Featured Item--Bremen Town Musicians

A newly listed item on Hazel's HodgePodge is this little wall plaque.  It would be cute in a nursery or child's room.  You could even paint it a bright cheerful color to match your decor.  It would be good in a collection of literary items or nursery rhyme themed items.  This metal silhouette is 7 1/4 " tall and 4 1/8" across the base. It has a wall hanger on the back.  The little corrosion on it can easily be sanded off and new paint added. See and buy it HERE.

What Can You Find at a Garage Sale?

What can you find at a garage sale? Well, you might find anything you are looking for. One can find furniture, clothing, household items, toys, gadgets, just almost anything.  Sometimes, you even find things you aren't expecting.  We have all seen episodes of "Antiques Road Show" where people picked up something at a garage sale for little of nothing to find out it is now a quite valuable item.  Sometimes they even get an item that was being thrown away or the owner doesn't care about it and gives it to them. 

I should be so lucky!  Maybe you need to know what to look for???

We go to garage sales almost every weekend.  Mostly we look for band instruments, i.e. horns that hubby can repair and resell here at the music store, Mr. Bandman Music. We also find a lot of things that we can use ourselves such as chairs, linens, small kitchen items, some clothes, etc. Then I look for dishes and decorator items and collectibles for the HodgePodge.--Hazel's HodgePodge, my on-line store.  I have collected boxes and boxes of things for re-sale. In fact, I don't think I even remember all the things I do have in these boxes. 

One interesting item I found some time ago is an old leather purse or, as they said back in the day, "pocket book."  I bought the purse only to find it contained an old "credit card" dated 1945.  This is from World War II times! It is not a credit card as we know credit cards today. In fact, I have not been able to find out anything more about it than what it says on it.  I assume that since it is written in English, and we are in East Texas that the Paris named on the card is Paris, Texas.

If someone collects WWII items, this is probably a real steal  at less than $10.  If you are a WWII buff and know something else about this card, I would be pleased to read your comments below. 

You can see listing and purchase HERE

Family Fun in the "old days".

The topic for ESN scavenger hunt this week has been "Children".  We all have fond memories of the days when we, ourselves ,were children.  Some of my best memories are of playing dominoes and "42" with my mama, daddy, and brother. Daddy was one who "let you win" when you were little. He was always good to tell us that such and such a domino would make a score to help us along. I think he knew if we had that one or not--Something I never got the hang of in cards and dominoes.  Bro and I and our neighbor playmates also spent a lot of time playing board games, like Monopoly and Pollyanna, and card games like Go Fish, Old Maid, and Battle.  Battle certainly was a game just for children, as it was only luck, no skill involved. Today's youngsters would probably not like it at all, but we spent hours playing Battle. We also played a game that Mama called "Smut".  It was played with regular cards including a joker. It was a variation of Old Maid and whoever ended up with the joker got their nose rubbed with the "smut" of a burnt match.

My own 5 children also played lots of board games: Monopoly, Clue, Sorry, and others. They also played a form of Rummy with their dad.  They had Authors Cards and Old Maid, and Go Fish! When they were older, they played a game called "Spoons" with their friends . I don't recall the details of "Spoons" but know it was rather boisterous and a lot of fun for the participants. Oh, and who can forget Candyland?  The little ones loved it and never tired of it.  Older siblings and Mama tired of it very soon. Lots of hours passed with these diversions out in the Piney Woods of East Texas. 

During Hurricane Rita, we evacuated to my daughter's home (which was not far enough as Rita was still a hurricane there).  While we had no electricity, out came the old and new board games.  We played with the old Clue game from 30 years ago and a newer Star Wars version of Monopoly (How even these things have changed!) and even tried our hand at Scrabble.  I think this got the 2 oldest grands into board games, at least for a while.  At any rate, board games are good for really getting to know each other and interacting as family and friends. What's the word? Bonding.

Last time two of the younger grands came to visit we spent some time playing "pick up sticks" with real wooden sticks and started a game of Sequence. I don't think I stand a chance against this 6 and 10 1/2 yr. old in any game that requires strategy. They both are serious chess players, playing in tournaments. But I had fun spending time with them.

So just for fun, I searched ESN for games, especially "old fashioned" non-electronic games. I didn"t find many.
A Heist Card Game in Original Packaging at Bargain Express fits the criteria. Must say I am not familiar with Heist.

Next I found this New 500 Piece Bear Jigsaw Puzzle at Eccentric Thrifter.  While not a game, puzzles serve the purpose of group bonding.  So I included it.

and as a last resort, I had to choose some Computer Games from a Lil Bit of This N That. 

Just not too many old fashioned board games out there.