Servire Populo pt. 1

Posted on by garbagefinds

On my phone I keep a record of the houses or locations that seem to be producing quality garbage. This helps me remember to check them out when I’m in the area.

This place in St Michel was first productive back in August when my mom was in town for a visit. I took her on one of my runs and checked the few spots I had logged in the borough. However, this one was a bit further away than the others, and after I had little luck at the other spots I almost decided to skip it. At the time, I couldn’t even remember why I added it to my notes.

However, I ended up giving it a chance, and I’m glad I did because the house ended up producing loads of quality junk. It’s also where I found that great collection of vintage clothes from a while back. Plus, it was nice to show my mom that little treasures can be found in ordinary looking trash (I remember our best finds coming from that bag closest to the bottom right).

Months later I’m still keeping an eye on this spot. In fact, I plan on checking it out again tonight. Finds have been a bit more sporadic of late, with the tosser skipping the occasional week (or two), but I’m loyal to my favourite spots and I’ll keep going back until I think there’s nothing left to find.

We took that solid vintage dresser, by the way, and it eventually sold for 50$. I found the matching vanity later on, and finally got it listed yesterday (pretty good price too if you ask me – I mostly want to get it out of the garage).

This was some of the stuff my mom and I saved that first night. As you can see, a lot of it is neat vintage junk. There’s a few vintage perfumes, a couple cool brooches, and some religious medallions, among other things. I’m surprised I never saw a bill authentication card like the one below the skate before. I wish this pic was better, but it’ll have to do.

The sterling silver pin I found that first night is why I titled this series Servire Populo. Apparently, this is the motto of Canada Post, and it translates as “to serve the people.” I also found lots of nursing stuff, so it seems that the people who lived here worked in public service.

I found a few nice watches, but none of them were exceptional or eBay worthy. Those eyeglass frames though are made by Yves St Laurent, and should make me a bit of money.

I found a couple of pipe bags but unfortunately no pipes. I did find a few stamps in that organizer though.

That figurine at the top left was actually a cookie. It ended up in a free box, but I doubt anyone took it. The Parker Pen box is nice, though it didn’t come with the actual pen.

I saved lots of vintage Christmas thingies, which I’m guessing are cake toppers. I think they’re still kicking around somewhere if anyone’s interested!

That Fragonard perfume went to a local buyer, and I remember selling that little notepad for 50c at my last yard sale.

The black cat was probably part of that collectible vintage Stafford tea set, but unfortunately I didn’t find any other pieces from it.

A couple of these pins are nursing related. The sunglasses are Polaroid Cool-Rays, but not the ones that can be sold for a lot of money.

That’s just the beginning, I’ll share more finds soon enough! And, if I’m lucky I’ll find some new stuff tonight.

Relevant links

1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute to garbagefinds.com
6. Follow me on Instagram

Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. I often fall behind on emails, so I apologize in advance if it takes me a while to get back to you.

18 thoughts on “Servire Populo pt. 1”

  1. My place! Ah, I have fond memories of going there with you. 🙂
    I’ve seen lots of pipes, but I’ve never heard tell of a “pipe bag” before … live and learn!
    Just curious … what’s that long tool under the Parker pen box?

    2. A pipe bag is a bag you put your pipe in! Perhaps pouch is a better term though. Maybe they were only given out with relatively fancy pipes.

  2. In case you want to cut your own hair, two haircut thingies in the 6th picture.

  3. Ho thanks for sharing your amazing post as always..I am interested in the Mexico 86 world cup ruler..I went to see Brazil-France at the Guadalajara, Jalisco stadium for the Quarter final match..I still have the ticket stub…would be great to have this as a souvenir for one of the coolest birthday presents I ever had!! Brazil lost 5-4 to France in penalty shots…
    Socrates, Zico, Junior, Cesar, Branco…

    1. Pretty cool. That ruler was at a bunch of my yard sales (you were there for a couple of them I think) so it might not be around anymore. If it turns up though I’ll keep you in mind.

  4. Felicitations,Martin.Now your blog has 6006 subscribers.You have crossed the 6,000-subscriber milestone.For the last two blog posts,you have picked up 10 to 20 followers each.For a few months in between,you were only picking up one or two new followers per post.Bask in it.

  6. Martin,97 episodes of BBC TV’s very popular series DR WHO are still missing from the BBC archives;also half of the episodes of the popular sixties,seventies TV series Z CARS are not known to exist anywhere.TV historians and BBC librarians are dying to find them and archive them.If you find even a few of these lost episiodes,please rescue them,send them to TV archivists after making back-up and write about it as well as send out press releases.I am hoping you do find some lost TV history.(Please read up about Dr.WHO missing episodes as well as Z CARS missing episodes on the internet).

    1. Hi Martin,
      Neat finds! The Parker box would sell on eBay, even without the pen. We pen nuts love original boxes!

      1. Yup, there is a good market for old boxes… I find Parkers often enough though, so sometimes I’ll ship a nice pen with a nice box.

    2. Interesting. I do always have my eye out for potentially interesting video footage, especially old reels and U-Matic tapes. It can be of interests to archivists even if it’s just older local content.

Comments are closed.