Junk Flows

Don't forget to check out the Light and Dark Lace Club!

That's what the Hubbo says.  What he buys at a garage sale today may be sold later on or donated to a thrift shop.  And then someone else buys it and so it travels.  I tolerate his garage sale mania because he likes it so much.  He has to pick up every single item and check it out.  With his odd engineering take on life, he has to figure out what it is and what it does.  So I get bored and more bored.  And then I start really looking at the junk and I've come to a conclusion here:  there are certain items that move from garage sale to garage sale.  They sneak onto the tables without the owners knowing about it.  You seen them all:  the junky dishes that people got at the supermarket, the really ugly salt and pepper shakers, the bubble-gum pink afghans that someone's granny crocheted. The detritus of life all on tables in driveways and in garages. 

It reminds me of an archeological dig, except that this stuff is visible and on tables.  Do you wonder if 1000 years from now, someone will find a garage sale covered by a millenium of rubble and dirt and wonder what it was all about.  When they pick up the supermarket giveaway dishes, will they say:  "Ah, an example of the local pottery culture"?  Will they think this stuff was our high culture?  What will they think of the 2 conductors batons that the Hubbo owns?  What if they find his Mau Mau hunting spear in the cellar?  Will they think we hunted game with these things.  Will ancient computer monitors become valuable collectors' items.  And what about that afghan that we love 'cause granny made it, but it is ugly beyond words.  What will they say about that?  "Hot pink was an important color for ceremonial blankets."

Will they exclaim with delight over the totally out-of-date chemistry textbooks that someone wants to sell.  The ones they used in college 20 years earlier?  What about the knick-knacks, and the sets of glasses, and the Christmas decorations that should never have been bought in the first place?

I'm not talking about genuine antiques here; just the stuff that appears on top of folding tables.  The stuff that makes the Hubbo drool in delight.  Did you ever notice that the same stuff can be found in many garage sales.  Does it travel at night?  When these things were new, was there a mad dash to buy every one of them? 

On the other hand, I have gotten a warping board, any number of great American Girl Doll goodies, brand-new towels in my colors, cookbooks that I don't ever use but have pretty pics,  so I'm not really ranting here.  I like the idea of buying and selling your tired junk.  I might like it even if you don't.  A few years ago, I bought the nicest hand-thrown mugs at a garage sale.  It had been a wedding present and they had never liked it.  So it flowed over to my house.

It used to be, in the BOD (bad old days), that you didn't go to garage sales unless you were really, really poor.  Now, everyone does it, and good for us.  Don't you love going to a good thrift shop and finding a clothing bargain?  You get to buy a one-of-a-kind sweater at an amazing price.  Or a pair of jeans that fit perfectly at a couple of bucks.  I'm pretty fussy about which thrift shops I'll go to.  We were once in one where I saw a couple of bugs dropping down from the ceiling.  Did I ever drag him out!  So fast he didn't know what hit him.  Nope, I'm talking about Junior League Thrift shops, and various consignment shops, and even Good Will is getting into better merchandise.

So let the junk flow where it will, and just think how the archeologists of the far-off future will try to figure it all out.

Still no knitting pics.  I'm knitting, I'm charting, I'm complaining, but you don't get to see any of it, 'cause the pieces are all surprises.

So, instead a bit of a kaleidoscope moment here.

jlabate - How could I ever forget this?  We drove up to MA on Fri in it.  Really, really great car!  Do you know that he bought the Madison house also at a garage sale?

Scrabblequeen - Way too early for me, too, but the Hubbo gets up around 5-5:30.  Also conks out around 8 PM.  So there you have it.

merrilymarylee - She sounds like a real character!