When two men visited a yard sale in Western Pennsylvania last month, they browsed under the shelter of a blue tarp through the typical wares: dishes and vases, books and DVDs, old paintings and used clothes.

They spent about $10 between them. One of the men, David Dunkleberger, 27, picked up a carton of glass bottles and some newspapers from the summer of 1977, when heavy rains brought catastrophic flooding to the area. The other man, Ed Sheets, 27, bought a railroad stock certificate.

They also spent time talking with the man selling the items, Willie Davis, a Navy veteran who explained that he was trying to raise money for a funeral.

“I said, ‘Whose funeral?’ And he said, ‘Mine,’” Mr. Dunkleberger recalled on Saturday. “I can only imagine my face when he said that to me.”