Road Trip Report from the Old Sled Works, Duncannon, Pa.

This large sign in the shape a sled leans against the Old Sled Works Antique Mall, a remnant from when the town could take pride in producing the Lightning Guider sled for decades.

I made the drive north through Maryland to south central Pennsylvania this morning to attend Sled Fest, a two-day celebration of the Old Sled Works antique mall's 20th anniversary in business.  I shot more than 100 photos today, but I'll try to pare those down to a manageable number.  This post will cover what I bought, and I'll follow with a post to show a little more about the Sled Fest.

I've been to Sled Works many times in the past, in fact, it's where I bought some of my first mid century collectibles, including some wrought iron and brass items I still have.  I have never left there without some kind of a great find at a good price, and today was no exception.

I made the drive early, left home at 6 a.m. and was sitting in front of the antique mall at 8:05 a.m., earlier than I expected.  Luckily there were some flea market vendors setting up outside so I did a little pre-shopping shopping.  Bought a baggie full of post cards for a buck, and got two more tiki masks for our screened porch wall for $5 each, 

And I also picked up this 50-cent cookbook...

 and got this Presto percolator coffee maker along with a few old paper/ephemera items I'll cover in a different blog post.  I plan to give the drip coffeemaker a rest and perk some joe in the morning with this baby.

So when I finally made it inside the building, I did a sweep through all the booths and found a few LPs for a buck each, including this Pajama Game with some cool cover art,

 some paper collectibles such as this 1963 Girl Scouts calendar for $3.75 (I'll probably hang it in the camper),

 and a decent deal on about a dozen miscellaneous Viewmaster 3D reels, including this Tom Corbett Space Cadet set.

Here's a rundown of the other stuff I picked up inside the mall:

$4 for this melamine server plate

$4 also for this bamboo Hawaii souvenir tray - I don't think it's real old, but it looks good anyway and we can use it in our bar

an aluminum sugar container for $2

On my second pass through, I spotted this small bookshelf - with the discount it was only $18.75 - score!  

I have to find a home for this bookshelf, right now it's in the dining room, but it will probably move to either the hallway or basement.  I love the look of this thing, but it really is pretty small, only about 24 inches tall.  Maybe I'll put some of my Whitman TV books on it.

And to wrap up this post, when I saw it I knew I had to grab this brass-framed, 3D, light up version of the Last Supper!  Once I polish the frame it will hang next to the similarly framed fat Elvis I picked up last summer.  

At the rate I'm going, I have the makings of quite a low brow art gallery, with the paint by numbers paintings and these lighted brass-framed babies.  I think the gallery will probably have to be in the man cave, i.e., the unfinished basement - She Who Must Be Obeyed does have her limits.

I'll be back with more photos from the Sled Fest, and some bonus pics and a couple more scores from another antique mall I hit on the way home.

Bar stools? Yea, we've got bar stools

I'm off work today and Friday.  Today I was a good boy - I built a small footbridge out back to go over the small dry stream that more often than not this spring has been a wet stream. (Yes, that's a yard full of clover instead of grass.  I still have to mow it.  As I've said before, the big backyard is a long term work in progress. At least now we have this fine footbridge!)

I still need to dig down and level it on top of the cement blocks in the photo, and then stain the treated wood. I used some pretty weathered 2x4s for the top so they need some stain.

Anyway, I was planning to make my annual pilgrimage to the Spring Carlisle (Pa.) old car flea market and car corral.  I usually go with one or more of my car club friends, but this year the weather and various family obligations made it impossible for any of us to get there on the same day.  My plan was to go Friday by myself, but here's what happened:

First, I filled up the car with gas - $65 !  When you add up the round trip miles, and consider the entrance fee ($10) and the fact that I would not be hanging with my buds, I started to have second thoughts.

Next I went to the ATM to get cash for the trip.  No problem there, and it's right next door to a Thrift Shop I sometimes go to but almost never find anything. So I dropped in.

And found this stuff!

Turquoise iron - $6. Sold.  Now SWMBO will be able to iron while we're camping.

Not something I would ever do, but she would. And that's OK.  Really.

Our Shasta, a 1962 model, was originally equipped with this pull out accessory in the kitchen, which can double as a light cutting board and a small ironing board.

Next item - another small electric fan.

Did I need another fan?  No.  This is number five or six in the collection.  But it was only $5, and it runs very quietly - how could I pass it up?

And lastly my best score.  These three bar stools - $36 for the set!

I really like the red, white, and black vinyl combination.  No nicks, cuts, or significant wear.  They swivel, and they have backs.  The red, black, and white scheme goes pretty well with the bar, don't you think?  Now I'm thinking I may come up with some kind of playing card theme for the bar area.  I may end up relocating the lunchbox shelf.  I'll have to think about that.

So scoring this stuff for about $50 made me decide to skip Carlisle on Friday.  I'm not looking for any car parts for the cars I have.

However, there is this big shindig at one of my favorite antique malls in Pennsylvania on Saturday.  The Old Sled Works is celebrating their 20th anniversary in business as an antique mall.  For year it was a factory making the old metal runner wooden sleds, and there is still some memorabilia on display, but there's a lot more too, including a great collection of pinball machines and old arcade games, and an old fashioned soda fountain.

So I thinking I'll  use that tank of gas to drive up to Duncannon, Pa.  At least I won't have to pay a $10 entry fee.  And I usually score at least a couple of good deals at the Sled Factory.  We'll see what happens.  Stay tuned.

A few recent pickups

Here's the latest stuff that's followed the Uncle home:

Thrift store paint-by-numbers, these are big, about 18 x 24 inches. Both from the same thrift store about 2 months apart.  I think I paid 3.99 each.  One more and I'll have a collection!  I snuck these into the house and have them stashed in the man cave because I know my limits - I'll probably never be allowed to hang them on the wall in any of the living areas. That's OK.  Some day when I build my garage, I'll have a top notch gallery.

Big orange ash tray - cool styling. I'll never let anyone use it for it's original purpose, but I do like the occasional ashtray just to look at.

Grabbed this Penn State Nittany Lion mascot statuette at 75 % off the starting price.  It reminds me of my hometown and alma mater - now if it was about 6 feet long, it would look great in a corner of our back yard.

These next few items are accessories for the Shasta camper:

Small aluminum pot that's also an egg poacher - $2.99

Kitchen drawer organizer - 50 cents

Water jug - picked it up for a good deal on etsy.com the other day.  Goes pretty well with the old coolers, don't you think?

Giveaway over at I HEART EVERYTHING blog, check it out!

I always enjoy Amber's blog posts, and she's having a Giveaway Bonanza, and you could be a winner.  Just get over to I HEART EVERYTHING and leave a comment.  And while you're there, check out all her other posts - she's got an arcade in her garage!!!  And she hauls fireplaces in her vintage station wagon.  And she's very creative and crafty.  Take those fezmingos in the photo - her creation.  Stop on over there now and tell her Uncle Atom sent ya!

P.S.  I'm planning to do a giveaway too, but I'm still formulating the details.  Stay tuned...

Road Trip to Danville, Virginia

We were in Danville, VA, today for a visit to Averett University.  My daughter is interested in equestrian studies and its one of a couple schools on her list.  Danville in some ways reminds me of Asheville, NC, which we visited last spring, except Danville doesn't have the same artsy vibe.  Maybe now is the time to scoop up a historic downtown home.  We passed one 100-year old house for sale and the price was a firm $44,000!  Sheesh, where we live now people spend more on a new car.  I'd love a house for that price.

Anyway, it was a good school visit, and by mid afternoon we decided to drive around the town and of course I needed to do a little antiquing.  We located Lou's Antique Mall in what was probably a former 3-story department store downtown.  It had a lot of what I consider the older antiques my parents loved, but I did see some things of interest to you all, so I shot some photos.

So what am I waiting for, here we go!

I've been looking for a vintage record player, and this Musicale tabletop model supposedly plays.  It has a nice shape, and is priced at $65.

 I decided to pass because I'd like one that also has a radio, I'm not familiar with this brand, and the finish and edges looked too worn.  I'm becoming picky about finding the right one because, as you already know if you've been hanging around here long, I don't need any more projects!

I also spotted this set of two end tables and a coffee table, very cool with glass shelf for each piece, and the drawers were double sided - you could open them from either side of the table!  I've never seen that.

The angular shape is great, and I was really tempted. Priced at $90 for the set, it was tempting. I went back before we left and started seeing damage to the laminate on at least one end table, and I knew I would not be able to live with the damage, and I have not yet found a way to fix a big chip.

 I"ll probably regret it, but I also didn't have a room to use them in.

I'm a sucker for wrought iron stuff too, and this little desk has decent bones, but the top is bowed in the middle.  Priced at $65 as I recall, so not bad, but no need or room for it either.

I very nearly bought this folding wrought iron bookshelf, looked very sturdy and priced at a decent $42.50.

It would have fit in the car, my daughter liked it, but I didn't pull the trigger.  Too lazy to offload all the books? Maybe.  I also couldn't think of a good place to use it at home.  I'll probably regret this one.

This cabinet looked pretty good and was reasonably priced - I think it was $120, but again, no room for it.

Nestled inside the cabinet was this cocktail glass set - it was overpriced.

I couldn't find a price on this - not exactly a vanity, sit's pretty low to be a sideboard.  Hardware is kinda danish modern.  I liked it, but not enough to move all the stuff off to really look it over.

Several formica tables, this one looked pretty good with gold flecked formica, but again, I couldn't find a price and I don't need another one.  Very cool though.

This yellow dinette was priced at $179, the yellow formica had a pattern I haven't seen before, not linen, more of a plaid?  Chairs looked faded.

This five piece bedroom set including head- and foot-boards was $179 - I do love the picked oak and blonde furniture from this era, but the laminate can really fade irregularly when exposed to a lot of sunlight, and this set had that problem.  Still, very cool.

Saw several old advertising shelves like this, I think this one was $118 - I like them but I'm just not into them for our house.  Now if I ever get my garage built, stuff like this will start coming home with me.

I like these little metal book shelves, no price that I could find on this one.  I really hate that.

This radio looked very cool, priced at $25 which would have been OK but it only had AM, no FM.

1970s era toaster looked pretty good and priced reasonably at $10.

I really liked this water cooler, but too expensive.

Here's a cool lazy susan, but again, priced too high at $49.

I need another vintage cooler like I need another project - I don't.  But this one looks good, doesn't it?  Except for the heavy rust on the front latch.  No price tag visible.

A pair of matching atomic lamps looks pretty good, but someone had glued burlap to the  shades and they were ugly!  Priced at $49 each.  No thanks.

Brown lamp looks good, but no shade.  Priced at $19, it was a little tempting, but I have too many lamps already.

No price on this pink lamp, and again, no shade.

This mirrored wall shelf has that tacky souvenir shop pine vibe to it, I couldn't see a price, but it sure is different!

Beside the shelf was this plastic 1970s era clock - not for me, but I appreciate the look.  I was surprised that the back was plastic, I expected metal.

Quite a collection of 1970s or 80s era bowling trophies.  I liked the hinged double picture frame, but the glass was broken in both frames.  No thanks - project.

Vintage barbecue tool set in the box, $10.50.

No price on this aluminum Christmas tree, and I like the one we have better.

Not far from the tree I spotted a stand up Santa and a set of Elves.

 I haven't seen these anywhere and they look to be 1950s era.  No price I could find, there were like five elves, Santa, and one or two other pieces.  I asked about them when I was checking out, and the guy there said there was a price on them.  I said I looked everywhere and saw none, he said $350 and I said no thanks.

Near the end of our wandering my daughter and I found this bunch of old eyeglasses.  They were priced at between $8 and $10 each.  She couldn't settle on any pair that was both in good condition and what she liked, but I did shoot some pix for you all.

She was getting dizzy looking through the prescription lenses.  I will keep trying to get her into some vintage frames, if we can find the right ones for a pair of sunglass lenses.

Overall, the store had a lot, but a lot of the stuff I was interested in was either overpriced or so covered with other stuff that I didn't bother taking a closer look.  I only bought one small thing, a sort of danish style trivet/pot holder and I didn't get a photo.  We'll probably do a little more shopping on the way home, so I'll try to shoot some more and give another update once we get home.