summary:
making new friends, much laughter and a few bucks
A COMING TOGETHER
AT THE
YARD SALE
By
Anne McKee
Yep! I had an insane moment this morning and had a yard sale! I had sworn off of yard sales after the last disaster; but…..well, you know stuff just happens and then there are items you want to be rid of ……. It takes you over like a whirlwind. Wham!
But I think, by golly, I KNOW, that this was one successful yard sale! Oh, not in the monetary sense but in the coming together sense. Let me try to explain.
My good ole pal, my buddy/girlfriend called couple of weeks back and mentioned having a yard sale. She said we could have it in her three-car garage, out of the weather and where we could set the sale all up the night before and lock it in her garage so the morning of the sale all would be ready. At the moment it seemed like a real good idea.
So, you know the routine ladies, for two weeks I slung stuff out of my closets, attacked my kitchen cabinets, looked through my books, my costume jewelry, my shoes – cause as “they say” your trash is someone else’s treasure. I rounded up a mighty big heap of “sale-ables”, I thought. Then I priced and tagged some of it until I decided to just holler out a price on the day of the sale. I always start out real organized then I just tumble into the slam/slop technique of creative pricing which is my version of an auction in the reverse. It will go like this, someone will ask, “How much is this lamp?” Then I holler, “$5.00” and in return the prospective buyer will give a counter offer of “$3.00” and then we settle on $4.00. It sort of keeps you on your toes, you know, like living on the edge in the yard sale world.
Things were going real well. My pal and I and her two daughters were enjoying doughnuts and chit/chat celebrating our thirty-five year friendship, like good friends can do, when these two real friendly ladies came along. We all laughed and talked, exchanged telephone numbers, just enjoying our giggles and chuckles together as these two entertaining shoppers swapped home news with us. It seems that one of these ladies had a pet bird that would eat grits – not only grits but grits with butter, I tell you! None of us in my group knew these two ladies nor did they know us but we struck up a comradeship and it was so comfortable, enjoyable, and great fun – just as though these two buyers at our yard sale could have been our friends, too, for these thirty-five years. A coming together of kindred souls, a happening that might not have occurred except for a yard sale on a sunny, hot Mississippi July morning.
Later as I reflected on the day - and once again declaring to never have another yard sale – could I justify the hard work, the sweat pouring from the brow, the toil and worrisome tasks required for the success of it all. Yes, that justification comes from the most simple of all our liberties. The desire to commune with our fellow Mississippians in a pleasant and fun-loving atmosphere. To be true neighbors and enjoy our blessings and freedoms together in a most unlikely way - that being a small and unassuming business enterprise. A win/win situation for everyone, making new friends, helping each other with their needs and at the same time taking full advantage of coming together. Who would have ever thought that a yard sale could be a balm of healing? Yes, we live in this world of the twenty-first century still trying to figure each other out but knowing that we must come together to survive. So simple, yet a lesson that has been so hard to learn, and as students of the universe we all are still taking baby steps to achieve a larger world picture. The ideal world of working together, living together and yes, respecting each other, and it can all happen, we can make it happen – we MUST make it happen!
So this morning there were six of us (my old pal, her two daughters, myself and our two new friends) yes, the six of us moved a little closer together, shared some quality time, laughed together, sold a few essentials, made a couple bucks but the BEST…the very best transaction of the morning was investing in two new friends - realizing that when the essentials are not important any longer the coming together will see us through.
