And with that, I am now on vacation. (Well, actually I was on vacation as of 4:30 p.m. MT (My Time) yesterday afternoon.) As mentioned below, I am hopeful of getting a few appointments and long overdue tasks taken care of. At the same time, I’d like to get most of my travels out of the way during the first week and make it a true “Staycation” during the second, but we will see how it goes. (My Mom is already planning for me to help her with doing some work around the house, which I will be happy to do.)
My first day of vacation went pretty well. My Mom and I went back to the ol’ hometown on Glencoe, Ontario for their town-wide yard sale. While my Mom spent most of the morning catching up with her old friend, Carol, we did check out a few sales on the north-east of town beforehand. My first (and only) purchase of the day was a NASCAR blanket. The irony: I bought the blanket at the first house I ever bought, from the people we sold it to in 2009 when we moved to Thamesford. (They had redone the front porch, which looked really good!)
Once I left Mom with Carol, I walked around Glencoe checking out the yard sales. I didn’t see much else that I was ready to pick up. However, at one sale, held at a home that had a Dale Earnhardt Jr. – styled Chevrolet in the driveway, I saw a print of a painting by James Keirstead (who served in Korea). My Mom’s a big fan of his artwork and the whole family is always on the lookout for his work whenever and wherever we go to antique and collectible shops or Value Village, etc. Anyways, I gave my Mom a shout (she picked up her phone at the exact time a train was going by and so literally the first few seconds of the conversation was me listening to a train horn) and she didn’t have the painting and gave me a price that was fairly close to what the guy wanted, so my Mom now has one more Keirstead painting in her collection.
Prior to us heading to Glencoe, my Mom had told me I shouldn’t expect to find any NASCAR stuff at these yard sales. Well, in addition to the blanket, I also came across one sale that had two NASCAR jackets (a Dale Earnhardt and a Bill Elliott), a bunch of Dale Earnhardt magazines and some pictures. However, I left them all where they were. Why? Because I had both jackets and most of the magazines. (I was like “Wait, did someone raid my closet?”)
In my travels, I even came across a yard sale where the seller and one of the customers were talking about wrestling! The customer, who was a little older than I was, was namedropping Whipper Billy Watson, Gene Kiniski, the AWA, and other names from “back in the day.” I joined in a little bit but, much like NASCAR, anyone who knows me will tell you that it’s probably not a good idea to get me talking about wrestling, either. If I had started in on talking about local and area wrestling and the glory days of the 80s, I probably would still be there.
I also found out that the house on Victoria Street that I grew up in back in the 1970s (back when I was decked out in bell bottoms and listening to the Village People) was up for sale. I told Carol that if I won the lottery I would buy the house and then she and Mom could hang out more. Unfortunately for that plan, apparently, it’s already been sold.
All in all, however, it was a great morning in Glencoe, even if all that walking around in the hot sun did remind me that I’m not as young as I used to be. So, on that note, once again, if you are reading this, let me know where you’re reading from. (And I’ll be even older the next time I check in.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
johnmilner.ca 