ONE LAST DAY

Yard sales are a regular business for some folks. They gather  stuff  DELIBERATELY and do this!!  It takes fortitude. One nice thing, I met neighbors I haven’t visited  in a long time. Several stopped in for a bit of chit-chat.

The other bright spot is watching my partner, Jimmy the Huckster. If it wasn’t for his salesmanship, half of what we did sell would still be  in the yard.  He has a great philosophy,” If you put it in the sale, you want it gone, unless you like hauling all this stuff back where you got it from.”  Kind of puts a thing in perspective. I’ve had an old rear truck bumper someone left at my house in the garden like an ornament around the plants. Jim hauled that out, we cleaned it off, and several people were interested. It will sell today, I’m sure. If someone even looked interested, he would give a spiel and knock the price down. Help them load it and send them on their way.

Jimmy the parking lot attendant ran out and showed people venturing up my long driveway  where and how to park so no one got jammed up in the yard.

Then, Jimmy the good Samaritan,  helped one woman test her power steering fluid, and helped another with her gas additive. He looked up items on the internet previous to the sale for an idea of what various items were worth.

We had  a steady stream of customers all day. Even so,  people are not parting with their dollars easily. One guy let his dog run around for a while. He said, “Don’t worry, he won’t get lost. We feed him. I call him glue.  Here, Glue! Here, Glue!”

We started this sale with Neighbor Jan across the road and one customer said to me:  “You have one hour to bring that lady across the road a cocktail!”  When I had a break I managed to bounce over with a bloody Mary, and a stick of celery in exchange for a hug and some laughter. One of her customers asked:  “Where’s the  bar!”

Today, it will end. Hospice will pick up what we didn’t sell. The wallet a bit fatter and the good feeling of ridding myself of un-needed items someone else can use. Ahh!   All in a day’s yard sale!   (But, never again!)

 

 

 

 

LONG BEACH GARAGE SALE

Long Beach, Washington claims to be the longest beach in the world. Looking at Chile, one has to wonder, but who cares?

One thing about this beach, as far as you can see in either direction, the only “development”  is this dual set of condos, nice!

It was sweater and jacket weather, yet some brave souls got  right in and played in  the water.

The Chamber of Commerce hires a horse and wagon to haul people from sale to sale since most places hosting a sale lack ample  parking.

At this place cell phone chargers and cell phones?  There must have been 300 of them. Two brand new phones in boxes for $5 each. We looked but they aren’t old enough for us. We want to buy an older type phone that has an external port to plug in an amplifier, just to have a spare. Invaluable for our needs on the road.

This woman told me she caught a fish 5 feet 1 inch long. It happened 20 years ago, but she can still thrill to her one great catch.

Long Beach has a number of nicely painted murals around town. This sign gave me a chuckle.

A portion of the rest of the mural.

Cranberries, another local industry, working hard in this mural.

Town was full of people having fun. Renting tricycles and quadricycles  that hold the whole family of four plus a baby, and pedaling around town. There are amusement rides and pee wee golf; shopping, good eats, frisbee and kite flying on the beach. We curled in during the cold morning and  finished books we were reading.  Decent weather lured us back to town and we weren’t disappointed. Didn’t find that cast iron pan, but it was fun looking. Found a 50 cent video and took it home to watch after dinner.