There was an estate sale over on the south side of Gastonia that had cookbooks listed. Pictures were posted and there was a small bookshelf that had some good selections. I reached out to the lady running the sale and got on the list as it was going to be a controlled entry. I was second in line!
Here’s the deal…it had a Friday 7am start. I had worked and knocked a bunch of things of my to-do list at work and decided that I could get to the 7am sale, get in, get out and back home before 9am. I’d still have plenty of time left to finish out everything. Great plan!
When I said south side of Gastonia, I was not kidding. I ended up on a country road and the neighborhood looked like it was built in the 1970’s and then promptly forgotten. It was getting close to start time and I was getting nervous as the GPS kept adding turn after turn.
As I rolled up and found parking, I noticed that some people were milling about and several cars were leaving. For a hot second, I wondered if they had opened up early and let people in (not using controlled entry)? As I got closer to the driveway, I see a chalkboard/message board announcing that the sale was cancelled. What?
The lady running the sale was outside talking to people in the driveway. She announces that the house had been broken into during the night and items had been stolen. She said the sale would not happen as she was waiting for law enforcement to show up and begin their investigation.
What in the world?! I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard of this happening? But, we were way out in the country and if the address was published….an empty house could be an easy target.
I asked if they will open up the sale later in the day and she says she’s not sure. So, with nothing happening here…I head back home.
Later in the day, all who had signed up for a place in line received a text message that the sale will happen on Saturday.
So, back at the location the next morning, the lady running the sale announces that she is not going to let the previous day’s activity stop her doing the sale. I can’t imagine how scared she must have been…especially if she was the one who discovered the break-in. I spoke up and said, “Good for you.” Then, she says that she will honor the sign-up list from Friday. Woo-hoo! There’s only two of us and she tells us to go on in.
The other customer makes a beeline straight to a shelf of what I will call “vintage” Pyrex dishes. I guess that’s a thing now? Good for her. I locate the small bookshelf, take my time looking through the cokbooks and put a small selection into my bag. I didn’t grab them all as I’m trying to tell myself to concentrate on quality, not necessarily quantity.
As more people are entering the house, I’m hearing the lady running the sale say that the robbers targeted the electronics in the house. Which is interesting because the photos that were posted didn’t show any “new” electronics.
Well, it doesn’t take too long before I’ve gone through the cookbooks. Not wanted to leave so quickly, I decide to take a look around. I’m right there at the kitchen and up on a shelf I see two orangey-yellow mixing bowls. I remember seeing them in the listing but no one has picked them up yet. I reach over, look them over and don’t see any cracks and then I turn them over: they are stamped “Emile Henry/France for Williams Sonoma.” Yep, they’re both going in my bag!
And here they are:
Nice!
And here’s the stack of cookbooks that came home with me:
From the bottom up: Y’All Come Eat (The Deen Bros.), The Deen Bros. Cookbook (The Deen Bros.), The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook (Paula Deen), Christmas Gems (Garden Club of Georgia; 1st Edition, 1st Printing), Old North State Cookin’ (Telephone Pioneers of America: Old North State Chapter 79), Recipes and Reflections (Bethel Presbyterian Church, Clover, SC) and Manna from Maylo (Maylo UMC, Gastonia, NC).
Those were easy to photograph in a stack because the titles were printed on the spines. Here are the other two:
Carolina Cooking II (Pioneers BellSouth/Nortel Volunteers, NC Chapter No. 35) and South Carolina First Lady Cookbook: 1986 Palmetto Treasures (American Cancer Society).