I got a small bag full of freebie earrings. Obviously, the woman meandering around her yard wanted to get rid of them and I thought my wife would like to have them.
"I don't wear earrings that belonged to other people for I don't trust the earrings for health reasons," my wife exclaimed as I walked smilingly through the Maine cottage door.
"Just soak them in alcohol," daughter Heidi cried out as she was leaving with baby to visit a friend in Portland.
So there! I won.
Spending a Saturday morning going around yard sales alongside Sebago Lake is tops. It's the best America can offer when it comes to home grown yard sale retail. And then each time I think that, I wonder when DC is going to levy a sales tax on yard sales. Could happen these days. True, sadly.
But in the meantime, till DC catching on, I thoroughly get a kick out of yard sailing. And it's not just in buying things for nothing or cheap. It's visiting the strangers-become-quick-friends-of-sorts along the way. Most of the time, people who go to the bother of putting out their wares for others at 50 cents a clip are happy people.
Now when I drive from Windham to Woodsville New Hampshire on a Saturday, I have to allow for more than the usual 2 l/2 hours travel. There are so many yard sale signs beckoning. On one trip, my wife and I stopped at every one. It took us five hours to make the trip to that New Hampshire/Vermont border town. But it was worth it.
Once we came upon a Baptist Church having a "Free Yard Sale." It was in September. We had a ball going through this item and that, walking off with a lot of pre-Christmas presents that were actually brand new, at least brand new looking. When it comes to the little grandchildren, those stuffed animals were a giant hit.
Now this morning I drove off into some angst unknown to me. At the close out of my yard sales purchasing I decided to stop in at our town library.
"You had better get home as soon as you can," the head librarian exclaimed when catching my eye.
"Your wife has been calling. She's frantic because you have the car seat in your van. It seems Heidi needs it to put Grant Michael Wray in that seat so that the two of them can visit a friend in the city!"
I said: "I'll see you in divorce court. At 71, I'm not used to having a child's car seat in my life. It's like having cocaine. It's just not me."
Needless to say, I split down the center of town for the cottage. Bottom line: no divorce court, just a scolding that has still left a few blisters.
But I think before nightfall all will be well within the family. It usually is. Time does heal.
But back to the main point: yard sales are America's prime retail. You can bank on it.
J. Grant Swank Jr.
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Read: http://jgrantswankjr.blogspot.com
