Saturday, September 10, 2011

Garage Sale Loot

Every year the neighborhood that the FP Gal grew up in has a big garage sale. Her folks still live there and we're over in that neck of the woods fairly often. Today we loaded up the wagon and the stroller and walked up and down some alleys looking for stuff.
My focus at garage sales is 1) books 2) board games (especially the old ones) and 3) other stuff. Prior to today we had probably visited about 100 individual garage sales this year and I had very little luck. A few books here and there and one old Playstation game (now so ancient that they're almost free!). Nothing special.
Today made up for it. This neighborhood is always good for books and this was no exception. They had classic books and good book club fare. I ran across (another!) book about the 1968 Golden Globe race around the world. This is the fourth one that I have and as far as I know there is only one more that has been written.
What else did I find? Right at the end I came across this gem, The Dangerous Book for Boys. The idea behind it is that modern boys don't get out and stir things up in the same way that their fathers and grandfathers did. The book shows them how to do things like build a tree house or a go kart. It also shows them how to build a battery and how to tie five basic knots. Sprinkled in there is some violent history and stories of people like Robert Scott, antarctic explorer.
Today I learned (finally!) how to build a good paper airplane. I wish I'd had this when I was young.

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