What is going on this morning? There wasn’t a long list of choices but I’ve got four sales on my list. Two are at 7am and the other two are in the 8am hour. Nicely spaced apart and all…but I’m still feeling a little wiped out and sleeping in is a very strong option.
I do find some energy and I’m out the door for that first sale. It’s not super early, but I do roll up a few minutes early…only to find nothing. I’m back in the car pretty quickly and find the second sale a few minutes after the 7am start time.
There’s a chair at the end of the driveway with a sign pointing into a cove that is covered with a canopy of trees. The shade blocks out almost all of the morning light. There was an overnight rainstorm, so the gravel driveway is still wet and tiny raindrops fall when the wind moves through the branches. The air is moist and cool and for a short while, I feel like I’m walking through a hidden forest in the middle of Charlotte.
As I move through the path and up a slight hill, I notice what looks like the back of a brick house. Wrapped around the left side are tables piled with items. So there was sale back here after all! I was beginning to wonder….
On the very first table I see a box of books. I begin to look through them and see that they’re cookbooks. I don’t see any other boxes nearby, so I’m thinking this may be my only option. I flip through them very carefully. Some are warped from water damage and I quickly flip by them…and then I see a very familiar face:
Betty Feezor’s Best (Betty Feezor). It’s the very first one! No one else is around so I take a minute to quickly Instagram my find. Some other people start to round the corner, so I quickly grab it and then stack a few more good finds with it. I’m not letting anyone know what I’ve found!
As I work my way down the other tables, I see that the lady running the sale is a fellow yard saler! We exchange hellos and I tell her that I think she lives in an enchanted forest. It’s so calm, cool and quiet—and all so close to downtown. She tells me that this was just a brick cabin surrounded by trees when they bought the property. The nice two-story front part of their home is actually an addition. Then, she says she’s surprised that more of the usual yard sale people haven’t been to her sale yet. I mention that there wasn’t a long list of sales to begin with…but personally, I’m glad that no one else stumbled upon my Betty first!
Some others are ready to check out so she helps them and I finish looking at the rest of the items. When the transactions are complete, she heads back inside and brings out another stack of books. I walk over and go through them. In the middle of the stack, I almost have a heart attack: another Betty!
Another Instagram opportunity! Two in the same morning? WOW!!! This one is Carolina Recipes Volume III which was completed and published by her son, Bob, after her untimely passing.
I finish going through the rest of the second stack and check out. Want to see the other cookbooks I picked up?
The Charlotte Christian Cookbook (Charlotte Christian School, Charlotte, NC), What’s Cooking at Commonwealth (Commonwealth UMC) and Steele Creek Treasures Too (Steele Creek Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, NC).
Bravo!: Applaudable Recipes (The Mobile Opera Guild Association), Ramseur Garden Club Cookbook (Ramseur, NC) and Concord Cuisine (Junior Charity League of Concord, NC).
A Matter of Taste (The Junior League of Morristown, NJ), Artful Entertaining (Southeastern Wildlife Exposition) and Kitchen Gems (North Carolina Grand Court Order of the Amaranth).
Should I just go straight home? I’m so thankful that I got up instead of sleeping in for a few more hours.
The third yard sale was a bust, but I didn’t care. Betty X 2 was riding shotgun with me!
The final sale already had a good half hour start before I got there. There were two large bookshelves in the garage packed with books. Could there be some cookbooks on there?
At first glance, the bookshelves are filled with WWII books and really nice travel books. And when I say “nice,” I mean coffee table level of nice. I look very closely and on the bottom shelf, voila!, I spot a few cookbooks.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of The Kitchen (Harold McGee), The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen (Michael Ruhlman), Chefs of the Mountains: Restaurants & Recipes from Western North Carolina (John E. Batchelor), The Ultimate Route 66 Cookbook (Edited by Tammy Gales) and Recipes of the Carolinas.
(These are really cool finds. I’m really loving the Recipes of the Carolinas and Chefs of the Mountains.)
I look around and notice that, of the couple running the sale, the husband is doing all of the wheeling and dealing. When there’s a break in the haggling, I ask if there are any more cookbooks that I missed. The gentleman says that he still has a ton of cookbooks in the house. He’s the cook—and he didn’t want to thin the herd (as it were)…just yet.
So, after I paid for my haul, I left behind my business card in hopes that a future cookbook purge would find a few more for my collection!