"Three Dollars and it only Transports Matter?”

I'm trying to imagine John Peterman having a yard sale.
It's just not coming...

 My friend Jim K., wondering if I really got the cultural phenomenon of valuing other people's junk. asked me to accompany him to the storage facility rented by his sister.

It was eight feet wide, eight and one half feet high, sixteen feet deep and filled top to bottom, side to side and front to back with items that she had purchased at garage and rummage sales. She had two.

She was earning about nine bucks an hour and the total rental was close to one hundred dollars a month, She had never taken the trouble to explain the point of it all if there was one.

There are, in our county, hundreds of these facilities and thousands of units and while they are not all, as were hers, devoted to complete insanity, they make some kind of comment regarding our attachment to things for which we currently have no space or use but are unable to part with.

 

Let's  not  forget  the  basic  concept  behind  yard  sale  mania...."Empty  garage  space  longs  to  be  filled  up."  Seems  no  matter  the  size  of  my  garage,  within  a  year  it  is  filled  to  capacity.  Did  my  needs  double  as  I  doubled  the  size  of  the  garage?  I  doubt  it.  But  with  more  capacity  there  is  more  opportunity  to  not  orphan  those  items  at  garage  sales  that  only  a  true  genius  could  collect,  or  rehabilitate.  Yup.....

It's a law of physics: stuff expands to fill available space.
 
We need a yard sale section here on the Eye: like a classifieds, only better. We can trade tarot fortunes, corny jokes, and animal personas. Agony personals, fantasies, virtual swordfighting, unsolicited advice, Sepia Train schedules, and other ephemera. Empty champagne bottles, recipes-especially with vodka; martinis, bikinis,  wine reviews, fashion dos (and don'ts), dog jewelry, stupid cat tricks, hat tricks, trifectas, stories, poems, songs, whole cloth, half a loaf, tissues of lies, webs of deceit, thin ice, thin air, current affairs, backstairs, split hairs, fables, babels, gavels, pookas, hookahs, but not bazookas.
 
Wait, we already do that...   

I  sure  wish  we  were  not  merely  virtual  in  our  relationships,   since  I  would  sometimes  give  up  my  humble  kingdom  for   reassuring   words,   a  foot  rub,   and  a  night  of  deep  sound  sleep.   On  the  other  hand,  there  are  some  fascinating  nocturnal  people  out  there,  like  for  instance  the  ones  who  frequent  this  website.....

Found an elephant in my pajamas once, how it got into my pajamas I'll never know.             Hey, I said that a few days ago.   Tired, must sleep.

Do people still have yard sales? I thought that was what eBay and its ilk were for.

Yes, John_DB, people do still have yard sales.  A pal of mine, after I admired a gold and presumably diamond bracelet she was wearing, told me the story of how she came to acquire it and, not surprisingly, it involved a yard sale.  Her mother bought it for her for $250.  Pal took it for appraisal weeks later and was informed it was worth $3200.  THAT is why people go to yard sales.
 
I am on the fence about yard sales.  We held one years ago and just as we'd been advised, the real shoppers showed up way too early and demanded access to our house to look at the goods.  Hours later, sweaty and exhausted, I reached a true low point in my life.  An elderly gentleman asked me the price of a stainless Revereware double boiler insert.  I referred him to the sign on the box..."all items $0.25."   He demanded a reduction to five cents.  I snatched it from his hand and told him to "get the hell outta here." 
 
Since then, I just take the unwanted over to Goodwill.

I believe there is a strange two way traffic between eBay and flea markets. There are definitely people buying on eBay and selling again at flea markets ( I have been one of them) and I believe there are probably people scouring the sales ( Pickers ) to sell what they find on the computer. How these two streams coexist is puzzling to me, but then so  many things are.  JD, I am afraid I am anything but Nocturnal. And I follow the Pulp Fiction Rule of Foot Massage.  I gave up my humble kingdom for a mess of charge card bills, anyway.                                                                             I also like to go to gun shows, which are about half and half specialized yard sales. One day, I saw a guy there with a quarter on his table. Next to it was a sign that said 15 cents. He explained that nobody ever pays full price at a gun show.                                                               Here also is another chance to divide the world: There are many of us who will buy almost anything if we can get it at half or less of its perceived value. On the other hand, there are people who believe that getting rid of something is worth whatever it originally cost and will gladly sell it at a tenth of its original price just to have it out of the house.  The meeting of these two people in the proper circumstances is beautiful. In the wrong ones it is a recipe for divorce.

been there done that....i've moved to a different place in life, where i don't have stuff.  pared down, on purpose and with intent.  live simply and lightly.  was a challenge no doubt.  am free of storage units. kid's were consulted, they did want it...off to the animal thrit shop...... if'ins some remember....i eat on the good china, use the silver every day and drink out of the good glasses,  sleep on the good linens and use the good towels......not saving it all for the funeral and company that comes with such.....i try to live in my own resort.....treat myself as i would a guest. no extra junk to dust either...i'm liking it....
 
 

I live with two confirmed pack rats.  Can I move in with you cuukoo1? 

shanonista.....sure!, i have space....i'll set the dinner plates out...my mother is a depression era pack rat...i think it had a huge impact on my perceptions.....never have seen a wagon behind a casket...you can't take all that with you.....but, i've yet to convince my mother of that.....she's sure she'll need those hundreds of egg cartons for something..

Cuukoo1....agreed.  After my mother died, I was left with the task of sorting through all of her "stuff."  Though a fastidious lady, nevertheless, mom had her whole life among four walls--as we all do--memories to be dispersed.  I kept a few special items; gave a few to my sister; a good deal of it went to a battered women's organization; and the rest--garage sale.  The items that I kept, I now enjoy on a regular basis, as you do, cuukoo1.  My sister doesn't quite get that, as she takes the china out only on special occasions, just as mom did.  All of those years waiting for "once-a-year," seems so pointless in our short time on this Earth. 
 
Shandonista, yup.....it's amazing how these yard sale folks are up-and-at-em before you've even organized your sale.  Waiting like vultures to tell you that they want an even better deal.  I've found the best thing to do is put everything at the curb with a sign "Free Stuff."  It goes like hotcakes, and there's no pricing involved.
 
A friend of mine lives for estate sales, and she's collected a few great finds, but mostly, she resells the items on eBay.  She calls her house eBay Central, since you absolutely can't move when you walk in her front door. 
 
I'm still waiting for my sons to clean out my attic!  Transformers, Ninja Turtles, baseball cards, childhood artwork, numerous games, books, trains..........but wait........I think there are a few dolls and prom memories up there that belong to me.  How 'bout an attic sale?  Anyone?

I don't know what's more depressing... having a garage sale or going to one :-(  .  The sight of shabby, dented black Suburbans stretched along a residential street at 8 a.m. on a Saturday is only worse when you see the little urchins (the appropriate word) being dragged by a sweating mom from the vehicle to look at what is basically junk...... I think of the stained, mildewed sofas that have been on the back porch (or in the garage)foryears ending up in a living room infested by cats and/or festooned with dog hair and .... OMG.... 

In my opinion I think yard sales, and ebay the digital version of the same, reflect the momentum for which our society has become compulsive consumers. Which pains me as I deal with it all too often.  It seems with many its not long after your last purchase that you develop a new compulsion to go out and buy something else. I live in a house where the other half finds herself at the stores or other garage sales everyday. And then sells those things she just had to have or purchased because they were "on sale" for a dime on a dollar out of our garage.

Years ago I literally broke my back falling out of the attic above our garage. I was installing re-enforced flooring to I could properly store the items that find their way to that category of having been superseded by a new compulsion. I call it the staging bin for the next garage sale. Once it is full we move it to the garage and flush.

No I do not promote this insane practice, but do it out of survival. And a chance to recoup all the money wasted on compulsive habits. On the upside compulsive buying stimulates the economy and this is in keeping with policy in Washington, no matter who claims change is coming. So I am thinking now that since the whole process is at best a -90% margin I can make a case for a legitimate bail out. If I can recoup that money I can use it to fund the new taxes I'll be paying for my bailout. Its a viscous circle and a carousel I avoid at all cost.

Once folks get back to producing (giving) rather than (buying), we'll back to the era when America was great.

Rant over...thanx for listening

Then too, I'm simply not a shopper.  When I need a new jacket, I know the discount clothes store where I can zip in, plunk my $84 on the counter, and be back in fresh air in less than five minutes.... (I tell the clerk the make, size, color and he points to a rack... fast work to find the item).  But sometimes I avoid even that hassle... I just bought a new pair of penny loafers online from L.L. Bean; a box will show up in a few days and I'll have my replacement for the pair that went into the garbage can yesterday.  (HINT: Never get rubber sole slip-ons.  They can't be resoled!)  

My original experience with a"yard sale" was in the 40's.  I was about 9 years old and it was my job to sit by a trailer load of watermelons in our front yard all day.   I read comic books and sold watermelons for 25 cents each.   I lived on a farm just at the edge of town so it was both a town yard and a farm backyard.

  Shandonista~

It is possible to live a long time in these parts without being treated to the auto show that took place across the street on the the 4th.

Parked in the drive was a dark brown, caramel fabric topped either Rolls or Bentley and its driver had to feel good about the attention it was attracting.

Until, another guy pulled up in a Bugati so dark blue that its color scheme had to have been taken from a Stellar's Jay.

The second guy captured my attention when, chasing a rolling object that stopped at my feet, his clothing caught my eye:

His dark green, button down, reverse box pleat shirt had once included an arm patch that I had removed after wearing it as part of an elaborate charade. His khaki pants, with a repaired tear at the left hip and in a size I plan on never returning to and his dark brown, pebbly, cap-toe, high topped Allen-Edmonds footwear sporting replaced heels were all part of a huge and recent drop at Goodwill.

Think about this: a man driving a car that when he decided to buy it, required a conversation with his trust or financial advisers concerning hundreds of thousands of dollars because no midwestern, let alone Wisconsin, bank would have considered it, shows up decked out in my old stuff.

Though it all arrived at once, I'm pretty sure that there is not within the very nice Goodwill Store, a department called: Stoney Wear. That means that not only did he wander through and select those items, he chose, as had I, to wear them all at the same time and place.

I was close to just having a seat in the grass. A nice looking, fit and well groomed man of fifty or so, he looked better in my stuff than I had and I was grateful for a corroborative witness who is still shaking her head.

It is important when making a drop-off, that you stand guard to make sure that the men who come out to carry things, take only what you have decided to part with otherwise, you may get home without your branch lopper or Late Night with David Letterman jacket.

cuukoo1,

On a big shelf in the back hall over the basement steps and next to large balls of salvaged butcher string, was a tin labelled by our grandmother: "Pieces of string too small to save,"

Buying little is a great help in avoiding garage sales!  That and absolutely wearing everything out so that it's a pleasure to 'trash can' the item when it is absolutely at the end of its serviceable life....  Ditto cars... ditto clothes... ditto electronic stuff... (Maybe I was born to be a Bedouin?  And maybe that's why I like hiking and camping....)

 
Completely off topic~

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,531361,00.html

what is a lurker? metaphor? noun?  pondering as i sit getting older on my porch, checking my grammer rules and wonder what a new idea is as opposed to any.........

 
 
 Stoney and all...I will appologie now for what i about to say.
 
 
 
 
Natural selection at work.
That's what you get for messin' with a six pack of "Bull".
 
 
 
won't even go the bum steer route....

Garage Sales ~ My Paternal Grandmother was a Garage Sale Maverick ~ (No REALLY she was)  She collected glass bottles ~ did not matter what they once held, she just liked them. The lived in the Northern part of WI near an Indian Reservation & those were some fo the best garage sales to find the most unique shaped bottles ever.  We would stay with her on weekends in the summer & on Friday or Saturday mornings would drive allover the countryside to the sales looking for bottles, glass candy dished, anything wiht a cardinal motif.. Some of the best times I ever had with Grandma was laughing over the strangest things we found being sold, even we could not really figure out what you actually used the item for.  
 
My aunt last year held a garage sale ~ getting rid of most of G-ma's origanl garage sale finds that we all just could not keep in the family any longer. This local woman bought a bunch of items that were g-ma's & some of my cousins clothing. About 2 hours later she brought back the kids clothing cause it diod not fit her grandchild. She wanted her money back.. I was like I'm sorry Does this look like the returns counter at Wal-mart?... My aunt was liek give her the $2.00 back.. I was stunned, I mean REALLY?.. Isn't part of holding the sale to hoist the crap into someone else's house and NOT to take it back at your house?...      

Stoney ~
 
If I ever see your Lettermans Jacket at Goodwill I promise to send it back to you...
 

I was living in Korea and found a short, blue fur coat with black printing on it "Tokyo", "Rome", "New York", "Paris".  I don't know how they did it, but it was interesting.  I bought it for about $40.  I look like the cookie monster in it.  A well traveled cookie monster, but still.
 
Good buy.
 

cuukoo, we lurkers are wonderful people who enjoy watching the wittier and more gregarious do their stuff. You'll see us at parties (maybe, you might not even notice we were there, although we do tend to eat a lot of the party food), kid's sporting events (smiling proudly instead of cheering our throats raw or insulting the refs) and lots of public events. We are observers, absorbers. In rare cases we feel we've absorbed enough to enter the activity briefly, where we are generally considered wise because we express ourselves in the venacular of the group we've been lurking around.

On today's topic... I have garage/yard sales at one time only: when I move. The thought of paying to move all that extra junk, that I might use someday, but probably won't, goes against my frugal nature. So the signs go up, and I end up giving most of it away when someone expresses a genuine interest in it. Between moves I prefer freecycle.com or the "free stuff" section of craigslist for emptying out my garage. Much cheaper than calling the "Got Junk" truck!

Speaking of yards......July 1972, Anderson, SC, my street:
 
Seeking to raise a little spending money for a vacation trip to Delaware, a seven year old girl drags her child-size card table and chairs out to the street.  Her mother helps her mix a pitcher of lemonade and find some plastic cups.  The girl sits patiently at the table for maybe 15 minutes when a large truck drives up filled with men whose supervisor is carrying a rifle.  The men proceed to spread tar on the street.  It's a dreadful business in the summer heat.  In the frenzy to slake their thirst, the asking price of five cents per glass quickly goes to 10 or 25 cents....some tell her to keep the change from a dollar.
 
So, thirty minutes later, I'm rich and my mother is properly horrified that her sweet, innocent daughter has been hanging around the county chain-gang.  Hey, there weren't any chains, how was I supposed to know??
 
 
 
 
 

kristina, the question was definately off topic, was a thought of what was a off topic comment in yesterdays topic.  will try to be more specific in my ponders, intent was not a personal affront to anyone.  just a free falcon thought. 
 
have a nice day all.
 
i do have second thoughts though...if the shoe fits, wear it if need be, even if it's not yours...maybe the shoe was once stoneys.  recycled...
 
 

Early Birds will  be shot and if I miss you, You owe me $500 with your purchase.
Just a little sign I posted in the front yard of my house at our last yard sale.
 
They stayed in their cars, did I mention I had the dogs out?
 
Yard sales are huge here in the South and there are PROFESSIONALS that come and resell on eBay.
 I love sales myself or maybe I love the horse trading, the art of the deal. I am always amazed how many new unopened boxes unworn items with tags are in sales.
We love to buy things that we don't need.

Shandonista,   speaking   of  hanging  around  with  men  with  rifles,   I  cannot  help  but  think  of  "Sandonista"  every   time  you  comment  under  your  avatar  "Shandonista."   You  don't  have  to  answer  what  may  be  an  invasive  question,   but  are  you  experienced  in  Nicaraguan  politics?   Sandonistas  are  the  National  Liberation  Front,  linked  by the  American  Clandestine  Service  to  Cuba.  They  did  surrender  power  peacefully  in  1990  when  they  lost  a  democratic  election,  and  function  as  the  loyal  opposition.   I  know  this  has  diddily  to  do  with  yard  sales,  but  I  have  been  waiting  for  a  slow  moment  for  days,  seeking a  moment  to  discreetly  ask!

Perhaps our penchant for saving pieces of string too small to save or egg cartons or aluminum TV dinner strays is related to our body's metabolic processes that automatically respond to a change in caloric intake and store extra calories as fat to guard us against famine.
 

dinner trays......
 
I suppose I've been one and have served dinner strays...

It's Thursday evening and the classified ads from the local newspapers are spread across the table.

Armed with only a Sharpie and a backlit magnifying glass, the Hunter & Gatherer has identified and prioritized all of the targets, eliminated the decoys (the home businesses that are disguised as garage sales every weekend of the summer in order to circumvent all those minor inconveniences such as licenses, permits and taxes), and mapped out all of the locations and the quickest ways of getting to them, as well as back up routes.

This is accomplished after having completed a dry-run of the route for reconnaissance purposes and hopes of being allowed in to shop before the Friday morning, kamikaze like driving hordes of hunters and gatherers with sharpened elbows descend upon the city streets like vultures on steroids chasing a meat wagon, searching for their version of the holy grail. And yes, if there is one Holy Grail, why they know that in their heart of hearts that there must be many of them out there with their names already etched in invisible ink, just waiting to be claimed.

Come Friday morning, the once quite and peaceful neighborhood streets have been turned into demolition derbies. On these mornings, children are locked in their homes for their own safety and well being while the police cower and hide, watching this unfold from a safe distance.

Steven Wright once said words to the effect that "you can't have everything because if you did, where would you put it". Having witnessed this weekend ritual over the years I can attest to the fact that where there is a will, a way will be found.

Meanwhile the universe continues to expand....... and people with garages are forced to park in the driveways all across the nation.

Peace out, and be very careful out there

I was actually at a yard sale this morning, at the hour between 8:29 and 8:30am. It was held by a brilliant and eccentric Serbian Inventor who called himself Nick Tesla who in passing informed me that today is the anniversary of his birth. He had many electronic items for sale, some technologically ahead of their time. Among the assorted robots, rockets, and rotating magnets, was a wonderful coil that generated unbridled electrcity. I was fascinated by this coil but sadly, did not bring enough pocket money to purchase it. The Inventor told me that there was another man, down the street who had a similar item to the coil, but it was nowhere near as good because the other man was always stealing his ideas. He went by the name of Tom Eddy, and the Inventor advised me to be cautious around him. I thanked him for his word of advice and left but not before purchasing a small robot companion.

I continued along this street and found Tom Eddy's sale. As Nick predicted, it was an assortment of stolen items that were repackaged like new, only with better packaging. I tried to avoid him as much as I could, but eventualy succumbed to his "wave of the future" items and he practically cleaned out my wallet.

Wanting to feel a bit better, and perhaps a bit whimsical, I came across the last yard sale on the street and it was a double header, staffed by two Austrians named Chuck Chapplen and Al Einsteen. They had the best items of all and several violins all well-taken care of. I bought a little toy for the robot and a nice cane.

Now at this point, I only has enough money left for coffee and was late for work, so I gathered my belongings and was on my way.

Daniel, You've got a really nice and interesting neighborhood!

ya'll have a nice day today.  I'm ging to spend it just listening to the rain on the roof and the echos of thunder in the distance. peace out

Thank you Mr. Lake. You're welcome to stop by at anytime; as are any Eye-landers. This weekend, Mary Casseti and Frida Kay are hosting a bake sale and Ben Sayers is having a Putt Putt tournament in his backyard.
 

Y'all, I will momentarily upload a picture of mysef, plying the keyboard of this wonderful expressionflute, taken by the 1st mate Pinkity.     In the corner of the lair is a 50,s style coctail sculpture of wire,in the shape of a coctail glass, with a large green orb,containig a small red bulb. It is the quintessential drinking lamp. From a yard/garage sale. The bulbs needed to be sourced (Rudolph the red nosed raindeer bulbs)and a flasher device from Menard's finished the ensomble`....it sits on the dashboard of said"yacht", and when it is-a-flashin, y'all are welcome to fresh fruit blended vodka smoothies, my specialty.  Fresh fruit:no hangover!

 Off to see our grandson play high school baseball in the Milwaukee area.

Look both ways before crossing, hold hands and share.

Pinky makes me stop at all the little town, main street fairs, and we bought a hand painted saw;picture of winter on the farm. Lots of not by numbers painted things in frames.    Often, the frame is her objec'd'art, and will be used to contain a snap we have taken.       I bought some oooold wallpaper, still on rolls, and use it as backing for a picture smaller than the frame....waaay cool gifts...

What wonderful summer images!  Thunder storms.....rain pelting the rooftops......lemonade stands......bake sales......fruit-infused cocktails.......and baseball.  I shall add to that list the S'mores Cupcakes I just baked for a friend's daughter's birthday party.  Graham cracker cake with melted chocolate and homemade marshmallow frosting.  Enjoy the blessings of this beautiful day everyone.  :~)

seems to be a tech problem at Peterman's harbour, uploads not happinin' right now...too bad

DZ, glad that morning meeting induced a good result.   I, myself, oscillate between static ideas and currant resistive problems. Ohm eye goodness, I seem tube be I=E/R

ooops, grape error- - meant current

Junkyard:  I am a little sad to report that I am not nearly interesting enough to have any history in Central America.  The name derives from the actual neighborhood I live in.  The closest I come to handling cool weapons is the occasional visit to the pistol range with my husband.

Doc, I am with ya on the shopping blitz.  If I could get someone to go for me and make all my purchases I will.   For some reason when I walk into a store, I immediatly grow sleepy

In today's poll, I clicked on the "can't stand 'em" re: yard/garage sales, and I don't apologize. Estate sales, that's what we have so many of here, estate sales spilling out of garages and barns and -- oh c'mon! you yard sale sellers, I don't think the Wrigley family and the Singer Family or even the Hilton Family while summering up here were casual enough to leave to the garbage collector great grandmother's Gilded Age sterling silver set (place settings complete, for 36) out there on Snake Road and North Lake Shore Drive.   I think those who put the glitz in Gilded Age acquisitions and modern age estate sales gave the good stuff to the favorite children, or took it back with them to the city, but no, it's not here, to be placed outside some barn or leaning next to a farmhouse whose roof is spattered with holes. No.  The good stuff is long gone.  A lot of it, anyway.  And what's left isn't on County B, spilling out of some guy's garage.  What you will find in that guy's garage is my old birdbath with deep crack in it, so it won't hold water and it will barely serve as a planter, if that's your inclination.  It never graced the Wringley estate, it sat alone and lonely in my garage for 6 years, until I remembered to put it out for the garbage collector.  It's the color of ink, it's ceramic, and it's junk, no matter that the yard sale proprietor hints of its fine lineage.  "That estate, you know that one up on the bluff."  Entre-nous whispering. Wink, wink. Well, entre-nous: it doesn't have any lineage at all; It was garbage 6 years ago when I threw it out, and it's garbage now.     Caveat emptor, people.  But you know that, anyway. Just don't buy any ink-colored bird baths.
  

Paul:  so do I.  Sleepy.  It's that MEGO effect: My Eyes Glaze Over.  Too much stuff, unedited, and those crazy lights on the ceiling of anything but the smallest shop, those...what do you call 'em?...someone once told me "they make the air nervous" and I believe that's correct.  I used to like to shop a lot, now it's catalog (keep 'em coming JohnPeterman) or internet.    Going to a store, all those things, and so many inconsequential variations on the same theme -- I'll pass.  

Park4,    you barely address the expert help that you find in most stores; you have already scoured the shelves,or the contents of a package, and when you ask for(and finally receive help)they treat you as if you couldn't have reached a conclusion on your own/or they hover,telling you what you already know,or do not need to know.   Yup, shopping can be an adventure.       Adventure:an experience you didn't plan on getting.

*laughing* Roadyacht, I like that definition of an adventure.  Sales people, in their drive to make a sale, make your decision for you -- "This is just what you need!"  "This blue sets off the blue in your eyes better than that blue and brown is just terrible on you."     Excuse me?!!   I've discovered this wonderful thing we shoppers can do that I never thought to do in my earlier days:  we can leave.  Leave the store.  Which is a phenomenal pain in the patoot because it means you might have to start the process all over again with yet another sales person -- but the look on their faces when you shove their choices right back in their arms while you head toward the door is -- yes  -- priceless.  

park4, reminding me of the scene in pretty woman, where she goes to the store and they won't ever help her, then returns with bags full of goods from other stores and says something close to " big mistake...big, big big mistake" pivets exits...
 

I'm plotting my own yard-sale for next weekend.  One small problem: I don't really have much "stuff" to sell.  Mostly some old Christmas presents that have stayed in their original boxes.  I don't really do knick-nacks for their own sake.  The ones I keep are from travels or friends from the far reaches of the world (I'm not giving up my chipped little Uzbeki-dude). 
 
Sadly, I'll be selling some of my books.  But that's ok, they're ones that weren't very good.
 
I thought about holding my sale tomorrow.  But next weekend is a HUGE annual car show, which means there will be many people out and about.  And I have an easy-to-find address, close to the show.  Too bad I don't have much in the way of car-related merch., but perhaps I'll have better luck with the people who have dropped someone off at the show, but don't wish to attend themselves.

The yearly Highway 127 yard sale is one of the largest in the US. Runs the whole route from West Unity, Ohio to Gadsden, Alabama - 654 miles. We live more on the north end of the sale. Mighty incontinent when we are trying to get to work. However we have found some very good deals on metal shaping tools, etc... near Pall Mall (Sgt. York country) I'm not a yard saler but my husband loves it so we go ever year - north on the route mostly. Him for the fabrication/metal shaping tools and me for the homemade ice cream, hand squeezed lemonade and funnel cakes.  http://www.127sale.com/  

Michael, I am sure when you say "my books... weren't very good" you are referring to books you OWN, not books you wrote, which I am  certain would be universally praised...  Back to the top for a moment. JP says the front yard doesn't go very far back. Mine goes all of the way back to the back yard, actually.  And now, Dr Tangento presents something that is not intended to be an editorial comment or a slur on anyone...       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN692nmEQiw

So Stoney, did you offer him the rest of your clothes in exchange for the car?  This is one of the things that constantly trip people: It is much easier to stay rich if you don't buy all of the trappings of rich people. And, for an awful lot of people, it is easier to have a rich man's house or a rich man's car if you don't insist on having a rich man's house AND car and vacation habits and dining habits and on and on and on.  I suspect the number of "prestige " watches owned by people whose net worth is less than 100 times the cost of the watch is a whole lot greater than the number owned by people whose net worth exceeds 10,000 times the cost of the watch. Put another way, even a really expensive watch costs less than a cheap house most places.  I suspect your Buggatti owner was differently situated, but there was a time when young people treated themselves to nice cars simply because they couldn't imagine affording  houses. These days, I guess they treat themselves to nice drinks.  I like to think the Bugatti guy appreciated fine things of any age, not just expensive things. And, hey, every person in the world is riding in a used car, or walking.

(Sorry to monopolize) Mr Zev, watch that Tesla guy- some of his little "experiments" would shock you. And Tom Eddy? the guy who is always praising sweat?  Why do you suppose they called it CON Edison? 'nuff said.

Oh, Jalopkin.........lovely.  Just lovely.  I'll bet every woman of "a certain age" who reads your missive will have the same sentiment as I.  Have I mentioned, lovely?

For some reason, what's left over on the beaches after a big hurricane reminds me of garage sales.... as if the sea rose up and decided to put all of mankind's junk out on public display for the gulls to pick over, and for the sun and salt to 'age'.  Plastic jugs, broken toys, folding lawn chairs with no backs, odd shoes, tires, plastic bags, ceiling fans with only one remaining blade, black socks, four-by-fours, and so on.... Yep, God's garage sale: the hurricane delivers!

IJ- this one's for you...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl0_9wvVH4k

Yes, he is.  But apparently, it works.  :~)

Oh well...Jalopkin, bravo!, but omygod that's depressing!  But awfully good.  Those poor women! Don't leave them there like that.    What if one of those now-worn women -- who once lived in Technicolor and took for granted smiles and compliments from strangers -- what if, at one of these yard/rummage/barn/estate sales just such a woman finds on a scratched silvered salver a letter that she'd written when that fire in her belly was white hot-- she'd written it to her lover whose baby she carried who left her apartment one slate gray night and never returned.    And now, here it is, that very letter, what was she supposed to think?  Did he ever read it; how did it get here at this yard sale; and the sense that it was just not right, something so private and intimate, to be sitting in the sun, for just anyone to see.  To pick up and hold and read.  It's vulgar, the woman thinks it's almost vulgar and a kind of voyeurism -- but she finds she can't move, can't make up her mind what to do.  * ***************************************************Which is how I think I would react if I ever -- god forbid -- found something of mine that was personal at a yard sale.  A letter, a book with my name in it -- the lost gold locked with the initial "P" on the back and the little diamond on the front. Jalopkin, I think I'll drive by a few of these sales tomorrow weather permitting, and see if I find any of your women there.   And ask them why they let themselves become so worn and dull, and if they remembered that they once felt "fire in their bellies and maybe a few stars in their eyes."  

  

the lost gold locked=the lost gold locket

OUCH !!! 
 
Shutting down for Sabbath Willie ... Bless You and Thank You and have a marvelous weekend !!!
 
A Good, Safe, Fun, Restful and Pleasant weekend to you all !!!
 
Ivan

Willie: If only you owned a publishing house.
 
Jalopkin: I know those women.  But I couldn't describe them that well.  Bravo.

PARK4:
 
Thats quite a plot ....... "But, this is 1852 Darlin', 1852 "... and women don't LET these things happen to them ... not at all, because allowing/letting these things happen implies some form of choice ... and when one is working hard at being Responsible, and Decent, and a Proper Example to those kids and/or the rest of the world, LIFE is what happens ... and we don't always have a choice about that ....... That they don't all go crazy or commit suicide, speaks volumns about their basic character ....... and things happen whether they are nineteen or ninety, but that Beauty always shows thru, sooner or later ... much to the delight of those of us who are paying attention .......

Park4--it's not always by choice that "these women" let themselves become worn and dull.....life has a way of changing our plans and perspective.  When someone comes along.......Jalopkin, for instance.......who can recognize those dying embers and relight the fires that used to burn within, it can be bittersweet, but hopefully, not too late.  Smooth operator?  Yes...........but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  If the motive is pure.  Everyone of us has an agenda of sorts.  N'est pas?

Beautiful Stuff.....

Dzrtidy

 Jalopkin's prose sort of has a courtly love feel to it does it not.(as opposed to writings with a Courtney Love feeling....something all together different.)

 Jalopkin, lovely.

Um.Yes, I see I missed the point.   Ouch indeed. But I'm not getting the explanation either. I see the sensitivity in the author's words. And yes, life changes us without asking our permission.  And yes, it's not anyone's fault. I missed out on the smooth operator bit.  Didn't get it, until the song.   I'm sorry you got hurt, Jalopkin.Ouch.Indeed.
That's what I get for not paying attention.

i dunno, buyer beware at garage sales or whatever their called.....say, you go looking for a puzzle, you find what you think is a perfect one, it was meant to be, a bargain to boot 1.$. you buy.   get it home and work on it for years, only to find out there's been a couple of foundational pieces missing..all along......do you blame the manufacturer? go back years later and ask for the missing pieces? i just dunno, i'd go with my first instinct and buy a new one, they're relatively easy to find, especially if you like a certain kind, 5$ new with a store receipt.

  Jalopkin,

Lovely dissertation about women.

I found myself seated across from my wife at a downtown restaurant window table where I enjoyed the view of her and all of the pedestrian traffic on the busy street.

I felt the most affinity for and enjoyment of the new, summery mothers in tee shirts and shorts pushing infants or toddlers. Most of them were much younger than our youngest daughter.

The even younger girls in or hanging out of duds from Sluts Are Us and their older working counterparts in their spiked heel, strappy, eff-me pumps looked like what they were: women who believed that clothing or expensive footwear could make up for what they imagined that they lacked... Taste, perhaps?

We saw a great baseball game in which our grandson knocked in three with a walk, a single and a ringing double that one hopped the fence. His team won sixteen to five.

That was followed up by a nice lunch on the shore of Lake Michigan and a pleasant Friday evening drive back up north listening to Ella sing "Mood Indigo."

I'm beginning to see something in the notion that maybe you don't have to die to experience heaven.


And Willy, this will make you chuckle: My neighbor mentioned that Bugati man thought that I was staring at him because he was wearing sunglasses, not his own, but claimed from a lost & found box at City Hall. I'm bettin' he doesn't owe a penny on that beauty and I wish that you could have heard and felt it. 

 

Since I've been in the process of getting rid of all that "stuff" that has accumulated and accumulated, I've been putting myself on a yard sale/flea market diet.....it kind of grows; you know like wire coat hangers.  If you listen closely at the garage door, you can hear all that stuff just giggling and multiplying.  Stuff that just seemed like a good idea at the time.  BUT a Peterman yard sale?  Though my mind is having a problem accepting it, unless it's at the farm in a barn (is there a barn at the farm?); I know I couldn't resist.

Walking the Pacific ocean's garage sale today... Crab legs. Broken sand dollars. Seaweed. Mussels. Smooth stones.

"It's awfully nice. It's paradise." There was not one plastic bottle or bit of fishing line to be found along the shore. And it was a long walk. Looks like we are honoring and respecting our world in some small part. Yay us!

Stoney, I was laughing before I got to the glasses.           But before I go further, I want to make sure nobody mistakes my admiration for Jalopkin for anything meaner. I assume when he comes back from the Sabbath that he will read this and say to himself  "Of course."  I am pretty sure we understand each other and both appreciate a well aimed barb, even when it pokes us.                                          About cool cars- when you figure plenty of people MUST be shelling out $75K for big Bimmers and Benzes that drop in value the day they leave the lot, it's a shame more of them don't spend a little less on something at the other end of the depreciation curve- like a classic from the 40s or 50s... But, while any bank will lend you $65K on a showroom fresh 6 series convertible, pretty much the only money you are going to put into one of Mr P's favored XK140s is going to be your own ( or your late ancestor's, I suppose).  And the sad part is, at the end of five years, the guy who borrowed has a car that is "worth" a lot less than he paid, while the guy who invested may well have an increased asset.   My carryings-on earlier about wanting too many portions of a rich man's life without having his bank balance come from personal experience. When I was a young(er)  fool, I learned the hard way that a used luxury car can still cost plenty, if not to acquire, then  to maintain.  You hit that steep slope sometimes- the first owner drives it four or five years, then trades it in, barely worn at all. The next guy takes three or four more years out of it, but bails when the expensive repairs crop up. The third owner is frequently someone who could barely afford to acquire the thing at all and then he gets hit in a few weeks or months with a repair that costs almost as much as he paid.  And then things begin to break all around your ears- power this, electronic that.                                    Of course, sometimes we get lucky and all of that engineering somehow DOES withstand hundreds of thousands of miles. My 525i Touring, aka the Grocery Getter, is going to clock over the 200K mark this week.  It could use a few touches here and there (like a little mo' freon in the AC) , but I'd take it up or down the federal highway any day.  I think lovely Italian cars, like glamourous Italian people, might be best for me to admire in the care of others... What is it they say? French and Italian chefs, German engineering, English Policemen in heaven, English cooking, German cops, and French and Italian Engineering in The Other Place... 

Yikes!! Are you peple retired authors are just frustrated writers. You spend a lot of time and words trying to impress and out do each other. I feel that I am reading a synopsis of a book when I start each of your comments. Stay on Subject, those that do bore you and you just choose to ignore and do what you like. Jalopikin I like how you write I am just trying to figure out how yard sales and fire in the bellies relate? Go to your journal, write a new chapter. Yard sales People, Freaking Yard Sales!!

  Willie Trask,

Believe me when I say that nobody takes a joke better than Jalopkin. I have proof.

Speaking of English policeman: One of our sons-in-law, a Brit, has a funny story and to appreciate it fully it is crucial that you hear, in your mind, a word that sounds like; "Ahshole."

Some famous rocker or another was being given a bit of public a going over by a bobby and enquired of him: "Would I be in more trouble for calling you an asshole?"

"Yes," replied the constable, "you certainly would."

"What," wondered the young man, "if I just think that you are an asshole."

"That," said the cop, "is almost expected and carries no penalty."

"Well, then," piped up the musician, "I think you are an asshole!" 

Mr. Trask========> They may say that but if there are Policemen, it would hardly be heaven, don't you agree? :)

Merci: Staying on point is never the point.  Half the fun is watching where things wander.

Miss Blue....absolutely. 
 
Stoney.....your wife is a very lucky lady indeed.
 
Michael....I've never stayed on point yet. 
 
G'night all.

 Merci,

Be honest, you were one of those pesky little farts that just couldn't get enough of hall monitoring- weren't you?

You and Peterman may be on the same page with respect to the topic of the topic but some of the best days around here have seen it go completely unaddressed and that is unlikely to change.

If you find that unbearable, well, admonitions are probably not going to change well established village customs.

STONEY, WILLIE TRASK, MISS BLUE, DZRTLDY, and all others who have commented pleasantly regarding my offerings, I must say Thank You and tell you that I appreciate y'all's take on every single thing, whether it is a comment of mine or anyone elses ... One of the annoyances of formats like this, just as with E-Mail, is that there is no way to really indicate voice inflection or a Tongue-in-Cheek delivery, and sometimes misunderstandings can occur ... I have never been one for Chat Rooms, or Billboards, or Blogs (when I was in school, a BLOG was a Mathematic Expression using Symbols) but I read the Postings on this Site for about six months before I ever entered my first blurb ... I joined this Group because I recognized an all too rare opportunity to converse with people who are intelligent, way beyond average ... and who do by God speak the English language correctly ... another extremely rare thing in this day and age, when English is neither spoken properly in our Classrooms, nor taught by persons who are called Teachers .......
I also knew, by the time I finally jumped in, that every other person in the Group was different from me, and most were exactly opposite in every way ... but each carries out his involvement, disagreement, disparite point of view with Respect for all others and and adult responses ... Some of us get a little hot under the keyboard every now and again, but then passion(s) do make for lively banter and preclude one's wasting his time, or at least feeling like he has .......
 
MERCI: I feel as tho' you didn't understand anything that I said, else you would have seen how one thing segued to another ... Perhaps I didn't express myself fully or properly ... Some of us are indeed Writers ... Some of us, like me, think Burma Shave Signs are High Art ... But I don't think any of us even thinks about impressing or competing with any of the others ... we just, Talk  ... differently from the majority of the Proletariat ... That is a natural trait that we are gifted with, just as some have freckles, Red hair, BIG Muscles, or voices that rival Charleton Heston and Orson Welles .......
 
I forget who it was that wondered about a, "Hidden Agenda" ... I must say that, there is none ... altho' the congress that I enjoy with women is purely a selfish thing on my part ... You see, I LOVE women ... They fascinate me ... I enjoy looking at them, I love the way they move, the way they smell, the way they laugh ... everything ....... Some times at Flea Markets or Yard Sales I might see one such as I described earlier, and I might initiate a conversation over a piece of History, and invite her for a Refreshment ... Because she perceives that I am not threatening or that I have no prurient interests, she might say Yes ... I get to look across a table at her, enjoying the Art of her features, listening to her heart and her attitude in the words she says and the way she says them ... She eventually feels that she counts, and feels good about herself, and that gives me a very good feeling of my own because I may have helped her to feel that way for the first time in a long time ... that is as good for me as making people laugh, and that is another rewarding thing to do ... but one of the greatest things about lifting peoples' self esteem, is that for a few moments, I get to know what it feels like to be Trusted by another human being ... to not be the object of terror and trepidation or the source of revulsion ... Thats the selfish part for me ... and there  IS  NO  agenda ... just whatever the Spirit leads me to do ... And just so's I can remain On-Topic, it doesn't always happen at Yard Sales ...

 VIVA JALOPKIN! 

Hourra pour les femmes!

And beauty is in the ear of the beholder,listening to the sounds thru the wall with a glass tumbler....tho the words are hard to make out, we perceive them to be romantic,if a low tone, and adversarial if in louder high tones....and aren't we surprised when we hear the refrain     ....."That's 1 800,....CALL NOW!!"      IJ, those lines and furrows;consider them punctuations in the storys of the lives of those with the former burning bellies...as in all these writings, between punctuations there may be a sentence,paragraph,or merely an exclamation...