Garage Sales

We had been warned that this weekend our town will be a bit crazier than usual.  The first weekend in May is the city-wide garage sale.  Natives warned me to expect erratic driving (more than usual), a ton of people out and about, not leave our garage doors open, and that we should not leave anything of value outside or someone might be knocking at the door trying to buy it.

 The craziness began on Thursday evening with a few sales opening on our block which lead to some drivers parking their vehicles in the middle of the street to jump out and make a quick purchase.  Friday brought the official opening to the weekend and everyone not at the golf course on a beautiful afternoon or celebrating Cinco de Mayo at La Fiesta were hitting the sales to get the best early finds.  I was excited since it also meant opening day of the plant sale at the nursing home that I walk by every day on my way to work.  Another patient had tipped me off not to miss this.  Since Arthur has allotted a generous house plant budget I picked up a small jade plant.  These are sometimes used in bonsai gardens and I think Confucius (our Chinese evergreen) and Jade will be happy East Asia plants together.

Friday evening I had the idea that maybe if we hauled our broken freezer out to the street that maybe someone would come by and take it for free.  Wouldn't that be great.  This might be the one time that having more privacy of being in the corner of a quiet cul-de-sac is a disadvantage when trying to get other people to haul off your junk.   Sad to say, the defunct freezer is back in the garage taking up space.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early planning our attack for garage sale day.  There were at least 60 sales advertised in the paper and luckily there was a handy map which made plotting our routes around town a little bit easier.  Specifically we were on the hunt for gardening tools or other tools in general since our shop/garden supplies consisted of a trowel, pots, a hose, and a bag of potting soil when we moved.  Since then we have acquired a shovel, ladder, lawn mower, and a garden rake that a patient gave me.  (I might have looked a little silly and like an American Gothic re-enactment walking around the hospital and home from work with a rake but if anyone asked I was just going to mention that it was Take Your Rake to Work Day).

Our first stop we saw garden statues for a gargoyle and the Greek god Pan.  It was difficult to pass up those additions to our statue and topiary garden.  Next we hit a sale that had some great kids books.  It's hard to pass up on 5 books for a dollar so we expanded our children's book collection.  Someone was probably a teacher as most of the books were on science and space but there were also a large number of multiculture children's books with emphasis on China, Japan, and Africa.

Garage sales intrigue me from an anthropology point of view.  What can you find out about a family and their lives by looking through their junk?  At the next sale I was able to determine that it was the home of someone older who was a doctor and flew airplanes.  The style of furniture or dishes and kitchenware is usually a good indication of age.  This sale also had a lot of books including the KU Med Alumni Directory, four shelves of medical textbooks, and a complete set of flight encyclopedias.  As it turns out I was right on-- it was the estate of a doctor who had a pilot's license.

At this sale we picked up a leaf rake -- a big item on our check list -- and the biggest find of the day...a food dehydrator.  We hit a few others stops and found a new work shirt for Arthur, plastic drop cloth with adhesive so the drop cloth and taping the trim are done in one step, and a box of CFL lightbulbs.  We might have looked a little redneck cruising around town with a rake handle hanging out of the back window but actually we fit right in with the other erratic drivers.

From an economical stand point our outing this morning took about 45 minutes and cost $13.50. Here's a run down on our purchased and estimated market value:

Children's books for $1 worth about $10
Polo shirt for $2 worth about $20
Food Dehydrator for $3 worth about $50
Drop cloth for $.50 worth about $7
Box of CFL bulbs for $2 worth about $19
Jade plant for $3 worth about $8

The estimated market value comes to about $115.  Now if we had only gotten rid of the freezer  today would have been priceless.  Omnia Vincit Amor.