SoapZone Community Message Board

I made a whopping $10 <g>. I suspect I was cheated yet again; I was there for most of the sale Thursday and saw I'd made $5.75 at the end of the day, and I was there for most of the sale today and know I made another $4.25 today (which was half price day)...but I was unable to be at the sale Friday because I was working, and I find it a bit hard to believe I sold nothing that day. But right now, every penny is precious to me, and $10 will get me a pizza tomorrow night for dinner so I'm happy. Also, I love the last moments of the last day of a garage sale when the other participants are telling everyone "just take it!" when you show interest in something <g>. I left most of my stuff at Mrs. J's house--she has a truck coming from Habitat For Humanity to pick everything up next week--and I took home a few of my items that I was having second thoughts about. I also brought home, at no charge, a couple pairs of shorts for Dad (he's an old-fashioned dude: he won't wear shorts out of the house but he'll sometimes wear them on days he stays home), a couple pairs of lounge pants for me (I hope they fit), five books (which I'll read, pass on to my good church friend to read and then tell her to either pass them on, put them in a "little free library" or donate them to her friend who gives them to HER friend who goes into low-income areas and gives away books) and a really nice, brand new (tags still on) stuffed mountain lion that I intend to donate to a toy drive in December. And maybe hug a few times between then and now <g>.

I met some really nice people the two days I was at the sale. Actually, EVERYONE was nice but a few were nicer/more interesting than most. There was a darling little girl who got a free princess tiara and wand from Mrs. J (like me, she has a soft spot for the kids). There was a lovely little girl who was really into cats; she was carrying an adorable little kitty purse (not Hello Kitty <g>) and excitedly told me all about her "big" kitty at home, Eloise. She found a very cute little statue of a cat curled up atop a pile of books, and she clutched it to her chest like she'd been handed something exceedingly precious...and she had been. There was a sweet young man who brought his grandmother to the sale; Grandma couldn't walk much, so she looked only for a little bit before going back to the car, while the grandson looked for items for her and himself. I chatted a bit with Grandma and listened to Grandson tell a ghost tale about a spirit attached to a Ouija board that didn't want their conversation to end. I talked to an owner of a construction company who barely looked old enough to be out of high school, who talked about how his secret to keeping his employees was "just love on them". I talked to a neighbor and found out from Mrs. J after the neighbor left that this other neighbor had recently divorced her husband of many years for being "a lazy drunken loser who could never hold down a job" and had moved only a few houses down into a rental property another neighbor I'm friendly with owns. And I got to talk to Mrs. J's brother whom I'd never met and Mrs. J's long time friend who, in a fun twist of fate, graduated from the same high school Dad did, one year later. I ran home and got Dad's high school yearbook; Mrs. J's friend flipped through it and laughed and reminisced about several classmates including one who "is the father of <her> son", presumably from her first marriage. The friend didn't know Dad, nor did Dad know her (the classes even back then were about 500 kids) but the friend *did* know one of Dad's best friends growing up, who was in her class.

Best of all, Mrs. J and I spent a lot of time talking about "the good old days", and she had so many complimentary things to say about my mother. It was so touching hearing her talk about how my mom was so sweet and "just the best" and how garage sale-ing without her just isn't the same.

Oh, and I heard for the first time an amusing story about how Mr. J got into a tomato growing competition one summer back in the 1970s with two neighbors across the street. The first one to produce a red tomato won a dollar from each of the other two. Mr. R--who was a long time neighbor and lived in the house) directly across from us (now occupied by the neighbors who used to have Mr. Orange Juice and still has the yippy chihuahuas)--went to the store, bought a red tomato, tied it to a plant of his and declared himself a winner. His chicanery was only discovered when the tomato, fresh from the cool grocery store, started sweating in the sun and nearly fell off the plant.