This weekend was the 21st annual World's Longest Yard Sale. Our paper ran this article on it. Alex had seen a show on HGTV describing the sale and could not wait to go.
On Thursday, the first day of the sale we didn't make it until the afternoon. At the very first stop, Max found a guitar, something he has really been wanting. The folks wouldn't come down on price, and Max didn't have enough money, so we walked away.
Next we found a stall with a bunch of wigs. We had a blast trying them all on. We hit a few more places, but it was starting to rain, so many of the stalls were closing down.
Alex was looking for a medieval-looking sword for his room, but kept wanting to buy all sorts of trinkets. He kept getting more and more despondent when I reminded him he wanted to save his money in case we found a sword. As we finished the day, everybody wanted to go back on Friday. Everybody except Alex. He was really upset. He loves bargaining with people and talking "stuff". As we talked further, I asked him if he wanted to just put the sword thing on hold and spend his money on anything he wanted. He immediately brightened up and decided that he was in for some serious yard-sale-ing!
We got a really early start on Friday and hit the guitar place again, hoping they'd come down a little. Max had $5 more to add to his offer. As we walked up, an older man was about to buy the guitar. I mentioned to him that we had seen it yesterday, and that Max had gone home to get more money. He agreed to let Max buy it. Max was on top of the world!
The rest of the day was so much fun, with many discussions about bargaining, the power of walking away, and all the cool things we came across. Alex immediately found something he wanted to buy and offered $8 for a hand-painted Japanese picture. When the woman was describing where she got it and who painted it, Alex said, "Since it's so special, I'll give you $9 for it." Only Alex! She would only take the $8 he originally offered, and he walked away very happy.
When we went on Sunday, the last day of the sale, Madeline and crew joined us. We couldn't resist the wig place. We played some more and thought about our costumes for the masquerade ball at the Live and Learn Conference. We all found treasures and came home tired and happy. We ended the day celebrating Gillan's 11th birthday. We can't wait for next year!
2 comments:
What great pictures! I did not recognize my self. Scary. Did Jesse leave his tie there? We forgot about it until we saw the picture.
Thank you again for making Gillen's birthday eve so special! You rule.
Oh wow! That looks awesome!! I love yard-sale-ing, there are so many cool things you can find just laying around... I probably got the love of it from my grandma. You should see her: whether it be yard sale or garage sale, she'll find precious knick-knacks everywhere.
I'm glad you guys had such a great time! You look fantastic in the wigs. ;)
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