Sun City, Part II

Like I said, there were no Christmas sweaters this year and no Christmas ornaments.  Corey bought a dress and some earrings, Michelle bought some hankies for her father and a necklace for herself, and I bought a small army of Santas.

Crazy, hillbilly-looking Santas wearing nothing but red boxers and black boots.  About 14" tall.  They were only $2 each and I thought they would make a nice centerpiece for the Christmas buffet. 

I pointed them out to Corey and Michelle and imagined an entire army of Santas doing my bidding.  True to form, I couldn't stop laughing.  I bought four of them. 

I also bought a scary picture of a clown being startled (surprised? enchanted? I really can't tell) by another clown bursting from a jack-in-the-box.  It's totally ridiculous, but it would scare the hell out of my friend Rob who is absolutely terrified of clowns.  I've seen the clown picture before, on previous visits to Sun City.  The photograph is in a cheap gold frame, which only adds to the overall creepiness.  For $3, I'm taking it home.  It's in my arms, along with the Santas.  The book selection was not great, but I found a copy of Fertig by Sol Yurick which has eluded me for years.

 

There was one last thing.  I flipped through the sheet music and came across "After You've Gone" by Creamer & Layton.  I'm going to frame it and hang it in my bathroom.  Is that weird?  It would be swell if I could find the sheet music to a song called "Wash Your Hands" so I could hang it on the wall right next to "After You've Gone." 

 

 

Fun in Sun City

We went to Sun City looking for Christmas sweaters, but Sun City is unpredictable.  Vintage clothing is plentiful, but I rarely find any clothes I really want, certainly never a bowling shirt.  There are books and records everywhere, mostly junk.  Every trip to Sun City yields something unusual, just never the item you came for. 

If you go looking for housewares, you'll come home with amateur artwork.  If you're desperate for amateur artwork, you'll come home with a bowling bag.  If you actually need a bowling bag, you'll come home with glassware. 

Such is the nature of Sun City thrifting. 

The best trips always yield unexpected treasure:  a $75 piano, a 1970's TV/stereo console, a General Electric radio cabinet, rare books and records.

On Saturday we went looking for Christmas sweaters and we were sorely disappointed, but we were happy with the things we did find.

The first place we went, I bought records.

There were several hundred records to look at, mostly garbage.  Since it's almost Christmas, I grabbed Here We Come-A-Caroling by The Ray Charles Singers (MGM Records, E3467).  I haven't read Matador by Barnaby Conrad, but I knew enough to liberate The Day Manolete Was Killed (Audio Fidelity, AFLP 1831) from the junk heap.  I have a lot of old comedy albums, but that didn't stop me from picking up a Shelley Berman twofer from Verve (Inside Shelley Berman and Outside Shelley Berman), Dick Gregory's Dick Gregory Talks Turkey (Vee Jay, LP4001) and Flip Wilson's Pot Luck (Scepter Records, 520).  The Flip Wilson record is clearly marked "For Adults Only").  I also bought Twilight Memories by The Three Sun and The Brothers Four Songbook, but my favorite platter was a new Hair soundtrack, courtesy of Pickwick.  I have quite a few of them now, surely enough for a separate post. 

 

Not a bad record haul. 

 

I looked at the books, but there was nothing special.  Just before I left, I noticed a later printing of Pauline Tabor's Pauline's:  Memoirs of the Madam on Clay Street (Touchstone Publishing Company, 1971).  Tabor ran a brothel in Bowling Green, KY but her memoir of prostitution takes a backseat to the illustations by David Stone Martin, whose artwork graced a lot of classic jazz albums by Billie Holliday, Oscar Peterson, Lester Young, etc.  Very nice.