4Sale

George returned to pick up the metal cabinet. The owners of the house had left it in the basement when we bought the house. Then he started to look at my speakers, my old surround sound system: there were five speakers, a center, two rear and two front. The day before, we had talked fishing. Now, he presented some flies he had tied for me: big nymphs with black chenille and orange undersides. I started to explain how the amplifier worked and how to hook up all those speakers so they worked.

Then Sharp showed up. George had already pulled up to the garage. Sharp parked his big 4x4 truck in the driveway. He had his football-playing son with him. Three other ladies were buying glassware, jewelry and knick knacks. George decided to buy all the surround sound speaks, the amplifier AND the big Merlin, floor-standing speakers. I told him he would really be thumping with the 125 watts per channel Pioneer. He pulled his "mad money"from his wallet.

We went down to the basement. The dryer was still going. The washer had leaked water all over the floor where I had disconnected the hoses. "Sorry, I wanted to get one more load of wash done before I let these go." "That's good advertising. Now I know they work," said Sharp. His son started moving the washer while I took the laundry out of the dryer. George couldn't leave anyway because Sharp had blocked him in the driveway, so he also came down to help. As we pushed and tugged the washer and dryer from the basement to the truck bed, we talked about Las Vegas and Buicks.

It was a good old-fashioned garage sale. We kept lowering our prices until virtually everything found a home. I found this process very satisfying. I did not want to part with many of these items and considered them valuable. Now, I knew the people that were taking my household goods and personal effects. I felt satisfied because they were happy to have them, they were new and different for them and would make their lives a little more comfortable. I was surprised how easy the process was and how fun it was to meet all these people.