Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

Mary Oliver

Thursday, October 12, 2017

The Unexpected Wonders of Holding a Garage Sale:  Day One

My husband Rod asked our son Ryan to help him convince me that it was a bad idea to have a garage sale.
"You've got no argument there," I thought.
"They are a lot of work for little money, " he said, "and we have lots of other things to do and little time to do them before you leave to see your sister.  Plus you are supposed to rest your knee."

He was right on all counts, but I'd already committed myself with ads and posts on Facebook. However,  as I drove down our pothole-infested road to set out the garage sale signs and found myself dodging a bobcat with a brush attachment on the front throwing dust up into the air and we discovered that the county planned  to lay asphalt today, I thought perhaps I should have taken his concerns more seriously.  Who is going to wend their way past heavy equipment belching smoke and tar to check through my old sweaters and socks and used kitchen tools?

Well, they did come despite the roadwork:  First, a gray-haired lady who drives children with challenges to their schools.  She bought the wicker cat bed and we talked about how to blend cats forced to live together. I learned that her son had come home under disappointing circumstances and brought his cat to join her two.  She gave me $12 and a story from her life.  I started feeling glad that I'd had the sale anyway.

Next a couple where the wife browsed and the husband noticeably stayed outside the garage, almost like a force field separated him from the merchandise and he threw his voice into the unknown to give her advice.  More cat conversation sparked by the cat tower (For Sale $10).  They had a cat named Puppy, and a story about  how the cat got its name and how they got the cat.  Wow, more characters, more stories and $1.50 more in the cashbox.

Then two familiar faces--Steve and Eileen, friends and classmates from Milaca and Ham Lake neighbors on their way north to view the colors.  They had seen my Facebook posting and stopped by.  We talked politics and classmates and the upcoming reunion.  Steve left me his number to I could call him about the next reunion meeting.

The next customer also took me by surprise.  He got out of his pickup and heading in the direction of my garden instead of the garage.  He admired the size of my garden, told me about his market garden plot around the corner where he sells sweet corn and how his beets were as big as softballs this year.
We looked at the ground cherry plants and I gave him a sample (sweet and tart) and offered him some for seeds.  He looked at the fresh mounds of dirt that a gopher had just created as asked for a shovel.

The next thing I knew, he was scraping off the mounds looking for a good spot to set a gopher trap which I retrieved from the back of his pickup truck.  He didn't buy anything, but I collected my second male phone number of the day!  Hopefully the mound-making culprit will be caught and I can call Richard to collect the trap.  Maybe we'll talk about carrots and broccoli too.

The day proceeded like this...story after story.  There was a man and his adult son.  The son stayed in the car but the talkative father bought one of my apple pies, proclaiming that he was going to eat it all himself.  Five minutes later they are back again.  The son bought a second pie.
"Now you'll each have your own pie?" I asked.
"Going to give it to a friend down the road," the father said.
 I do hope the son at least got a bite.

I gave out samples of my fresh organic apple juice.  One man told me about his winter neighbor in Florida who also grew apples in Michigan and made juice from them.  His wife would accept the juice, but wouldn't drink it...she suspected worms.  Apparently the man was as unsavory as his juice.

A mother, father and young adult son stopped by.  The son's eagerness about everything--the book on dogs!  The apple juice!  let me know he was unique.  I complimented him on his t-shirt, the front had colorful puzzle pieces on it.
"Read the back," he said. The  extensive writing on the back explained about autism. "Because I have autism." he cheerfully confided.
"And you just carry on with your happy life, right?"
"Right!  Dad can we get some juice?  And an apple pie?  What, I get a free book too!  Thank you!"

I closed up for the night, went in to make more apple crisp and to anticipate what interesting stories my garage sale would bring me tomorrow.

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