Monday, May 15, 2017

Emptying the Basement



    
      In spite of a monsoon weekend, our tag sale went off without a hitch. Miraculously, the morning was chilly but dry – a good thing since we had cleverly positioned several things on the lawn to lure shoppers farther in to our garage.


          I’m always amazed at the unpredictability of what people choose to buy. The sale was a town-wide endeavor to benefit a children’s play group, and so participants paid to have their house put on a map that was available for shoppers to pick up at 8:00 a.m.   
        Good thing, since we live on a three-house dead end street which itself is off of a dead-end. Most people wouldn’t find us unless we set flairs off into the air at regular intervals.

 
By 7:58 we’d already sold a rusted fire engine peddle car that had been languishing in our garage for twenty years. (And twenty years before that in a previous garage since we’d bought it for our now-43 year old son.) I don’t understand its allure since any child with legs strong enough to peddle it is by that point too big to fit into it. 

But it has a bell, and it’s red, and it’s big, so it must just be the precursor to future vehicles. 


          Gone: two semi-sets of china, several feet of white garden fencing, two humongous silver plate trays, a heavy rock-solid but stained plastic patio table and chairs, some ugly paintings, one press-back wood chair but not the other, four big plastic Fisher-Price sandbox trucks and one Sergeant Pepper record album.
          Still with us, sadly, a big metal office credenza My Guy dragged home from a previous workplace, an entire box of silver-plated bowls, platters, and candy dishes from my silver-loving forbears, our son’s rickety drafting table, an eight foot folding table, a big pine rocker, and assorted lamps. Craig’s list is in our future.
          The small remainders – knick knacks and oddments – I threw into boxes and drove immediately to the Salvation Army.
          The moment after I lugged the last box to the gentleman receiving it and staggered to my car it began to rain.
         

8 comments:

  1. Yay! Your rain held off until you were done. Congratulations on moving as much of the stuff as you did. :-)

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  2. this little town has a city-wide garage sale but it's not to benefit anything. I think the purpose is to draw people to the town which I find hilarious as the city government and the chamber of commerce, imo, go out of their way to discourage business here, won't even spring for signs directing out of towners to the courthouse square. plus they hold it in June when it is already so hot no one wants to spend the day going to garage sales.

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  3. You moved a lot of things on.
    Like Ellen we have a city wide garage sale. I suspect it is used to stop people 'dumping' their discards.
    I am glad that the weather was kind to you.

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  4. It is amazing what others think is treasure when you have a garage sale. Seems like you did OK and got rid of some space eaters.

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  5. I wish I could get rid of that much. It's the little things that take the time unless you rent a dumpster.

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    Replies
    1. This was the tip of the iceberg that's still in the basement, Red.

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  6. If I'd been there, I would have had the box of silver-plated bowls etc and the pine rocker.

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    Replies
    1. Hey, they're both still available and there's always UPS. Just sayin'.. . . .

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