Three sales on my list for the morning. The first sale is all the way up in Concord at 7am, but it also started on Friday—so I’m not convinced I need to begin the morning up there. It listed “tons of cookbooks” but those could be gone by now.
The second sale is 7:30 am and it’s the same street as Voo Doo Economics. It’s a nice street and since I’m skipping the first sale, I’ll be showing up a few minutes early.
And guess what, it IS Voo Doo Economics’ house. There are several plastic bins of cookbooks, and I find these two:
Potsticker Chronicles (Stuart Chang Berman) and Build a Better Burger (James McNair).
The only sale I’ve got listed at 8am has a Matthews address and it mentioned “vintage cookbooks.” I ask Google to navigate me there and it turns out to only be 20 minutes away. I’ll be there a little before 8am, but it’s already bright out—so I’m sure I won’t be alone.
Sure enough, there’s already a couple of cars. I make my way up the driveway and there’s a couple talking over a set of dinner chairs. They are deciding that the chairs aren’t the right color and then wishing the lady having the sale luck on her move up to the Catskills. On a table, I spot some cookbooks. I go through them and select these:
Market to Market (Jr. Service League of Hickory, NC), Mama’s Recipes and other Cookbook (June Thompson Medlin), Seafood Cookery (Carteret County Extension Home Makers Clubs), Concord Cuisine (Jr. Charity League of Concord, NC) and The Grecian Plate (The Hellenic Ladies Society, St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, Durham, NC).
They are nice and yes, some are vintage! I pay for them and the lady mentions that she has more that need to come out. I ask, “do you mean cookbooks?” She says yes and I tell her that I’m happy to wait.
She spends a few minutes trying to move some more furniture out a patio door. Eventually, she comes out and says that it would be easier if I came inside and went through the cookbooks myself.
She leads me down a hallway and just around the corner is this bookshelf:
She tells me that she’s selling the spiral bound but that she wants to keep the hardbacks. That’s fine with me. In fact, that probably cuts down the amount of cookbooks to look through in half.
I’m look through the shelves and find a few. The real work is in the bottom part. I start a pile that keeps getting taller. There’s about 6 stacks of cookbooks in the bottom cabinet and I’m trying to be careful and deliberate about the ones I select. If they’re not first edition, first printing or super unique—they’re not making it to the pile.
And then, in the last stack; the next to last cookbook at the bottom:
next to last cookbook at the bottom:
Betty. Red cover. That’s the first one….grab it, put the stacks back in the cabinet, pay and go home!
Here’s the full haul from the bookshelf inside the house.
Top Row: What’s Cooking at Pleasant Grove (Pleasant Grove UMC, Charlotte, NC), It’s Not Gourmet, It’s Better! (Eudora Garrison), River Road Recipes II (Jr. League of Baton Rouge, LA), Perennials (Jr. Service League of Gainesville, GA), The St. Paul’s Sampler (St. Paul’s Churchwomen, Summerville, SC), Lunchin’ on the Levee (Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division Home Economists), and Bayou Cook Book (Thomas J. Holmes, Jr.).
Second Row: Mac Gregors Gathering Recipes 1980 (American Clan Gregor Society), A Cook’s Tour of the Azalea Coast (Auxiliary to the New Hanover, Pender, Brunswick County Medical Society, Wilmington, NC), The Quaker Cook Book (The Woman’s Auxiliary of High Points Friends Meeting, High Point, NC), Woman’s Exchange Cook Book (Memphis, TN), Out of This World Cook Book (The Cocoa Beach Woman’s Club, Cocoa Beach, FL), and Uptown Down South (Jr. League of Greenville, SC)
I think I pulled some back muscles lugging around the box….especially when the tape gave way and started to come apart.
Finally back home, I take a moment to look at Betty Feezor’s Best. I find a nice surprise on the top of the title page:
Something tells me Betty didn’t want to go to the Catskills. And I’m happy to have her at my home.