Garage sale and mystery lovers, if you don't know yard sale addict Jane Wheel, you are so lucky. You have six books waiting to make your acquaintance. Six mysteries swirled like a caramel sundae with estate sale hunts for bits of history like bakelite bracelets and old photo albums.
Then there's Jane's gay friend Tim Lowry, her home base in Evanston, her quirky Kankakee
parents....I could go on but there's no need. It's all in the books.
And the cherry on top?
Jane's special brand of garage sale shopping and solving is out in a new book: Scary Stuff.
Jane Wheel is the yard sale-loving heroine created by Sharon Fiffer,
a Chicago writer who knows her way around a sale. Sharon has sat in her
car at dawn waiting for the house sale numbers to be handed out. She's
shopped her way from flea markets to Chicago bungalows and church
rummage sales in the suburbs. What kind of stuff catches her eye?
I asked Sharon to name her all-time favorites finds from her frequent
weekend shopping treks. Then I asked her to name Jane's top finds.
There were so many, Sharon said.
Like some who shop old things, she subscribes to the theory that you
don't find objects as much as they find you. At a recent sale, Sharon
noticed "a small
print signed and dated 1969 that was just this simple gray landscape
with an orange sun. It was beautiful. $5. I was holding it, staring
at it, and a woman came up and said, 'pretty, isn't it? Want it for
$2?' That is when you know an object just belongs with you--you are
meant to have it. So I guess that print had been looking
for me--and now it is home."
Sharon's List
An old Persian rug.
"At St. Nicks' Rummage Sale this year, I saw a rug for $75 that just pulled me in and
I really wanted it, but since I know nothing about the value of rugs, I
couldn't justify it. I circled it for a while, then asked if I could
have it for $50 and was told yes, then my throat almost closed as I
counted out the money. I
usually head out on a weekend with $20-$25 tops. I brought the rug
home, actually scared to unroll it, thinking I would see some stains or
a hole or something dreadful, but all I saw was a dark Persian rug
which my friend Adar later said was old, handmade and good, if not
perfect. It is on the floor in my living room and makes me smile every
time I look at it. But that's a fluke--I normally wouldn't ever think about rugs--out of my range. "
Old sewing baskets.
"What makes my heart beat faster is an
untouched, unsorted old sewing basket--filled with all the stuff, the
thimbles and tiny silver scissors and button boxes which provide a
treasure hunt for bakelite. I also like locked vintage vanity cases,
which also provide a real treasure hunt when I get home."
Boxes of old
office supplies
"I have more paper punches and gummed reinforcements
than anyone has a right to."
I rarely pass up white or green pottery
White or green pottery "I rarely pass it up."
Books
Yardsticks
All kinds of knitting
accessories
Old photos
Old handwriting
Lately - apothecary jars and bookends
Jane's List
Bakelite
"It's always a thrill and Jane finds a bracelet or two tucked
into the bottom of a box of cheap junk, so it's always especially
thrilling to find a piece of carved butterscotch bakelite, warm with
the patina of love. (that's how she and Tim Lowry would see it--they
joke around about their imaginary children named Patina and Veneer) "
Buttons, of course
Old autograph books
"Ooohh, Jane loves those autograph books!" Sharon said. "These are always a multi-pleasurable find. First, they are
often just tactilely great--worn leather books, a bakelite covered
book, a faded pressboard cover--then the spidery old handwriting is
such a thrill--the dichotomy between the handwriting of the friends and
classmates, then the careful artistic penmanship of the teacher who
writes a moralistic note, and then the rhymes themselves--with the
slight teasing changes from 1914 to 1933 to 1957."
Old office supplies
"In some of the books, Jane has actually found
something that leads her back to a solution. In The Wrong Stuff, she
found typewriter ribbon tins at a flea market with great graphics--and
a tin for "Moore's Pushpins" which gave her a good idea."
Sharon writes more about her finds and yard sale shopping adventures on her site, Sharon Fiffer.com.
Filed under: Sales and Events
Tags: garage sale warrior
Hi Diana..our book club read one of Sharon's books for a "light read"..it was fun to read about garage sale-ing and all the familiar places around town. Thanks for this site
The Real estate mom (pam Weinert