Thrifting: My First Auction!

     This past week I spent down in central Pennsylvania with my grandparents since the drive would be too long for them to come up during the baby-labouring business I am about to engage in. While I was there, we spent a day at a family reunion while I free floated in the pool feeling much more my tiny spry self then I have in about four months. My grandfather has a woodworking shop and store front where I spent some of my time, helping him clean up and hanging out (aka waiting for customers, drinking vast amounts of iced tea and zoning out to Pinterest). Around his store, which is 95% handmade deliciousness, he also has a few nice wood pieces that he has acquired at a local auction.
     With a very small amount of pleading, I was able to convince him to take my grandmother and I to the auction for a night on the town. Unfortunately, about half-way through my uterus decided to start practicing for labour, so I was a bit uncomfortable and it may have limited how much fun I actually had, but I can see a true potential for being an auction haunter later on! By the time that we closed up the shop and headed over to the auction house, they had started bidding, but this tiny baby was hungry, so my grandmother and I hit up the little snack shop for hamburgers and peanut butter cake, which was extremely satisfying. Then, after my obligatory three visits to the bathroom, we were finally ready to settle down for some serious bidding.

  (in the bottom left of the photo is my sweet, darling grandfather trying to slyly bid on things that he thinks my grandmother would like without her knowing...she and I giggled on the other side of the aisle)

    To our left is my wonderful grandfather, looking very intense while eating crackers that neither myself nor my grandmother could find out where he found them. When he saw us looking at him, he gave us the, "What on Earth could they possibly be so confused about?" look. Then proceeded to pull out a bag of nuts as well.
 
      To our right is a very overexposed photo of that same lovely man bidding on some larger pieces.


     We had looked through all of the items, and the bidders could keep looking while the bidding was going on so that made it easier to actually see everything. If you look at the picture of the front of the auction carefully, you can see a box on the floor, under a covered table that has this in it:

   
     Six books, a decorative hollowed out book and a decorative book shaped knick-knack box. Five of the books are dated in the 1950's or prior, which gives me all sorts of joy.
     There is a rhyming dictionary, which I have never actually seen before, though I did know of their existence. I am still trying to figure out exactly how they work, but it did come in a beautiful teal colour and it is hardbound which wins a vote in my book.
     The second book up from the bottom of the picture, the tan with the wonderfully stamped cover is called Charles Auchester: A Memorial by E. Berger. I haven't read this yet but it is supposed to be a book about a musician, I haven't been able to find a copy online either to compare it to, but its very pretty!
     The third book up, the orange with red detailing is called I Remember Christine by Oscar Lewis. This one was dated by the original owner in 1946 and the story is about a well-to-do family in San Francisco around the turn of the century.
     The fourth book is a gorgeous book titled An Elementary American History, intended as a textbook to teach history to students, I love that it actually does start off with the Vikings exploring and discovery the Americas. It is copyrighted in 1904 with the original owner's name in it, with a stamp from Greensburg Borough school district, which is outside of Pittsburgh.
     The fifth book up, the dark green with red and gold detailing is called Two Years before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, and is part of a series called Classic Romances of Literature. It is copyrighted in 1937, and was marked by the owner as a present in January of 1939.
     The fifth and final book, the darker blue with black lettering is called Pathway to Paradise, by Maysie Greig, which is an adorable name by the way.This one is dated 1945 and seems to be one of a series of schoolgirl romances, with the first man introduced named Ashley! I can't wait to read them and hopefully find out more about them. Just winning the bid on these books would have made my night. A beautiful, hard bound book with an embossed or stamped cover will do it for me every single time, without fail, and winning the auction for $6 made the deal even sweeter!!!
     While my grandmother and I finished watching the smaller items bid, my grandfather headed to the back where the large furniture was being auctioned. While unsupervised, he won a bid on an air conditioner ($10), a coffee table ($5), a coffee table with two matching end tables ($6) and the deal sealer of 30 pounds of bananas for $5!!!

     The next day we made seven loaves of banana bread and gave away as many bananas as we could to random family members that walked through the door. We used this recipe and it turned out amazing! My grandfather even was impressed with it and complimented how delicious it was. I didn't blend the bananas completely, so there were still chunks in it after we cooked the bread, and we used an extra half cup of bananas so the flavour was really strong.
     I had tons of fun at the auction and would definitely recommend going and at least trying the experience out. You can find some nice deals and odd items (like fifteen pairs of those glasses that you can put pictures in from ages ago, I can't remember what they are called now, or doll furniture made in Depression Era workshops, or forty pounds of bananas).  The only downside was missing my hubby, he would have loved it, although he also may have filled up our car with all those really great deals. When I got back and showed him pictures of what we had found, we agreed on trying to find a couple local auctions to go to (an exciting date night idea in the works) and he is obsessed with trying to bid on storage units at some point in our future lives, but I am much more wary about that!