There were only 6 or 7 sales on Laura's prep sheet. She checks the Belleville News Democrat and Craigs' List every Thursday night and prints out the relevant sales. She checks Belleville, for sure, and maybe surrounding towns. Sales that start on Friday are always highlighted in blue so my navigation is as easy as possible. We really need a new map, though. Laura, can you take a pic of that nasty map?
Our first destination was the sale advertising "Two mounted large mouth bass and lots and lots of wigs!"
Take a minute to let that sink in, please.
Did you feel it sink into your bones? Did you sense the excitement we felt? WHO sells lots of wigs and fishing trophies? If this is what they advertise, what ELSE will they sell?! These are the questions that keep us going, even after we have spent all our cash and are dead-tired and very thirsty and facing marital conflict. It is the unknown -- the what-ifs around every corner -- the possibilities that await us -- that keep us driving forward, toward the next sale.
So we get there.
Here is the largemouth bass. This is the proprietor of the sale.
The bass was forty bucks, I think. But apparently it is very expensive to mount a fish. This one cost $200 back in the day. Some other shopper told us it now costs $15 per inch to taxidermy a fish. This explains the $200 beaver mentioned earlier on the blog! Taxidermy is the big money-maker of the economy. I'm rethinking my kids' career paths.
Something that caught my eye was this lovely
collection of lures.
I was thinking of my dad. Would he love to get these pretty lures for Christmas? How would I ship them to California? The proprietor said they were $5 each, but for the whole shebang, including the corkboard, he'd charge (long pause while mental math is performed) $40. That is all my fellow shoppers needed to hear. Just as I was saying "No, thanks." This guy here whips out two twenties and says it will put a smile on his dad's face when he has his birthday next week. (That's Laura and Hudson, too.)
Then we spied the wigs. There were 9 wigs, still in their boxes. A few were brand new and still had the netting and paper and stuff on them. They were a dollar each. I offered $5 for the whole box and she agreed. For the rest of the day I had conflicting emotions: I felt elation and joy at having scored such a wacky and random purchase, but I felt shame that someone who really needed them might not have the chance to buy them, and I felt fear that I was messing up my karma by buying wigs that I might need someday if I have to fight my way through some terrible chemo.
Anywho... we had a blast when I got the wigs home. Here are some of my kids and some neighbor kids enjoying the wigs. This is easily $5 worth of fun! (Readers of the Chase Family Blog should note the infamous Devin between Louie and Donny.) In fairness to children, I have included a picture of me wearing a wig. I think it makes my eyes look more blue, honestly.
So... our next stop of note was the PSOP on Church St. We spent about 10 minutes guessing what PSOP meant. We finally learned it means "Programs and Services for Older Persons". This was advertised as a "Girly Girl Sale". It is an annual event, apparently, held the first Friday of every October. At this sale I scored a lovely gray leather Liz Claiborne purse, a Smurf TV tray, and some excellent costume jewelry. In fact, I have started a collection of ridiculous costume jewelry, for use in a future art project. Here is the Boss Lady who tricked me into paying $5 for a container of "odds and ends". She would not let me rummage through the container. I had to make her an offer on the lot. A wily opponent, that one.
The PSOP had an excellent bake sale. I would be remiss if I failed to mention the fine slice of lemon bundt cake I procured for a mere 25 cents. Thank you, Ladies of the PSOP, for delicious sustenance just when I needed it most.
It was downhill from there. We were tired. We needed to rest up for tomorrow's Grand Adventure. Tune in tomorrow, Folks, for the highlights of the Greatest Garage Sale on Earth!
HA!
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