Our town had their annual yard sale/flea market this past weekend. I missed it last year and was determined to go this year. Since my husband and son were out of town on a camping trip, I brought my 3-year-old daughter along (without a stroller!!). I thought I got there early, but by 7:45 am it was already packed! We meandered along , and while there was a lot of cool stuff, there wasn't a lot I felt compelled to buy right then.
Until... I came to this one guy's spot that had a ton of antiques. It was this older guy selling stuff on his son's behalf (which = great prices and bargaining potential!). This was the first thing I spotted and snatched up:
 |
| February 1942 issue of Popular Science |
Now, okay, I don't normally go for 1940s guy magazines. I've usually stayed pretty close to the women's side of things, but I couldn't pass this up for a lot of reasons. The main reason was the main article "Policing a Nation at War" - an interview with J. Edgar Hoover.
 |
| Since I love studying the home front, this article addresses that subject spot on! |
But as I got to looking I found a ton of incredible treasures of information!
 |
Protecting the home against fire bombs and high explosives.
Wow! |
 |
| Equipment for the Refuge Room |
 |
New Appliances for the Household.
Oooooh!!! |
 |
Keeping the Home Shipshape
There are some pretty handy ideas here! |
 |
| Of course, I'll have to read this one! |
 |
| My papaw had one of these briefcase-style backgammon games. I had no idea they were designed especially for servicemen during WWII! This article includes instructions and diagrams showing you how to make them yourself. |
 |
Ideas to Make Your Driving Pleasanter
Gotta love the precursor to GPS and smart phones - index cards pinned to the dashboard! |
And something I have surprisingly never encountered in my studies of WWII - advertisements aimed at men!
Here are some of my favorites:
 |
tee hee hee!
Things haven't changed much. |
 |
| Ooooh! You could become a finger print expert! |
 |
| Love this way to make "big money at home" using this "new" invention! |
My husband wasn't too interested in the magazine at first, until I started flipping through it and showing him the cool stuff I found. I put it down after showing him and he picked it right back up and started flipping through it on his own. I said, "You want to read that don't you." He pursed his lips and said, "Yes, I do." haha! Not only is it a fabulous research resource, it will be an awesome magazine for guys to flip through that come to our house like husbands of my girl friends and my father-in-law when he comes to visit in June. Bonus!
The
next thing I found were some fabulous postmarked envelopes with letters from 1919 and 1942. The letters are addressed to "Dearest Mina" and are from her friend Connie. The coolest things I read so far were that she called someone a "twerp" (haha!), and she told this story of these cadets in the
WAVES (a women's Navy organization during WWII). There was this road their commander was having them march down, but some men had freshly tarred the road. Well, they couldn't go around, so the commander had them march right across it! Whoa! That would have been unpleasant, poor gals!
 |
| letters with very cool postage |
 |
| some nearly blank, sturdily built notebooks |
He also had these two sweet postcards:
 |
The Lincoln one is postmarked 1919!
And I love the little rhyme on the other one. Heehee! |
I think the flea market was a big success for such great finds. I didn't get to look at all the stalls, because my daughter was getting tired after a couple hours there - what a trooper! Then I finally found a child's desk for her that I've been on the hunt for for a long time and since that's all I could carry, I was done!
Hooray for flea markets!
