Summer is over.  I've turned the heat on and got my down comforter out of the linen closet.  It's Friday, garage sale day, and it's too cold to go see what's going on out there.  Probably nothing.  I love to garage sale.  It's like looking for Easter eggs.  A couple of weeks ago I bought a set of sterling silver ear clips (clips date back to the 40's and 50's) inlaid with chunky turquoise--for a quarter.  They are worth more than $150 on the retail market.  That was fun.

I don't keep the stuff.  I guess you could call me a "picker."  I take it all to the antique shop--my daughter's booth--and chalk up the money I spend at garage sales to a day's entertainment.  It's cheaper than a movie.  I don't need more stuff.  I don't want more stuff.   Of course you have to know about "old stuff" to be able to find "old stuff" that others want to buy.  And since I almost qualify as an antique myself,  I know about "old stuff."

For years the market was for "Depression glass."  My Grandmother and Pops had a little grocery store in the 20's, 30's and 40's.  I remember that "Griffin's tea" gave away a green glass when you bought a box of tea.  Other brands did the same.  There were dozens and dozens of patterns of dishes, etc. given away at grocery stores--trying to get you to buy their brand.  After they quit doing that, young women would look for glass patterns in antique stores from the depression--Depression Glass.

My Gran had a lot of it because people would buy the product and not want the glass, or cup, or dish, and leave it on the shelf.  It wasn't worth anything.  Now, a green glass goes for twenty-four dollars--if you can find one.  But you can hardly sell it anymore because people want whatever their grandmother had, and the current trend isn't Depression Glass.  It is--tah dah--tupperware.  That's right.  Tupperware.  And if it is colored, well, that makes it even more collectable.

We buy memories.  Stuff that takes us back to a happy time.   Things that make us feel warm and fuzzy.  I admit, I have an entire set of Depression Glass.  Pink.  My pattern is "Waffle", sometimes called Waterford pink.  But I am missing one piece--a round butter dish.  I could buy it on E-bay for $350.00.  But what's the fun in that.  The reason it is round is because back then, you churned your own butter and shaped it with a round wood butter press.   I've pressed butter at Gran's house that way.   And churned butter.  Memories.  That's what we buy.