City-Wide Garage Sales

Well ladies and gents, it is especially that time of year when the air begins to warm and the anxious buds on the trees and flowers begin to pry open with a real freshness and life. That's how garage sales make me feel!....Ok, not really, but I REALLY love garage sales.

One of my favorite memories of living in Bolivar, MO (fill in the town and state with your own applicable small town experiences) was the city-wide garage sale weekend. Holy smokes we would tear that town up! Never throughout the year would so many poor and sleep deprived college students drag themselves out of bed to become a part of the community for, very possibly, one of the first times. That's what I loved. Pretense disappears at garage sales. You meet "real" people. People smack dab in the middle of life and you get to walk up and join them where they are with both people having something to offer the other and the potential of a connection being made. Maybe it's not the complex or meaningful for most, but it is for me. I feel a part of something when I go garage selling, and it's not the greedy flea market vendors who rape people of some of their best products to traffick the products off to others. Sick.

With that anecdote in mind, what is one of your favorite small town memories?

*Note* It is not politically correct to use the verb "gyp" when referring to get someone to lower his or her price. The word is derived from the noun gypsy and can be taken derrogatorily. It is more appropriate to use the verbs "haggle" or "bargain." :)