs. If they do not sell (as expected) they can be driven to a recycling center. One notable item was the reappearance of a strange oval painting I had seen at two sales in prior months. This odd rendering of a horned naked woman with mystical designs on her entrails may be the monkey’s paw of Atlanta yard sale items. I photographed it them noticed that w woman was purchasing it. When I told here about how it keeps reappearing she responding that she was going to use it for a prank. It seems she is house sitting for a friend and is planning to hang it in his house to surprise him when he returns. He lives in the area so I expect to see it soon at another sale.
In addition to strange artwork the Land Trust always has a huge collection of boxes of old New Age magazines offered for free. If one ever needs to get an old copy of Dream Journal this is the place to find it. In addition to all this the sale featured home made peace signs, henna painting, fresh bakery items and Tarot readings. I bought a brownie.



Countless copies of free new age journals.


















The horned woman returns.

I could not help myself...

Family Circus this week featured the family having a garage sale. In a long tradition of people adding their own creative text to these cartoons I joined in.

Saturday 5/16/09

After 4.5 years a bit of ennui….

As I approach the five-year mark of documenting sales I feel this week it’s time to change my approach a bit. When I went out two weeks ago I found first of all that in my own neighborhood I had possibly exhausted all possible variations of photographing what appeared to be the same old stuff in people’s yards. While one bad weekend should not tamper the quality of a half-decade of work I feel the necessity of changing the approach of my narrative. Last weekend I attended four sales all in the adjoining neighborhoods of Lake Claire and Candler Park. Each sale was a disappointment of one form or another. While one sale did have a selection of homemade artwork of note and another an ugly and dirty love seat, the gathered artifacts I witnessed that day did little for me. Perhaps my mind is no longer stimulated by Cartoon Network promo items, bins of plastic toys, garish Halloween décor (I need to survey my past entries and find how many times I used that phrase), children’s furniture and piles of popular hardbound books that no one wants to buy (Dean Koontz is the leader in this genre). Perhaps I should take notice, my yard saling compatriots told me there were wonderful sales in other neighborhoods the same day I found only dismay. Or perhaps I should more persistent like that Japanese artist who has created a painting of Mt. Fuji every day of his life for the past 35 years. He must go out some days and say ‘ah it looks just like it did yesterday so why bother?” But that artist does seek out nuances and variation in approach and perhaps that’s what I’m doing now.


Saturday Morning

The skies are grey this morning and the weather forecasters have called for rain most of the weekend and I’m out of coffee. Regardless I plot a route to the local sales sans caffeine stumbling over Craigslist listings. I had made some notes the prior evening but by 8 AM there are three more pages added to the listings. Craigslist despertly needs to create separate pages for ads inside and outside Atlanta’s perimeter highway. Passing over listings for sales in far flung locales like Canton, Blue Ridge and Griffin I compile a working list for a handful of sales in Edgewood, Virginia Highlands,
And Midtown.
A tall cup of coffee at San Francisco Roasting Company clears my head but not the grey skies. Rain is coming one way or another this morning. My first neighborhood is Edgewood but there sales there are dreadful and uninviting. At one only a few scattered things are in the driveway looked over by a young child with a Mohawk. The other sales have a slightly greater selection of stuff but it’s more of the same tedious stuff I’ve seen far too many times. I don’t bother taking one photograph.
I head north in the more upscale Virginia Highlands. My first stop is at a dilapidated bungalow that stinks of mold and mildew. Outside a disgruntled looking seller tells a buyer the used jeans are five dollars. The buyer replies he’s not interested upon hearing the price. There is something really unpleasant about this sale. I’m afraid to take photos since the seller in charge seems so unpleasant. I wonder into the house where the dank smell is overwhelming. Old books, movie posters of 80’s action movies (Iron Eagle 2 among others) are splayed out on a wooden floor badly in need of refinishing.
Framed prints of dogs and bears are leaning against the walls. Piles of tedious popular novels are scattered across the floor of another room while looking over the titles I hear the sound of feet on a staircase and proceed up a narrow flight of stairs. A woman tells me there’s nothing upstairs but these is a desk down stairs. She leads me down a wooden staircase to a basement that reeks of mildew to show me this small student’s desk. I want to look around at piles of accumulated clutter but she tells me only the desk is for sale and leads me back up stairs. I leave without taking one photograph. Not a good start today.
But things seem to turn around when I encounter a street wide sale onRupley Ave.
in Virginia Highlands. It seems they do this sale every years and some of the stuff I see I have seen and photographed before. Browsing the sales I run into one of the Saturday morning regulars Bob, a local attorney who buys a lot of old records. He once told me he had two storage lockers filled with stuff he’s bought at sales. When I describe my malaise regarding my documentation he suggest I need to visit some low-end flea markets out in the country. Many he says now have a bit of international flair with Latino venders offering live animals and colorful clothing. Among the highlights of the seven or eight homes on this street with sales was a fine selection of Braun hand mixers-a device I’ve never known anyone to actually use, Potty Pot shots a game that improves men’s aim in urination and an antique hobby horse from Tennessee, the same kind Bob told me he owned as a child. I was particularly impressed with a woman’s massive display of candles on a front porch swing. It’s this type of arrangement that keeps me pursuing this interest on otherwise dull mornings.
I wondered around to other sales in Morningside and Virginia Highlands. On St. Charles I got a woman to pose with a Christmas tree she was selling and on a street in Morningside another seller posed Hamlet like with a plaster skull. While there it began raining and I helps the sellers carry in clothing and bags of teddy bears to the front porch to keep them dry and sellable.
Driving over to Midtown I found an old wooden bungalow with car tires piled on the sidewalk and a selection of old bicycles and bicycle gear in the yard. The seller declined to be photographed with his stuff. Also in midtown I visited what sign proclaimed was “La Vie duhe Artiste porch and garden sale”. Here a local art instructor who was moving to the west coast displayed the day’s best sale décor. Through a flowered trellis one encountered a lush garden with bamboo and dogwoods draped with elegant Victorian dresses and a pedestal tops with a pile of kitchen tools seemingly arranged not unlike an elegant floral display. The porch held similar displays. The seller proudly posed for me next to her kitchen items.
The rain increased as I drove to a church flea market on Highland Ave. where I encountered a lot of children’s toys and clothing covered in clear plastic sheeting. The sale was picked over and I was being very careful not to get my camera wet. A table covered in work gloved was not protected from the rain as if no one would mind wearing wet gloves.
In all the day ended my feelings of ennui I did make one purchase, a drawing tablet from the sale where the seller posed with the skull. I paid a dollar for it but six days later I still have not drawn one sketch in it.






Glass head before the rain.





















Candles arranged on a rocker.























Wet children's clothes.