Yard Sale Addict

Majestic Cir. - Avondale Estates “Estate Sale”

After work I stopped by this ranch home in Avondale. The estate sellers were set up as usual in the living room where there was not a lot for sale. A collection of assorted goods was gathered on the table in the dinning room. There I found a number of lapel pins for the Lioness Clubs of Georgia, some chalk cubes for pool sticks, a mink wrap, an Etch a Sketch and a box containing a string art kit named Symography. In the kitchen was a typical assortment of pots pans and other kitchen implements among the glassware I found a humanoid baseball figure promoting the drug Claritin. In the dining room was a bookshelf containing mostly religious works. Among the titles there were “Life is for Living”, “Voiceless Lips”, “Papa was a preacher”,” None dare call it treason” and “sermons on the Prodigal Son” There was a large stack of VHS tapes most with hand written labels a few included “ War and Remembrance” Only two of the three small bedrooms were open. One contained only a few things and a closet full of plaid men’s shirts. The other contained a bed and some old sheets and pillows. I headed down a narrow staircase to the basement and found that to be one of the most interesting areas of the entire estate. There is a small room I found five cases of canned water with the Civil Defense logo on them. Could this of been a fallout shelter? These survival rooms are a dying breed left over from the cold war most were turned into storage rooms as this one holding tools and piles of old coat hangers. Only the cases of pure drinking water remained of one mans dream of surviving a nuclear holocaust and hoping to create a new civilization based on his own vision. In the back of the shelter taped to the wall was a drawing of a bald man. In the more open (to atomic attack) portion of the basement was a mixture of old holiday décor and home medical equipment. One ancient looking cardboard box was label Throat ice bag. In side the remnants of this trachea cooler had melded with the cardboard over too many hot summers. It now resembled a melted bladder. Other health care items included a hospital bed various types of traction and your typical assortment of walkers. In a closet in the basement were some women’s clothes and a shopping bag from the oft-maligned Knoxville World’s Fair. In a vinyl shoe holder was a spray can of a product with the strangely spelled name “Mildew Fyter”. Among some old National Geographic and next to a snow globe with the nativity inside I found some old copies of “ Pearl Harbor Journal” A newsletter for survivors of the Hawaiian attack. Perhaps that explains the fallout shelter.
On the way out I noticed that in the carport the sellers were taking offers on a massive 1972 Buick Wildcat. It only had 92K on the odometer.
I bought nothing but considered the thrill of driving in the Wildcat.