Tale of a Whale of a Sale

Youngest son says I'm the most sentimental person he knows. That may be the reason I keep this little cigar box year after year. We used it for the money box with our very first garage sale, and have continued with every garage sale since. I found it again for our garage sale this past weekend so we could continue that tradition.

This may be the best garage sale for us yet. It seemed fairly painless. I began purging, pricing and packing into boxes quite awhile ago, so it wasn't all there to do at the last minute. Two other good friends joined with me (and we had so much fun). We each grabbed a part of it, our spouses helped set up and take down, and we had fun "staging" our wares. The Gardener stayed with us the entire morning--he's so good at math "in his head" and helped to keep it all straight when we had "surges" of customers. And he likes to visit anyway.

But without a doubt, the most fun of a such a sale is the people that come by. It gives me such a charge to watch my junk become someone else's treasure. And when that person tells you why he or she is buying it, it's even sweeter. For the briefest of time, a small community forms on our driveway. We tell snippets about ourselves, and we laugh. I admire twins stopping by in their stroller during a run with their mom, or we pet dogs with their owners who come by on a morning stroll. A little non-English-speaking boy bought a small toy car, saw my little American flag perched near it and asked if he could have that. He went away waving it in the air.

An old woman rolled up the driveway on her motorized handicapped scooter, dog perched at her feet and a multi colored umbrella protecting her from the intense sun. She stopped to give her pup a drink and visit with us after looking around. Her coins were precisely rolled up in wrappers. She can go 20 miles on her cart before she has to recharge the battery.

Towards the end a beautiful mid-age woman came and looked around. She bought some Christmas-colored napkins and spoke of how, even with a messy-eater old dad and two sons, she loves to set a beautiful table at Christmas. She bought $2.50-worth and reached into her purse to bring out three dollars. "Here's your change," we chorused. She shook her head no, and headed down the driveway. "I don't want change," she said, "you keep it." She turned back to look at us as I called out, "Obviously you've seen the movie Pay it Forward."

"Oh yes," she replied with a huge smile.  "I am blessed, and have no doubt I will be again."

Connecting to Little Red House ...please visit there for more Monday Mosaics.