Yard sales and life

For those of you that know me, you know that I am NOT a morning person. That may be the understatement of this century. Not that I am grumpy or anything when I get up. I like a beautiful sunrise as well as the next person. I would just prefer to see it from a cruise ship balcony or while on vacation. I can focus, I can go to work, it's just that I don't feel 100% until around 9 or 10. Add to the fact I am not a coffee drinker and there you go!

However, I was up and out the door at 7:00 this morning to go to some yard sales I saw advertised. True, I struck out, only picked up one book that I plan to try reselling on eBay for a substantial profit, but I did profit in another way.

I was on my third yard sale and found a table with a couple of vintage household items. There was a Pillsbury Doughboy doll, an old can of Pick-Up Sticks circa 1960, and some classic signs, like Coca-Cola from the 60's as well. It made me think of my childhood, yet another reminder if you saw yesterday's post. Over the years Mom and I have made a practice of going to yard sales, it gets us out of the house for a while, we usually stop at Wawa for coffee (for Mom!) and for creamed chipped beef on biscuits for breakfast. It has become a tradition of us. And it's a nice mother/son thing to do.

I usually look for books and DVD's. Mom looks for figurines, like her Precious Moments and Hummels, and then we look for things we can use around the house. It's amazing what other people find that you never saw in stores, we have done very well in the past year. We found a great little tv tray with collapsible legs last year, it's great for when we eat dinner and watch Jeopardy together every night (yet another tradition!). And occasionally I'll spot something totally bizarre, like the electronic Grim Reaper I found last year for my desk at work on Halloween. Just fun things, really.

Anyway, that vintage table this morning made me reflect on yard sales a little. We tend to buy things and hold onto them for years, then something happens that makes us have to get rid of them. Like my sister, she's moving to New York and had to clean out her storage area since she's moving into a townhouse. She had her sale today, made around $150, and had to spend the last few weeks going through not only her things but her late husband's stuff. She dealt with a lot of memories, some good, some bad. Now my mom is coming back and preparing for her yard sale, she just wants to clean out the basement. I expect she will be struggling with some memories also.

That's what they're really about for me, memories. There's a saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." I think that's how it goes. We go to yard sales because we're looking for bargains, things they no longer sell in stores, etc. But I also think we're looking for lost memories, things from another time that will make us remember those days, maybe they're things we regret getting rid of or lost along the way and want to try to recapture. I find old books that I remember reading as a child. Sometimes I buy them to keep, sometimes to sell, but mostly because I remember my childhood as a happy time that I don't want to forget. So for a quarter I can recapture a little bit of that happiness, I think that's a bargain!