I hit one estate sale today, and it was the kind I like. Lots of interesting old stuff, for small prices. I spent $7.25 total.
I had broken a black shoelace on my good shoes while putting them on in a hurry to get to a wedding last month. So I picked these up. You can see they weren't expensive when new. What year that was, I couldn't say.
This is an old copy of Cheaper by the Dozen. Not a first edition - the book was originally written in 1946, and this 1949 edition was the 15th printing!
An old GE light meter. It was near some old 16mm-style movie cameras, so it was probably used for determining the correct exposure for them. You can't see it in this photo, but the leather case has an opening at the top of the meter to expose the light sensor.
A really interesting stapler that works very well. It's smaller than this photo makes it look. It does need some cleaning up before getting desk action.
I watched Saving Private Ryan yesterday for the anniversary of D-Day. This appears to be an authentic WW2 canteen.
I'll need to straighten this plumb bob's tip before it can be very usable. And maybe replace the string, too.
Everyone needs a good brush to clear the work area of sawdust or paperwork.
Neatsfoot oil, for the leather baseball mitt.
Some sports car racing trophies, for garage decoration. The third one, with the groovy disks, is a 1st place award for a hillclimb in 1968. On getting these home, I'm realizing that three of them may be excessive. They might make nice awards for your students, though, Rachel? With new title plaques, of course...
When I got this, I thought it was for judging track meets. The clipboard combined with the stopwatch. I thought I would salvage the Heuer stopwatch, (for which the previous owner riveted a clever pivoting cover for the winding screw/start-stop button). After doing some research, I found that it's actually a
dash-mounted stopwatch, intended for racing. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Probably won't screw it into the Corolla's dashboard to time my commute.
This little tin of unappetizingly-labeled dental plaster is actually just plaster-of-paris, which should be fun to play with.
Wrinkle-finish spray paint and silicone lubricant, cheap.
Chalk line full of red chalk, and blue refill chalk. hmm.
Old-timey grass clippers need some cleaning up.
This box is full of rubber washers. A guy at the sale pointed out that they're probably long dried-out, but I thought the nice metal box would be useful for organizing small parts anyway.
2 garden hoes, a post hole digger, and a handle. We've been looking for these items, and it's 1000% cheaper than buying them new. Seriously, $0.25 vs $25.
The Kinder photo from last Sept (9/07) and 
Kari got some new glasses today. Yay, we can all see again!
