Anywho.
What a day! I walked down to Laura's at 6:55. As I approached her house I saw her backing out of the driveway. An early start! I climbed in the van and noticed Hudson's seat was full of snacks. "No Hudson?" I asked. "No. But we have Sawyer." She replied.
Sawyer! Sawyer is the sweetest seven-year-old you will ever meet. If he forgets to say "Yes Ma'am" or "No Ma'am" Laura slaps him. Haha. Not really. But she has this cute southern thing going on where she demands her boys say "Ma'am" all the time. Before I met Laura and her kids I thought southerners were born saying "Ma'am", like some verbal genetic mutation or something. It turns out they are trained to talk that way! So having Sawyer along for the ride was a treat.
We had two goals: go to St. Theresa's "Everything Under the Sun" rummage sale and get me home by 10AM. Easy, you say; St. Theresa's is 15 minutes away at most and we started before 7:00. But you forgot about skivving! (see previous post for definition.)
We started out on Main, heading east, or as east as Main St. can go, which is really southeast. (A brief note about roads in Belleville: they are messed up! As far as I can tell, only Rt. 159 runs due north-south. It is The Beacon in the Night. Every other road zigs and zags or cuts diagonally across the map, making yard sale navigation a real chore.) So we're on Main and we skiv down 82nd to Woodside. Here we found a Nintendo Gameboy SP for 25 cents (why is the cent symbol not on the keyboard?) Also I bought JoJo a TinkerBell hoodie for 50 cents. I photographed a Twin Towers commemorative knick-knack but if you refer to paragraph one of this post you will know why that picture is not here.
Back to Main St. and on to Hope Church, near Memorial Hospital, for a "Parking Lot Sale". We expected a typical church rummage sale but it was a "Sample Sale". There was only one of each item but many were new with tags. They had funny tags and showed evidence of having been displayed on mannequins (the sweater I bought was closed with both buttons and double-sided tape for optimum drape.) Every shoe in the impressive shoe display was a size 6, the size most often displayed in shoe stores and merchandising venues. Little Laura, with cute little size 6 feet, raked it in. I looked over at her and her arms were overflowing with shoes. I think she bought 8 pairs or something. Each pair was gorgeous. She will have to post a photo for you.
After Hope Church we got back on course to St. Theresa's. We only had about 6 miles to travel. But we found skiv after skiv! We couldn't go a half mile without another neon posterboard announcing another yard or garage sale!
We had to turn down Charles St. because there were two good signs posted at the Lebanon Rd. corner. At the first sale we got out and started our customary squealing, to which the proprietess said, "These girls love yardsaling as much as I do!" We took the opportunity to promote our blog and hope she is reading right now. They had good stuff, plenty to squeal over. I stepped up on the porch to snoop in some boxes and the home owner's daughter said, "Oh, that's just junk." But I pulled out the most wonderful sculptures! One was a little bronze man sitting cross-legged, wearing a Santa hat. The other was a bronze cast of the artist's own hand. I looked at the daughter, stunned, and she said, "I made those but I was embarrassed to sell them." I asked how much they cost and she said, "Oh... I don't know... a dollar?" So I bought them for a dollar, but I told her they were wonderful and tried to get her to rent studio space at my mom's artist colony. (More later, I promise.)
A few doors up Charles St. we found a mediocre sale... with the most wonderful wooden objects ever! Laura must post a photo of her gun-crate-shipping-cartons. She blew a good twenty minutes deciding if these totally awesome, one-of-a-kind, utilitarian yet attractive items were worth $5 each. After a million minutes (maybe 17) she offered $2 each and the lady was happy to see them go. (A word about Laura's frugality: cheap. Seriously, she will find something so awesome for $1 and offer 25 cents. I would not have the balls. That's why I spend $4 to her $1 every week.)
With the six gun-crate-shipping-cartons safely in the van, we got back on Lebanon Rd. and headed to St. Theresa's. It was 8:45. We had just enough time to stop at a gas station for cash and potty, get to St. Theresa's, leisurely scour the tables, and make it back to Signal Hill by ten. But then we saw a sign... a big sign. A sign advertising a sale throughout an entire subdivision. I don't recall the subdivision's name. It must have been "Subdivision California" (like Hotel California where you can check out any time you want but you can never leave.) because we immediately became trapped, unable to drive away from the 20 or so adjacent sales but having to pee so bad and totally out of cash. We couldn't buy a single thing but we couldn't stop shopping! It was almost a nightmare. Sawyer said, "I just want to go home."
We wrestled our way out of Subdivision California and stopped at the nearest gas station.
"No Public Restrooms."
What the hell is that?!
So we went to a better gas station (really, Laura, please list the names of the Good and the Bad gas stations so people can know who to support during these tough economic times.) where they had a potty, an ATM, and plenty of snacks.
It was 9:25. We had just enough time to hit one more sale and skiv home. I thought "The Teaser" from Friday was on Water's Edge but I was wrong. The stop at Water's Edge was a bust and we had to head home. I think we skivved a teeny tiny bit on the way home but Sawyer was ready to be done and I had to get home or face marital consequences. So we never made it to St. Theresa's! I was home by 9:56, marriage intact.
But wait.
I took Donny to soccer. Matt joined us. I was hoping to leave soccer and rejoin Laura at St. Theresa's before they closed at 1PM. During soccer she called me to say, "You have to get here! It's 'anything you can fit in a bag' for one dollar!" But then Matt showed up at soccer (after Henry's bowling league, where he performed very well, by the way) and said, "Let's all go to lunch!"
Now that is just sweet. A man that wants to have lunch with his wife, his five kids, and his mother-in-law. So I have to agree, right? But time is ticking away, People! Soccer was over at 12:15, we drove to the nearest Burger King, I didn't order a meal, hoping to "bat clean-up" and finish all their leftovers. At 12:45 we were just about done and Matt says, "Why don't you go do what you want to do and I'll take the kids home?" Sweet man! That's why I love him! I yanked JoJo and Gramma into the car and we screeched out of the parking lot, heading toward St. Theresa's.
We pulled into St. Theresa's parking lot at 12:57PM. Laura and Sawyer were waiting for us at the door. We ran through the gymnasium, stuffing anything desirable into a paper sack. One dollar per sack! My mom, JoJo, Laura, Sawyer, and I were running from table to table, cramming anything metal, pink, or interesting into Shop-n-Save paper bags. I have yet to really unpack these bags and take stock of the merchandise from St. Theresa's but I spent only 5 bucks and I'm pretty sure the stuff is great.
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