Garage sale season makes me feel like a pirate. I feel a little like I'm crossing over into someone else's personal space and when I find treasure and get a good deal I feel I can return home victorious with my bounty.
My dad loved garage sales for their cameras and musical instruments. I can't pass up Archie comics for the kids and look for unique items for myself. Over the past few years I have amassed quite a collection of old cooking and baking ware and I have a weakness for books.
A look into a garage sale can be a look into a family's life. I've been to sales where a divorce had taken place and a spouse wanted to get rid of every reminder of their former partner as quickly as possible while making a few bucks. I've at times marvelled over the things some people have kept and in turn tried to sell and I've appreciated the spirit of recycling knowing sometimes it would be easier to just haul the items to the dump.
I have found real treasures at garage sales. I have a couch and chair set I bought at a garage sale more than 15 years ago. It is decades old, has travelled with me around the province and is still one of the most comfortable sets of furniture I have ever sat on.
Some sales are reminders I am not the only one who buys more than I should.
My children love garage sales and if we are driving through a community and see the signs on the corners and don't stop they aren't very happy with me.
I like to look through stacks of books to see what others are reading. I can't bear to part with many of my own books and during every garage sale season I find just a little more space for books found in stacks and boxes from other people's basements. Listening to the former owner I can sometimes get a review of a book I wasn't sure I wanted to buy at full price and have found sometimes people give a little bit of a comment on the hand-scrawled price tag.
The latest trend in our community is a multi-family garage sale at a local community centre where the rain won't keep people away, there won't be any early birds because the door will be locked up tight. Shoppers can browse more than one person's treasures in one stop.
The garage sale gives us a few clues to the life of the seller, but it also gives us time to chat and it isn't just the items set on card tables that get to tell the stories.
