You Can Take The Girl Out Of The Garage Sale But You Can't Take The Garage Sale Out Of The Girl

There are certain firsts in life that you never forget. You know... your first date, first kiss, first dance, etc.... But for me right up there with those fond memories is the memory of my first garage sale.

I must have been around seven or eight years old. I rode my bike down the street to have a look around, and when I saw it I knew I had to have it. It was the most beautiful purple and black saloon girl dance costume I had ever seen. It was decked out with fringe and rhinestones, and it even came with fishnets and a headband! Even at my young age I knew that every second counts when it comes to garage sales, so I pedaled home as fast as I could to get my money lest someone snatch up that gem of a find before I got back! The funny thing is I remember taking the costume home, but I don't remember ever actually wearing it. Looking back I'm sure my mother was horrified to see her daughter come home with apparel that reeked of harlotry. Chances are it conveniently "got lost" before word of it's existence made it back to the nuns at my school.

The excitement of finding "that perfect thing" at a great price has stuck with me all these years. While my husband would probably be thrilled if I brought home a purple saloon girl costume with fishnets and a headband, my garage sale tastes have become much more practical. I now get excited over slightly used waffle irons or salad spinners that I can pick up for pennies on the dollar. But unfortunately a person can only buy so many "perfect things" before they run out of space in their home. Then they have to purge their home and have their own garage sale. You know it is kind of like the circle of life.....but not.

As fate would have it, a garage sale lovin girl like me ended up in a neighborhood that did not allow garage sales. What????? Apparently garage sales invite riffraff into the area. What the Powers that Be couldn't see was that the riffraff was slowly infiltrating the neighborhood and they were living amongst them. So since our community board of directors is run by benevolent dictators, they agreed to give us peasants one day a year in which to indulge in our common foolery. So this past Saturday was our annual Neighborhood garage sale! WHOO HOO! Here are some pictures:




Good-bye my beautiful books. I will never forget our hours spent together, but my husband does not understand our love affair and he says you must go...



The lovely Robin strategically displaying a couple of cute dresses. I decided if I were to plan my wedding all over again I would have my bridesmaids buy their dresses at garage sales or thrift stores. Of course they wouldn't match, but wouldn't it be fun to see what they would come up with?

We started setting up our sale at 6:00am because any seasoned garage sale expert knows that you have to get an early start. We snickered when the neighbors across the street started pulling junk stuff out of their house around 11:00am. Didn't they know they have already missed the rush of shoppers? Look at how they just threw their stuff out there without even making it look good! Do they really think they are going to sell anything? Apparently we could have learned a thing or two from our neighbors because less then an hour after they pulled junk out of their house set up their sale, someone pulled up, offered them $325.00 for everything they had, and they were done.

While I didn't make near what my neighbors across the street did, all was not lost. In fact it was nice spending the morning chatting with the other peasants on the block. I came home with a few new treasures and the lack of sales allowed me to bring home my beloved books until next year.