These lazy, humid days of summer make us selective. It is too hot to do anything. Still, we are looking for something fun and easy to fire us up when the temperature fries our brains. We need more than a sign.
We need multiple signs, on the second Sunday in August, pointing the way to Garage Sale Day. Was C. Daniel Rhodes inspired by the same sense of those summer doldrums?
The Hoover, Alabama resident came up with Garage Sale Day in 2001. He favored the idea of consolidating all that buying and selling power into one nationwide effort. He may also have been inspired by the 127 Yard Sale.
Just picture it, 690 miles of highway between Alabama and Michigan dedicated to the garage sale concept. The 127 Yard Sale has been an August event since 1987 and it is a journey that must be taken to be understood. Veteran attendees of the event swear it is the ultimate garage sale experience, but it does put a dent in the gas budget.
If you aren’t driven to combine garage sales and road trips, enjoy the action at home. Celebrate by generating a little extra cash. Turn your driveway into a flea market, get ready to negotiate and keep plenty of small change on hand.
Or, you can take the opposite track and spend the day tracking down things you want but can’t afford. You might find a decent set of cookware. Your quest for inexpensive artwork could net a sketch worth $2 million. It happened in Las Vegas when a casual buyer found out his $5 purchase was an original Warhol. We don’t think it stayed in Vegas.
Why not forget about cash considerations? Just follow all those signs from sale to sale. You might buy something. You might not. The point is to enjoy Garage Sale Day. No one is too selective to pass on that for easy summer fun.