Weird, Wild Stuff

Tomorrow is our little borough's annual Yard Sale. It is a HUGE event in this town. Just about every house in town puts a table out. Some residents go to the extremes, hoarding miscellaneous items in their garages or on their porches starting the day after the previous year's yard sale. There are people that drive around town on trash nights and pick through our trash, collecting treasures. You know the ole adage, "One man's trash is another man's treasure?" Well, nowhere else does it ring truer.

It is almost obsessive in some ways. I mean, this school district ain't cheap, even in our teeny little pocket. We are surrounded on all four sides of our four-by-four block neighborhood by another school district. And the taxes for even our "lower-class-status-than-the-richy-posh-types" are still enough to make your eyes bulge. So, people here have to have a little moolah to move here (or spend way beyond their means to live here). Why the trash-picking?

I think I have figured it out just by people watching in the evening. I hate to say this but people here are a little greener than in other areas of our county. There are more lawyers and doctors and ivy-league types in this district than there are what I'd consider "normal" people. I am not knocking people's choices or their personalities, but as a friend of mine once put it, everyone that lives here is "unique." Where I grew up that meant weird.

We recycle like crazy, compost, yard sale, regift, you name it. People here like to save money and feel good about saving the environment. My brother calls them hippies. Perhaps, but I feel better knowing that the crap that I throw out can sometimes be reused. And the stuff I sell? Well, last year a few friends set up with me and we all raised money for charity. I've done yard sales in the past and made a few hundred. A far cry from those home organization shows where people clear $1500 in a fancy-schmancy yard sale in the L.A. area, people spending $200 for gaudy lamps and paintings of fruit. Sheesh. But, it is fun. There is a large turnout, interesting things to see, neighbors all walking the streets chatting and laughing. We meet new people, cringe when the weirdos try to barter us down from 25 cents to a dime and trade little items. Hey, we got a VCR/TV combo for 15 bucks to replace the one Bugaboo pushed onto the floor. So, it isn't all crap.

Just the stuff I am putting out tomorrow. Can't wait to see who considers it treasure!