The third or fourth yard sale of the morning made the first two or three crappy yard sales almost disappear from memory. Of course these things never completely go away. They stay somewhere in our subconscious only to resurface as sweaty nightmares, "Oh no, more homemade potholders - and look! Another unused Nordic Track..."
Number four was the mother lode. We headed straight for the backyard where a sign out front had instructed us to go if we were interested in tools. The first thing that caught my eye was a bench grinder with a homemade, heavy duty stand. "How much do you want for that?" I asked trying to sound uninterested. Dan, son of the deceased, seemed surprised by the question. "Uh, I don't know... how about ten dollars?" Sold. Then a red tool cart struck Jenny's fancy. "I don't know, how much will you give me?" asked Dan."Five dollars," I offered hopefully. "Its yours. And you can have everything on it." We only wanted some of what was on it but we did take everything that was in it. He also said we could have whatever else we could fit on it.
Jenny noticed a hand-carved, wooden Buddha in the toolshed rafters. Then she saw a Buddha cookie jar. Then we both started seeing Buddhas everywhere. I bought the cookie jar. Mamma (that's what Dan called her) showed us a 4 foot high, smiley buddha wearing a cap and sunglasses. She bought it for her husband for $426 in the 70s. I went out to search for more treasure and Dan went in to warn his mother about potential thieves. Even though he was practically giving everything away. He said, "Mamma, we need to have a conference. I'm not racist but - well, not very racist - but there are a lot of Mexicans wandering around here and you know how they can be. So you need to be out there making sure people aren't leaving without paying."
The daughter showed up riding a Lark scooter. She was the only one who seemed at all concerned as she watched her dad's stuff walking away. Her mother said to us, "Dan didn't want her to come. He said she'd scare everybody away."
We weren't scared but we did feel like we left without paying. Maybe Dan and Mamma gave us the white people discount.
Dolly: $5
Tool Cart: $5
Tools included
Oster blender was from a thrift store but I thought you would like to see it.
Grinder $10
Buddha cookie jar: .25 cents
3 comments:
As a fellow yard-saler put it when she walked into the cornucopia-like toolshed, "this is the raddest yard sale EVER." Good thing we got there before she did.
Wow! Those are some real bargains! Wish I could run across some tools like that!
Love the Buddha cookie jar. Any markings on it to show who made it?
Post a Comment