The Neighborhood Garage Sale

Yesterday, Marilyn and I experienced a first in our almost-37 years of marriage. We took part in a neighborhood garage sale, and it was, I must say, a very positive experience.

Despite all of the purging that we did when we moved from Field Club Drive last year, we still found ourselves holding a lot of "stuff" that we just didn't need. Some of it was stuff that we learned just didn't work in our new house. Things like pictures, decorative items, and, the big ticket item, six patio chairs with cushions. They worked great on our covered back porch at Field Club, but not so good on our deck at Stonebrook.

So, when the Stonebrook Social Committee decided to have a garage sale, we were all in. The morning was a big success on several levels:

1. We did, indeed, get rid of a lot of stuff. The patio chairs went within the first half hour.


2. We made money on the deal. Oh, we won't be buying a new car with the dough, but we should be able to have couple of nice dinners at some nice restaurants with the proceeds.


3. It was fun. All the neighbors were out and about throughout the morning. Even those who didn't participate by selling stuff were out visiting. It was like a block party.


4. It was also fun observing the people who came shopping. There were the "professional" garage sale shoppers, the ones you know do this kind of stuff every Saturday. Some look for specific items like the lady who was only shopping for cookbooks. Some drive by, look out their car windows and move on, never leaving their car, some barely even slowing down. There were kids looking for stuff to furnish dorm rooms and first apartments. Some people who would want to haggle with you over some widget for which you were only asking a dollar. Some wanted to know if you'd provide a battery for whatever gadget that were looking at. It was a great lab experiment in human behaviour.


5. People came by who didn't even know our little community existed, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them don't someday end up buying in Stonebrook.

There were some things that we thought were sure to go - electric switch plates, a 100 foot extension cord, table cloths - didn't, and things that we thought would never sell - a busted ladder, a can opener - were snapped right up.

We had vowed that when it was all over, anything that was left over would go right in the back of the Jeep and be taken to Goodwill, and that is exactly what we did, although the stuff that didn't sell could be fit into two small shopping bags.

As I said, it was fun day.