My first garage sale

by Donna Andrews.

Given that this is the Fourth of July week, I should probably write about something patriotic and inspiring. Something soul-stirring. Something that would make you laugh and then bring in those sentimental tears at the end.

But I'm drawing a blank on soul-stirring, and I think instead I'll write about my first garage sale. No, not the first I've ever been to, but the first in which I've participated as a seller. I've been to yard and garage sales—particularly while researching Owls Well That Ends Well, which features a giant yard sale--but never sold stuff at one.

The garage sale came about because my friend and neighbor, Barb Goffman, is relocating to Winchester, which is a cheaper place to live. She's found a great house, with a fence that should do a better job of keeping her dog, Jingle, from roaming, but still, it's going to be a bummer not to be able to call her up on five minutes notice and say “Want to hit Mama Wok?” Or “I'm having a pizza craving.” But the move is happening, and part of the move plan was to have a garage sale to unload stuff she doesn't want to pay to move, so . . . garage sale! Saturday, July 2, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I was a little bummed when I found out that my baseball-crazy nephew was in a tournament nearby—playing two games Saturday, which I'd miss. But I could follow the game, thanks to an app called Game Changer—although Game Changer only works if a parent on the spot taps every play into it, so a belated thanks to Matt's mom, April.

We enlisted Sherry Harris to organize us—since Sherry writes the wonderful Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series, we figured she was a lot more expert than we were, and maybe she would even find organizing us useful research. And then we asked our friends if any of them wanted to join in the fun, and Kathryn O'Sullivan, who writes the Colleen McCabe mystery series set in Corolla, North Carolina, joined in the fun, so we could legitimately call it a multi-family yard sale. Kathryn and Paul were bringing the furniture—they had a lot of surplus and every good yard sale needs furniture—and reserved a van so they could haul the furniture over. Barb's contributions were largely practical—she had a snowblower and a clothing steamer, plus tons of mystery books that she reluctantly weeded out of her collection. And I had mostly a lot of vintage stuff that was leftover at Mom's house after she moved up here and she and everyone else in the family had taken away everything we wanted. A varied yard sale.

Sherry and Barb and I gathered at Barb's house on Friday to price things. Actually, mainly Sherry was pricing things, because she's the garage sale expert, and we learned to accept it meekly when she told us that however much something might have cost, five bucks was the most we could expect people to pay for it at a garage sale. My job was mainly to carry things out into the garage. Oh, and I was sorting the books by type (hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback) into boxes so we could haul those out in the morning to line the driveway. The first sign of trouble came when I suddenly realized my knee hurt. I didn't remember twisting the knee or bumping it, but we were all rushing about so much that I could have. I tried to limp on, but it was getting worse and worse. There was a stretch that afternoon when I couldn't put weight on my leg without excruciating pain. I iced it and elevated it and Adviled it and tried to be useful sitting down.

Then we heard from Kathryn that the truck company had arbitrarily changed the reservation on their van from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, by which time the garage sale would be over. So they were only going to be able to bring the furniture that would fit in their car.

My knee improved enough (or the Advil dulled the pain enough) that I was able to drop by and pick up some tables that my friends Kathy and David were going to lend me for the garage sale. Kathy rounded up the tables for me, and I waved at David, who was doing something to a tree (presumably a dead tree) near the back of their yard. Kathy warned me that her sister had had a yard sale at their house over Memorial Day and hardly anyone had showed up. I decided not to share this knowledge with Barb, Sherry, or Kathryn.

And at 11:15 Barb texted me that she was calling a cab to take her to the hospital because she was suffering excruciating back pain. Normally I would have offered to drive her, but given the knee, and the fact that someone had to be there to open up the garage at 7:15 to finish the setup if she was still in the ER, I stayed home and tried to get some sleep. Though it did occur to me that maybe if I took her to the ER, I could have them look at my knee while I was at it.

Saturday dawned. I managed to get there by 7:15, and parked beside some of the early arrivals they warned us to expect. I smiled graciously at them while reminding myself how Meg dealt with the early arrivals in Owls Well That Ends Well. (Read the book to find out!)  I limped around on a cane that I might have put into the yard sale if it hadn't occurred to me, even before the knee injury, that having a spare cane around was not a stupid thing.

Barb's back pain turned out to be a kidney stone. Anyone who has ever had a kidney stone knows exactly how she felt, and if you haven't had a kidney stone, I hope you never find out. Bob, Sherry's husband, pitched in to do some of the work that Barb and I weren't able to do, including driving around to post the signs.

And thank goodness people came. And left with stuff. Not as much stuff as we'd hoped, and there was a great deal of bargaining, but we all decided at the outset that our goal was not to make vast sums of money—it was to get other people to pay us to haul away the stuff we no longer wanted. And we all went home with less stuff that we came.

Alan Orloff, who had also lent us tables, dropped by to check on our progress, and some of the yard sale customers were thrilled to hear that they were hanging out with four—and briefly five—mystery writers. Bookmarks made their way into customers' hands, and several people suggested maybe we should have brought books to sell. It's an idea for next time. Because there will be a next time. I still have stuff. Kathryn and Paul still have furniture they'd like to unload. We're thinking fall.

Of course, we hope the next garage sale won't be quite so fraught with peril. Barb's kidney stone. My knee. And remember my friend David, who was doing something to a dead tree when I went by to borrow tables? The dead tree retaliated, apparently--a piece of his equipment fell and he, too, spent Friday night in the ER. Also Saturday night.

But he's home now and doing well, and Barb's been feeling okay, and my knee is slowly getting better. And since my nephew's team won both its Saturday games, I was able to see them play on Sunday—and not just play, but take home the championship. Maybe the family luck is turning.

And it was a lovely day of baseball—no overzealous parents or unsportsmanlike coaches, no unpleasantness, no drama apart from the very normal kind you get from a hard-fought championship game with a close final score. Nothing like what you'll find in my upcoming book, Die Like an Eagle, in which Meg has to solve a murder connected to her twin sons' coach-pitch baseball league.

So I snuck in a small patriotic note after all—at least if, like me, you consider baseball the great American pastime and the perfect way to spent part of the Fourth of July weekend. A small patriotic note and a very short plug for the upcoming book (release date August 2, 2015, and you can read the first chapter here.)

I hope all of you had Fourth of July weekends far less filled with injuries and other dramas!  (But if you didn't . . . we're all ears.

Comments

[Abigail Goben]

Wow...quite a garage sale adventure!!

Depending on your plans for the fall--my mom did a "Blessing Sale" which I loved the idea of. She put stuff out and a few cans with different charities on them. Her phrase was "it's been a blessing in my life and I hope it can be a blessing in yours." and if anyone still tried to give her money she said they could donate--I think she did Red Cross, local food bank. Apparently people really enjoyed it.

Glad your knee is getting better, looking forward to the new book!

[Sherry Harris]

Oh, I am bossy some times! It was fun except for the various injuries!

[Jeanie Jackson]

Yard sale/Garage sales are a nightmare to have but fun to visit. When Sherry first mentioned this one on FB, I was so envious of the people who got to! You were lucky to have her, but it sounds like your luck didn't extend much further. I hope that every thing falls in line for the next one. Selling your books sounds great as long as people understand that there will be no haggling over them. :) Love reading about your experience just as I love reading about Meg's!

[Vickie Fee]

It appears a group of mystery writers can't plot anything, including a garage sale, without victims. I'm sorry the victims were you and Barb! Kathryn's van mix-up added a plot complication as well. Hope your next garage sale has a little less drama!

[Marcia Talley]

If I hadn't had grandkids and families for the holiday weekend, I would have been there with my own contributions! As for all the sturm und drang, as we say -- material, material, material.

[Donna Andrews]

I like the idea of a blessing sale . . and no, Sherry, you are not bossy. You brilliantly filled the job we gave you, which was to tell us newbies what we needed to do. Jeanie, you're right about the haggling over book prices--maybe we should invite a bookseller to handle that! Vickie, we're all healing nicely. Marcia, if you want in on the fall sale, we'll keep you posted.

[Toni LP Kelner]

My mother and I used to go yard-sailing every weekend, and brought home books and fabric and all kinds of stuff. Then Mama decided to get rid of some the surplus, and had her own sale. Then another. Then she joined in on a group sale at a church lot. Then another. Eventually she worked her way up to a regular flea market dealer, and also sold stuff at auction.

So be careful. It's easy to get sucked in!

That may be why I've never had a yard sale. We box all our discards and give 'em to a charity that comes to the house to pick it all up.

[Karen in Ohio]

Ouch, to Barb and Donna and David. I hope everyone is feeling great again by now.

We live back a long driveway, with no visual from the road. And no parking, anyway. So my only attempt at a yard sale was 30 years ago, and it was a bust.

[Diana Belchase]

Hope you are all feeling better!

[Mark]

What an adventure. Glad everyone is recovering from their injuries. Apart from that, it does sound like fun.