Neighborhood Garage Sale

When Dave and I first moved to this area, long before we had kids, we saw some signs advertising for an upcoming neighborhood garage sale ~ involving 200+ families! Now, I love garage sales, but I had never heard of so many sales in one place at the same time and I couldn't wait to check it out. That Saturday, we drove to the neighborhood where we had seen the signs, and the closer we got, the worse the traffic got. We finally parked in a grassy field by some other cars and set off to see the sales.

Oh my goodness. It was unbelievable. Throngs of people filled the streets. There were garage sales at several houses on each street. There were people selling hotdogs, hamburgers, pop, coffee, bottled water, cotton candy, cookies, chips, doughnuts and candy. There were even port-a-potties! It was like a carnival. We stood there with our mouths open for a minute and then my husband said, "I have never seen anything like this in all my live-long days!" That was about 12 years ago and we have gone to this neighborhood sale almost every year since. Even my kids save their allowance and look forward to this particular day of garage sales.

Well, today was the day. Grant and Katie brought their money and looked for kid-sized bargains at each sale. I brought the old baby stroller along to hold our purchases. We shopped. We bought snacks. We saw friends. And, we even visited the port-a-potties. (At least Grant did. :-))

Many years ago, Dave saw the money-making potential at this event and now uses it to help high school students earn money to attend our ministry's summer conference. So, the kids and I shopped like crazy and Dave grilled 350 hotdogs and 175 hamburgers and we are all exhausted. :-) But, it was a great day. Now we can start saving for next year...

Grant waits in one of the port-a-potty lines. :-)

The "grill master" and students raising money. :-)

Katie and Grant at the end of a day at the sales.