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It’s Saturday morning and the sun hasn’t appeared over the mountains to the east, but I know it’s time to get up, get dressed and head on out to the truck. A car just won’t do this weekend! No, I’m not going fishing. I’m armed with this morning’s newspaper with listings for Garage Sales. I need the truck in case I find something large that I just have to have. The ads in the paper help get me started in the right direction, but I’m an expert at finding them without help!

I’m a garage sale junkie. I can spot a garage or yard sale sign stuck on a stick at an intersection a block away. With several places to start, I head for the one closest to the house. My heart begins racing as I back the truck out of the driveway and roar down the road toward the first address in the paper.

Even before I get there I see several cars parked on the side of the road in front of the house. Darn! I’m not the first to view the riches laid out on the front lawn and drive. No doubt someone else has bought the good stuff before I even had a chance to see what was available!

It only takes a minute for me to know that this is not the yard sale I’m looking for. The folks holding this one are really proud of their junk. The prices they were asking were too high for me. Besides, I didn’t see anything I wanted. It’s time to look for another one!

Before I even get the truck moving, I spot a car pulling a small trailer loaded down with an old desk and a couple of mismatched lawn chairs, moving out of a side street just down the block. The garage sale tracker I am, I pulled down the same side road and saw a fluorescent orange sign a block ahead that I knew would say, "Yard Sale"

This time I found a driveway that was covered with tables filled with items of every size and description. This was no ordinary yard sale, but an estate sale. The people who had owned the home had passed away and their daughters were selling the house as well as practically everything in it.

There were tables in the garage that contained lawn and garden equipment and a sign directing everyone to go into the house and see what was for sale there. There was almost too much for the mind to comprehend. There had to be something I needed in all this!

Every room was filled with objects acquired over most of a lifetime. In some ways it was sad, but it seemed that the daughters had taken the things they wanted and were happy to sell everything else at ridiculously low prices. I bought a 4 CD set of romantic songs of the ’50’s and ’60’s performed by original artists that sell on TV for $39.95 per month for only 4 months. I paid $4 for this musical treasure.

There was much more to see, but by now the crowds had discovered the bargains that were being gobbled up by excited buyers. I was caught in the middle of a feeding frenzy as more and more people crowded into the house. A person could get hurt trying to buy a food processor or some other needless thing!

By now it was only 8:00 a.m.; still plenty of time to find another yard sale before all the good stuff was gone. Without consulting the newspaper, I simply began driving down the road looking for signs tacked to utility poles at intersections. I soon spotted a truck that had been parked next to me at the estate sale, so I followed him to the next sale. It’s amazing at how many of the same folks you meet weekend after weekend.

Garage sales are held for a multitude of reasons. Some folks try to make money when they hold a sale while others just want to get rid of the junk. I know a lady who has a huge yard sale every year and places no price tag on any of the items. When someone holds up something and asks the price, she simply tells them to name their price. She makes new friends each year this way. To her that is more precious than money.