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!)

 

 

 

 

TWENTY-EIGHT MILE YARD SALE

It’s the weather. It can make or break your garage sale. Washingtonians take rain in stride. The sale was smaller than advertised, it rained off and on all day, with more of the same scheduled for today. Many of the vendors had their goods in tents, or inside of their garages. Some suffered with sodden goods half covered by tarps. Everyone was cheerful. The numbers and letters above, beautifully handcrafted, would look great at my place for only a buck twenty-five each. Smaller versions were fifty cents, not that I wanted to haul it around in a motor home until I return, though.

Normally, I avoid garage sales because I already own a garage full of “stuff” I don’t need.  We were looking for a cast iron omelette pan since I’m determined to give up those coated pans that make cooking so easy but release horrible chemicals into your food. Sometimes I think, I’m already ancient, so what?  These sales tease me to look for eccentric, fascinating, unheard of, items I’ve never encountered before. Make my day, I say. I’ve seen beautiful decoys, hand crafted. Collectors love them. This cheap rubber flyer can cleverly fool a duck. Cheating, unsportsmanlike.  I felt the same way about decoys when I was just a little girl and hated it when my dad hunted birds. The feeling is still there.

Ahh, something beautiful and indigenous to the area. Small cranberry vine woven baskets with oyster shell, apple wood and sand dollar bottoms. Hard work; beautiful; worth the $15 I paid for one. A  reasonable fit in the Motor Home. .

Nobody uses old doilies any more. This woman was loading them onto a curtain rod for a valance over her kitchen window. A great recycler.

This vendor had hundreds of scarves at fifty cents, a dollar, larger ones for two and three bucks. She demonstrated package wrapping with them. A clever idea, beautiful, and cheaper than wrapping paper.

This guy, it turned out, wasn’t selling old buoys. He just collects them as a yard decoration.  Hey,whatever floats your boat!
I enjoyed poking around town for a couple of hours dodging raindrops. Didn’t find a cast iron omelette pan. Next time!