I was going through my parents’ photo boxes the other day and found pictures of my mother’s first yard sale, circa 1974 or ’75. She and a friend combined forces for one of the biggest, badest yard sales ever. They set the bar for all future yard sales.
People were hungry for bargains then, too. As I remember, these pictures were not taken at the height of the crowd. The place was, at one point, covered in people!
Some of those people became lifelong yard sale goers. Some of those people I still see at local yard sales today. Sadly, many have passed on. They are missed.
I still occasionally see the young lady looking at the camera. The lady on the right with her back to us is, I believe, my aunt who passed away many years ago. The back of the other lady looks familiar, but I’m not sure who she is. I remember several people there who have since become yard sale friends.
Oh, how I wish I could turn back time and visit with those people again. And I wish I could save some of that junk!
I spy with my little eye a striped dress I remember of my mother’s hanging on the rack. And oh, my. What is that checked thing in the lower left hand corner?? Um….. Hmmm… Cute? Ugly? I wonder? I do wish the pictures were clearer so we could see just what was there.
Yard sales weren’t a happening thing locally until after this sale. There would be the occasional club tag sale, but in general, people didn’t put their junk in their front yard for the world to see. For anyone who wanted to hand over their quarters to dig through. We sorta claimed to have the first, local, personal yard sale, but that’s not quite true. Another lady in town claimed it, but I know, or think I know, that she had hers after we had ours. Isn’t that a funny thing to get your dander up about?
The first personal sale held locally that I know of, not from personal experience, mind you. This was waaayyyy before my time, was in the 1930s. That sign hanging on the box, lower right, says “Rummage Sale.” I actually have a better, clearer picture of this somewhere, but dang-it. I put it up for safe keeping and can’t find it now.
Now that’s a sale I’d love to go back in time and visit!
