Quote for the Day:
“Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you”
~Ogden Nash
Yesterday (Saturday) we had to go to PIttsburgh to take care of some business, so we decided to get an early start so we could go to some thrift stores while up there. It's about 90 miles north of us, so we headed out about 8 AM.
As luck would have it, we also got our first snow of the season yesterday, making Route 119 north, the 2 lane road to get to the freeway, treacherous to travel! :(
After going about 10 miles on this road, we were the first people to come upon an accident. The poor lady had spun out and ended up in the opposite ditch, facing the direction she had come from, her Honda Element now resting on it's passenger side. She was wearing a seatbelt and it held her suspended firmly in place. Because the car was up on it's side, she could't get out either door. Soon after we stopped, another car containing two nurses on their way home from working night shift in Morgantown....a male and a female. The male nurse and Andy were able to tip the car so it was back on all four tires, albeit, still at about a 70 degree angle so the driver still couldn't climb out of the driver's side. However, she was able to climb out of the passenger's front window! We helped her up the steeply banked ditch and let her come sit in our warm car while we waited for help to arrive. The other couple that stopped to help then left and continued towards their nice warm beds. One other guy in a pickup did stop to see if we needed anything, but by that time everything was under control.
The first emergency responders to respond to our 911 call were two volunteer firemen, each in their own personal vehicles. One of them had still been in bed when he got the call! :)
You can't really see it, but her car is just ahead and to the right of the fireman in the yellow vest. Since the car was dark blue and all I had was my lousy camera phone, you really can't see the car.
Thank you to other couple that stopped to help and God bless the volunteer firemen...and not just these two...but all who volunteer their services to help others.
What astounded me was how fast people were speeding down this road that was slippery with wet, slushy snow...even as they were passing by an accident and people on the side of the road. My pant legs got splattered with road slush more than once from people barreling down that road while we were there. :(
People, if you see an accident and persons along side the road, please, please, please SLOW DOWN so they don't fear for their lives!
After that excitement, we continued on to Pittsburgh, passed a house fire that firemen were working on, and found where we needed to go to take care of the "business" part of our trip.
After taking care of everything, we found a place to eat lunch and then programmed thrift store addresses into "Jill", our GPS unit, and headed out to see what we could find! :D (I had found a site online that you can put in a zip code and it will compile a list of thrift stores in the area, with addresses and hours of operation!)
We hit four thrift stores and came out with some great bargains! Some to keep, some for other family members, and some to resell.
Here are just SOME of the items that we bought to "keep"... a pair of Hush Puppies leather, sheepskin-lined, ankle boots for me...$2.00!!! A winter jacket for Andy...$3.00!! Two Liz Claiborne tops for me...$5.00 total!! Three matching woven throw rugs...$1.99 each!!! (You can never have too many rugs!) :) Four mugs and a cheese server/dish with matching spatula...all of them are part of my Pfaltzgraff Winterberry Christmas dish set...$5.00 for the 4 mugs and cheese dish/spatula!!
(BTW, Andy got me these dishes...a place setting for four...for $5.00 at a yard sale! I've been looking for more to go with them since then but this is the first time I've found any!)
Oh...and one more item that we found....
Yep...that's right...a vintage, full-sized, hand-embroidered, hand-quilted quilt!!!!!! It was VERY yellowed from age and had some spotting from storage...but I've bought enough vintage linens at auctions and sales to know that a good soaking in Oxi-clean will remove those stains and yellowing! And it sure did in this case!! Isn't it GORGEOUS!!!
I soaked it overnight last night and this is what it looks like this morning...
There is no label on the quilt, but in the doorway of the house it is handwritten in blue marker, "The Hamill's".
The hand quilting is 8 stitches per inch...a very respectable quilting job!
Oh...and the price??? $24.95!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the way...there are no pulled threads or other signs that this quilt has ever been used!!
I don't know who the "Hamill's" are, but shame on them for getting rid of this beautiful heirloom and disrespecting the person who put so much time, labor and love into this beautiful quilt. Their ungratefulness is my gain!!!
Two other people picked this quilt up and looked at it, but turned their noses up at it because of the "stains". However, when I looked at it, I recognized that the "stains" were not really "stains", per se, and would come out with an Oxi-Clean soak. However, even if they hadn't come out, I would have loved it either way!
Loretta
