Three-Day VNA Rummage Sale Continues Sunday

You know you're at the semi-annual Visiting Nurse Association of Far Hills Rummage Sale when you see a respectable-looking woman carrying a mirror rimmed by a candy-pink frame and feathers out to her car at the Far Hills Fairgrounds.

Of course, there are many practical items at the giant rummage sale, which opened on Friday and continues 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. 

There are thousands of home goods, articles of clothing for everyone in the family, books, appliances and even pieces of furniture that have been donated by people living in the Somerset Hills area who want to clear their closets and garage — maybe to make room for more treasures from the rummage sale.

But mixed in with those chairs and skis and the usual bargains is some stuff that might make you pause — a wicker basket that looks somewhat like a two-piece seal — except for those glassy eyes that might make it more appropriate for Halloween.

With gorgeous weather on Friday, the crowds were large and the shopping opportunities abounded as the sale opened. Proceeds from the sale, held each spring and fall, underwrite the VNA's health programs for uninsured and underinsured clients.

On Sunday, prices are deeply discounted at what's left at the sale, with many departments setting a fixed price for bagfuls of merchandise.

Sandy Harrison of Bedminster, one of the hundreds of volunteers that make the sale possible, said that artwork in the specialty Bonton tent, said that pictures, many in frames, seemed to be in hot demand this year.

One man bought $1,300 worth of art work early in the day, and another woman left with $900 worth of pictures, Harrison said.

VNA volunteer Dodie Allers of Basking Ridge said a gold dress displayed up and center in the women's clothing department — one of 23 departments mostly within large tents — was snapped up first-thing Friday morning by a woman who said she was going to wear it to an event in New Orleans.

And Patricia Neill of Bernardville said that a large donation of kids' raincoats, umbrellas and similar weather and rain gear had sold in large part by Friday afternoon. 

However, umbrellas were more in evidence to shade sun than rain as perfect weather started out the weekend.