Who Did You See on that Driveway?

There was Drake the chocolate lab.

He was waiting in the car while his owner bought an old Budweiser sign, for the man-cave the two of them hang out in. And a beagle and a freckled sweetie-pup

 

and a friendly yellow kitty

and a cat named Hummingbird

who came from the store down on Commercial Street that’s a combined thrift store and cat rescue. They name their kitties for where they are found, and this one’s mama had her babies by the wild-bird-supplies store up the street. So they all got bird names.

Met a lady who loves flowers. This is her front yard.

 

She said whenever her husband brings her flowers, he brings her blooming plants so she can grow them in the yard. He was sitting next to her, helping mind the driveway sale, and you could see he was pleased that his gifts are appreciated.

We saw cocker spaniels with blue tongues.

Judy and I were inspecting this fabric remnant and I commented on the blue tongues. The lady having the sale said proudly that she is going to be 70 soon, and this piece of fabric was left from a skirt (with matching suspenders) that a neighbor lady made for her when she was four. “So you know how old this is now!” With a story like that, I had to have the fabric. Not sure what I will do with it…but I’ll think of something.

She was part of a neighborhood sale, but her neighbors had much higher prices than she did, so I also picked up some colored pencils (for a dime!)

and a couple more pot decorations, two little marbles on wires. Like miniature gazing balls in my herbs.

I met Snow White and her BFFs

but inflation had hit their price!

There was Judy, trying on hats. She bought this one (for a quarter)

and this one made us reminisce about the Easter bonnets we wore in childhood. My main memory is of the elastic under my chin trying to choke me.

I met a couple of embroidered sheep

and liked them so well I bought the sweater. Should be cozy in a few months.

Last week I ended up at a sale that was a reprise of the one last month where I met Elaine. (Hi, Elaine!) This time her friend Margrit was also there. Turns out Margrit had to miss the last time because her husband was having one of those little medical procedures that we all go through from time to time as we get older. He’s not a fan of yard sales, and had already left when I arrived after assuring all of them working on the sale that he would rather have That Procedure again than do a yard sale! Elaine wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything good, and I had to crack up when she pointed out what she said was a box of self-help books. I think she has high expectations for those of us trying to help ourselves!

In our conversation, the topic of a locally-well-known neighborhood sale came up, which was scheduled for this weekend. It’s way on the other end of town, so I’d never been to it (well, they’ve only had it twice since I moved here). So Margrit and I decided we’d go together. Elaine had a prior engagement and couldn’t come (next year!) and Judy didn’t want to start out as early as we did so she said she’d come later and look for us. I’ve been to plenty of neighborhood sales, but this was certainly the biggest one I’ve seen in these parts. We counted the addresses on their map and there were nearly 90 sales, and we made it to a little over 40 of them (Margrit marked them off the list as we went) in a bit over four hours. We were pooped at the end, and over lunch decided we’ll spend the next year in training. So from now on we’re not just garaging, we’re in training!

Our first encounter of the morning wasn’t on a driveway – it was above it!

We saw this hot-air balloon as we were nearing the neighborhood, and at our first stop it flew right over!

The weird noise we were hearing was the burners going on and off. And the conversation I thought was coming from the street was from the balloon! You could hear every word. If you ever go for a balloon ride, watch what you say! No state secrets were revealed this time though. It was all about how amazing the ride was.

 

My cell phone rang as we were finishing our first street. Judy had arrived at the neighborhood and couldn’t believe all the cars and people. “I’ll never find you,” she said. “I’m going to turn down this street and probably just go home.” “Wait a minute,” I told her. “You just drove right by me!” So she parked her car and we did the rest of the sale together. And talk about who did you meet on a driveway…both of them have lived here for over 25 years, and first one would see a friend, and then the other. Must have happened at least ten times, and when we were heading back to Judy’s car (fortunately we had marked its location on our map or we might still be looking for it) Margrit yelled hi at someone in the street and jumped out of the car. “I have to give her a hug,” she said and darted off. In a minute she was back. “That was one of my best friends. She lives in the Bay Area.” So she saw someone from California walking down the street. Told you this was a well known sale!