Estate Sale Purchase - Late 80's Prepper
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2021 1:52 pm
New member of this Forum so if I'm posting this in the wrong area please let me know where would be the appropriate location.
A little over a week ago I attended an Estate Sale located near Tyrone GA. I'm a tool guy and that's usually my focus. I usually make a B-line to the basement or any outbuildings.
In this case there were no outbuildings but there was a basement so that was my first stop, When I walked in I saw LOTS of tool stuff and hardware but nothing that I didn't already have.
Then I noticed shelves on one wall with boxes on the top shelves. Handwritten on the sides were things like, Peaches, Beef, Pork as well as peoples names. Some of the boxes were also machine labeled "MRE". I didn't think that much about that (I assumed that the items within were too old to be of use) and no one else seemed to be interested in any of that stuff either.
I walked into another basement room and there were 5 cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other. These were a bit smaller than the largest boxes on the shelves. I opened up these boxes and found some ancient Mountain House Freeze Dried Meals (I am a backpacker and familiar with this company) and also some things that made me stop and consider a purchase.
Here was a box of what appeared to be individually packaged Military Grade Freeze Dried Strawberries. Under that box was another that I initially thought was filled with the same sort of item as the first box but peaches instead.
I left that room and went back to the shelves I had seen earlier. I found a foot stool and used that to allow me to reach that top shelf. I pulled down the box that was labeled "Peaches". It was practically full of the individually packaged peaches.
I made a deal for the 3 boxes ($14) and, along with a few other "tool" items, went home.
I decided to try rehydrating one of the Peaches. That seemed to go well: it smelled and tasted fine. I then noticed that the smaller box that I thought just had peaches in it was actually a combination of peaches and what appeared to be individually packaged Military Grade Freeze Dried Pork & Beef.
Since the Peaches had been edible (pretty good actually) I decided to return to the Estate Sale and make an offer on all the food. When I arrived it was getting towards closing time for that day. I asked what they would want for all the food and the answer was, "$25".
"Sold", I said.
So here's the large box of Peaches. The box is 23" x 16" x 12". I think it originally had 325 packages of peaches in it.
Here's the Strawberries This is a smaller box and originally had 100 packages of strawberries.
There were a few shipping labels either attached to the boxes or inside with the food. These items were shipped during 1987 from SI Equipment, LTD. of Gardena CA.
This is the smaller box that I thought was peaches but was actually a combination of peaches, beef patties & pork patties. The handwritten label "40 LRP's" didn't mean anything to me at the time. Now I believe the owner had taken some of the beef patties & pork patties, combined them with a peach packet, and constructed a reduced calorie, homemade LRP.
Here's pretty much all the food I bought for a total of about $39. I will be exploring some of these items in future posts in this thread but wanted to lay out the background first.
... and also to ask a few questions of the group.
Has anyone ever seen Military packaged Peaches, Strawberries, Beef Patties or Pork Patties available individually before?
Has anyone ever heard of the apparent source of these items: SI Equipment of Gardena CA?
Scott
A little over a week ago I attended an Estate Sale located near Tyrone GA. I'm a tool guy and that's usually my focus. I usually make a B-line to the basement or any outbuildings.
In this case there were no outbuildings but there was a basement so that was my first stop, When I walked in I saw LOTS of tool stuff and hardware but nothing that I didn't already have.
Then I noticed shelves on one wall with boxes on the top shelves. Handwritten on the sides were things like, Peaches, Beef, Pork as well as peoples names. Some of the boxes were also machine labeled "MRE". I didn't think that much about that (I assumed that the items within were too old to be of use) and no one else seemed to be interested in any of that stuff either.
I walked into another basement room and there were 5 cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other. These were a bit smaller than the largest boxes on the shelves. I opened up these boxes and found some ancient Mountain House Freeze Dried Meals (I am a backpacker and familiar with this company) and also some things that made me stop and consider a purchase.
Here was a box of what appeared to be individually packaged Military Grade Freeze Dried Strawberries. Under that box was another that I initially thought was filled with the same sort of item as the first box but peaches instead.
I left that room and went back to the shelves I had seen earlier. I found a foot stool and used that to allow me to reach that top shelf. I pulled down the box that was labeled "Peaches". It was practically full of the individually packaged peaches.
I made a deal for the 3 boxes ($14) and, along with a few other "tool" items, went home.
I decided to try rehydrating one of the Peaches. That seemed to go well: it smelled and tasted fine. I then noticed that the smaller box that I thought just had peaches in it was actually a combination of peaches and what appeared to be individually packaged Military Grade Freeze Dried Pork & Beef.
Since the Peaches had been edible (pretty good actually) I decided to return to the Estate Sale and make an offer on all the food. When I arrived it was getting towards closing time for that day. I asked what they would want for all the food and the answer was, "$25".
"Sold", I said.
So here's the large box of Peaches. The box is 23" x 16" x 12". I think it originally had 325 packages of peaches in it.
Here's the Strawberries This is a smaller box and originally had 100 packages of strawberries.
There were a few shipping labels either attached to the boxes or inside with the food. These items were shipped during 1987 from SI Equipment, LTD. of Gardena CA.
This is the smaller box that I thought was peaches but was actually a combination of peaches, beef patties & pork patties. The handwritten label "40 LRP's" didn't mean anything to me at the time. Now I believe the owner had taken some of the beef patties & pork patties, combined them with a peach packet, and constructed a reduced calorie, homemade LRP.
Here's pretty much all the food I bought for a total of about $39. I will be exploring some of these items in future posts in this thread but wanted to lay out the background first.
... and also to ask a few questions of the group.
Has anyone ever seen Military packaged Peaches, Strawberries, Beef Patties or Pork Patties available individually before?
Has anyone ever heard of the apparent source of these items: SI Equipment of Gardena CA?
Scott