This is Matt of OG in Firemen’s Park. 6/15/26. He loves our sales: He keeps reminding me of the lawnmower that has become his best tool. Molly is his pup. This is dog-town USA. Paul Goldfinger photo.
By Paul Goldfinger and Eileen Goldfinger. Blogfinger.net.
To sign up as a yard sailor, send an email to Blogfinger@verizon.net and give us a cross street. Send your items to sell to the same address, and you can add sale items until 6/26. Don’t forget Neptune permit for $5.00 at the mother ship. The “list will be arranged by neighborhoods. This is a fine and fun social happening, so put on a happy face.! Any issues, contact us; Blogfinger@verizon.net.
Feel free to pick up flyers from our porch at 113 Mt. Hermon at Delware. Help us with listings on social network. Interested parties can be steered to Blogfinger.net. Remember that you can design you own sale: for example make your sale 9 am to 12 noon.
THE LIST OF PARTICIPANTS AND SALE ITEMS (Please send us cross streets and lists of items). You can show almost anything. Show your art work as an exhibit or also for sale.
This list will grow over the next 12 days. Please help us publicize this event. One year we had 75 sites
Yard Sailors may add sale items up to and including June 26. Email us at Blogfinger@verizon.net
TOTAL =11 ADRESSES
91 Webb Avenue near Pennsylvania Ave.
130 Mt. Tabor Way
50 Central Avenue. 2 bikes, a push lawn mower, costume jewelry , books, CD’s, and other miscellaneous stuff.
76 Heck Avenue: Household items, linens, small furniture items,
94 1/2 Heck Avenue: This will be a group event with 3 families.
128 Heck Avenue: Assorted dishes, glass, lamps, a stained glass lampshade, a wooden file cabinet, bench and assorted baskets.
26 Embury Avenue:
103 Clark Ave. (corner of New Jersey)
64 Asbury Avenue: Selection of art, furniture, homegoods, and accessories
Paul Goldfinger.photograph. Firemen march in the Israel Day Parade, 5th Avenue, New York City. 2017. Usually held in June. Click to enlarge and see the action.
The action heated up early on Mt. Hermon Way where there were 7 sales within 2 blocks. All photos by Paul Goldfinger
Despite some intermittent light rain and clouds, the yard sale event on Saturday was successful. Only a few of the 45 families gave up in the face of the weather. Actually, the morning was busy for most sellers, and many buyers, responding to our advertising, came from out of town. By and large, this truly should have been called a “porch sale” because everyone who had a porch made good use of it.
Robin, a pre-K teacher from Ocean Twp, was buying fun and games for a PTO tricky tray event. She scored big on Inskip Ave at the far southern reaches of the Grove.
We were supposed to start at 9 a.m. but there always are early arrivers—often dealers or collectors. We had a vinyl collector show up first. He chose a $1.00 Joni Mitchell album. He said that he owns “thousands” of record albums, but “there’s always room for one more.”
Another guy asked us if we wanted to sell him silver or gold. He said, “I can pay better than other dealers because I have no overhead.” As I told him the bad news—no gold or silver on my porch— I imagined him under the Wesley Lake bridge weighing his gold and silver. Three women named Vicki arrived at our sale at the same time–perhaps a world record unless there is a Vicki Association somewhere.
Carl Swanson (CardsbyCarl.com) loved the action. “Now that spring is here, I have a new color palette.” We’ll show his latest work soon.
A group of 4 antique toy sellers had gathered in front of a garage on Inskip Ave. Because we had itemized the goods for sale on Blogfinger, they were able to connect with antique toy collectors, so they did very well.
Pat, a jewelry maker from Olin Ave, said that everyone who came to her sale wanted something that she didn’t have. “I make jewelry from Swaroski crystals, and some buyers thought my name was Crystal Swaroski,” she said. “I guess I need to bring my jewelry to a craft show.”
Pat Gordon. Ms. Swarosky. Lonely only on Olin.
But Carl Hoffman and I rode around to spot-check the sales, and almost everyone we visited said that they were having a good day. One seller complained that as the day went on, her pants got longer. We were baffled by that one until she explained that the bottoms were getting wet, so her pants were losing altitude. We left before the critical mass caused chaos.
Rose Marie Smith and Michael Termni of Stockton Ave. This is what a real garage sale looks like (A rare event in garageless OG)
As a social event, it was really a lot of fun. Grovers who were new in town got to meet neighbors, and neighbors formed partnerships and bonded with the folks next door or down the block. We had one buyer, a chubby guy with glasses, do an excellent 5 second impression of Rodney Dangerfield (“I don’t get no respect”—-In my mind I heard a rim shot).
A New Yorker named Nick had just blown into town by bus and immediately hit the sale trail. “I read Blogfinger every day at work,” he said. “Thank you for bringing us out-of-towners the OG news. I especially look forward to the crime reports.” (I’m thinking, “I really have to call Chief Adams and tell him we need more crime news.”)
Another New Yorker named Hubert, a young man browsing through my photographs, could not stop smiling because of little Grover Eddie, age almost-two, who was waving his Woody doll around and saying “Giddyup” over and over.
A woman came up on our porch, peered in our living room window and asked Eileen if she could buy an oriental covered dish that she saw on a table inside.
The Ferguson’s–This is what a porch sale should look like!
If any of you had some adventures at the sales yesterday, please click the “comments ” button” and share.
Next year, let’s see if we can get 100 addresses. And don’t forget, we will advertise your garage sale. Just send an email to blogfinger@verizon.net. It’s free, so let her rip. (Why are we offering this? Yard sales bring people and life into the Grove on Saturday mornings, and then they go home. I remember when OG was a boring place. )
—Paul Goldfinger, editor @Blogfinger
Dedicated to all the yard sellers who participated and made our event a success.
Did you ever dream of traveling around the country in a van with a rock band? Well, Daniel Hickman of Tennessee, currently of Ocean Grove, did just that for five years when he was in his twenties. But he wasn’t a musician. He was a technician who made sure that the group’s guitars were fit as a fiddle. Daniel loved the experience; is there any doubt? ——– especially if you read Keith Richards biography.
Daniel has trained for years working on guitars—-repairing them and building them. He continued studying his craft with experts along the way as he traveled all over America with the Latin Rock group “de Sol.” He calls himself a “luthier” (definition: “a maker of stringed instruments such as violins or guitars.”)
Daniel comes from an artistic family and he probably inhaled guitar music living near Nashville. His career as a luthier has been progressing since 2005. After that rock gig, he moved to New Jersey and found himself with a very special business opportunity at the Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove (66 South Main Street in Neptune) where he has had a workshop/studio since 2015 called “Don’t Fret Music.”
Daniel is grateful to the late Herb Herbst and the staff at the JSAC for providing him with a rare situation. He not only builds and repairs guitars and other stringed instruments,, but he has begun a program to provide lessons in guitar, piano, and uke. Dan has recruited a talented young teacher to work with students of all ages, and the lessons are given in a separate space off Dan’s workshop. He also repairs amps and he is moving into “retail.” Daniel plans to develop a “full service guitar shop and music store.” His shop is downstairs off the parking lot, with a private entrance to the left.
At the age of 32, Daniel is ambitious and enthused. “We are in the infancy of Don’t Fret Music.”
Daniel’s workshop/studio is a fascinating place, and to watch him work, you get the impression that he is highly competent. He worked on my guitar–he is an exacting craftsman.
Daniel is excited about the future of the Jersey Shore Arts Center. “There is a lot going on here,” he says; “The venue is full of talented artists in residence ,some of whom paint, do screen printing, social media, and photography.” There also is an acting ensemble “La Strada.” He wants to be supportive of his artist colleagues at JSAC.
One of his ambitions is to see a variety of new music performances in the JSAC theater. He hopes for bluegrass and jazz among the choices. This ambition seems very real given the recent downsizing of the secular programming in the Great Auditorium and the real need for some musical variety to satisfy OG’s diverse demographics and to balance against the music scene in Asbury Park.
Blogfinger will help promote new music and arts programs in Ocean Grove. It sounds like the JSAC may be on the threshold of something more than yoga and children’s ballet. Currently there is an arts show going on. Call them for details.
Daniel’s shop is open Tuesday through Saturday 3 pm -7 pm except Saturday which is 11 am to 5 pm. Call 732 361 5060 or DontFretNJ@gmail.com or the web site: DontFretNJ.com.
And, for the record, Daniel lives in Ocean Grove and he “loves the town.” It makes him happy because he knows his neighbors, people say hello, and the town is charming. Daniel knows most of the business people in the Grove and he feels at home here.
de Sol “Blanco y Negro.”
Here is a link to a 2018 piece about “Don’t Fret.”
Paul Goldfinger still from Netflix documentary with colorized still photos Children survivors were returned to their home countries. Many were Jews.
This soldier was held in a POW camp for 5 years. He left for war when his daughter was 1, and in this photo he sees her as a six year old in 1945. Paul Goldfinger still image from the colorized video.
In Paris, French women who had fraternized with Nazis had their hair shorn. Some had swastikas drawn on their foreheads. From the Netflix doc. Still photo by Blogfinger.
After WWII was over there were millions of children alone throughout Europe. Children often survived without their parents, and those who were alone were taken under the wings of allied European nations and returned in huge numbers to their original countries, usually via restored train tracks. Survivors were mostly young women, elderly, and children. Many survived because they had been shipped out to rural areas with other children.
In some cases they were found by their parents after the war, but many were orphans.
Men died in the war or they survived in POW camps. Emotional reunions occurred all over.
