Garage Sales
Aug 18/24
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Another garage sale day has been completed and each one is more stressful than the last. As we age, our bodies and our patience are stretched far beyond the breaking point, especially on Garage sale day. For years, as a customer, it was a hoot, as a vendor, when younger, I was better prepared and enjoyed the challenges of negotiation, not so much at 88. Even though for the past few years, we have stated, “This is the last one”. However, we are always spirited into one more. It is in our blood and once you have the bug, you cannot resist either as a buyer or seller.
In Great Britain, they have a Boot sale where venders gather in a parking lot and open their automobile boots or trunks and sell what-ever. I imagine Petticoat Lane in London was one of the first true Flea markets as a flea market is just a larger garage sale and a lot more fun. I can attest to having a better knowledge of that than most, having been the owner of a rather large Flea market and a very big customer when furnishing supplies for a 40-room mansion that would become a 15-bedroom B&B. Almost every Saturday we would go to the Mexican Flea market or the Red Barn for our bargain hunting in Florida. Most Canadians haven’t quite caught on to the fun of it yet, certainly not in my up-scale community. Most of our customers were from the city or country but few from our group of over 500 homes.
While yesterday was a total flop when it comes to cost of time and effort for monetary compensation, the value of having meeting and conversing with new friends was invaluable for me. Covid has taken its toll and we have not been forgotten. My brother and sister-in-law are both gone from heart problems during covid and the loss of close friends because we could not take the so/called vaccine was hurtful and cruel if not just plain stupid. We have been very fortunate to have avoided covid. However, I was treated to a plethora of interesting and beautiful adults and children that treated me to conversation that was happy, positive and constructive. That more than made up for all the aches and pains.
The sale is over and all the remnants are packed up for our local charities. It would have been easier to have just avoided the work but that would have been too easy. Work has never been an issue in the past, but the avoidance of it now is the easiest decision we have to make. I am finding that leaving the big decisions as well as the small ones are better made by myself. The attendance was down at our sale as the add went into the newspaper with the wrong date and only on the day of the sale. All the work for dozens of seniors to prepare for this was in vain because someone else with little to lose didn’t do their job. What a shame!
Paul D. Scott rantingsandraves.com
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