Tomorrow morning our church is having a rummage sale to benefit this year’s short term summer missions. We have been doing this for several years and I have come to look forward to the event. Not only is it an opportunity for our family to unload a bunch of unwanted clutter, but it is also a chance to rummage for cool things to replace them.

The saying goes that membership has its rewards. Everyone knows that the best items at church yard sales are snatched up by the church members in the days preceding the sale. For example, one item we dropped off, my oldest son’s maple twin bed (now replaced by a big blue bunk bed), was purchased by a grandmother for when her grandkids stay over. Unfortunately, the treadmill that we heard she was bringing was snatched up by someone else before we could lay claim to it (my wife was the more disappointed one).

However, I did manage to abscond with a few primo items this evening (I promise I will pay for them later). Seriously folks, these are things that surely would have been gone minutes after the doors opened up.

Polaroid OneStep Flash Camera (with box and manuals)

Digital has supposedly killed it, but I think that film will survive thanks to a select few photographers, artists and hobbyists. I already have an old manual Minolta that I am itching to refurb (the light seals need to be replaced), but my new Polaroid is ready for action! Did you know that you can do some pretty cool things with instant film? Here is just one example.

The camera was not marked with a price, meaning I will need to make an offer tomorrow. How does ten bucks sound (the going rate on Ebay)? The remainder of my goodies cost me a total of $1.50 (three CDs @ $0.50 each).

Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits: The Early Years

Sinatra was the epitome of smooth. He had this way of moving and looking people straight in the eye that was silently powerful. How could any self respecting man send these songs to the discount bin? Surely, someone’s significant other had a hand in this one.

Chant: The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo De Silos

I have no idea what the floating dudes in brown are saying when they chant, but it sure does sound cool (like something out of a movie about a centuries old secret that an elite order of knights have sworn to protect).

Anthology of Bread

This was, by far, the best find of the night. Cover songs are supposed to be an improvement, or at least a refreshing update, but not even Cake (on their album Pressure Chief) could play The Guitar Man better than Bread. As soon as I popped Anthology into our Odyssey’s CD changer I was met with the soothing sounds of David Gates singing Make it with You. It took me right back to the 1970′s and into the passenger seat of my mom’s blue ’74 Ford Maverick. Then it was on the AM radio; now it’s on my iPod.

My wife also discovered something that alone justified the purchase — the six paragraph biography of the band printed inside the CD insert.

The staff of life. If to eat is to live, Bread (the group) realized early on that man and woman do not survive by bread (the food or money) alone. Expanded into song, the band’s light-rock sound touched the same breathy emotions that satisfy hunger, and the proof of their understanding sold millions of records and won numerous hearts around the world.

They were kneaded in the bakery of the Hollywood studios. David gates had…etc., etc. ad nauseum.

Armed with my vintage camera and hours of “delightfully captivating music,” along with perhaps “a jug of wine,” I will surely have “all anyone needs to sustain them in the wilderness of modern life.”