The hassled, red-faced man cruising the neighborhood Saturday morning in the pickup truck is good ol’ Bert, of course. It’s a Saturday in summer, which means only one thing in our part of the country – yard sales. That’s why the charming lady riding next to him, his wife, Maizie, was wearing a big grin.
“There’s one Bert,” she said. “On the right. Pull over and park.”
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| Not exactly Maizie’s, but Close |
It took Maizie almost 20 minutes to work her way up the driveway. There were three boxes of paperback books to go through first, then a shelf full of various knobs.
After getting two paperback books that she hadn’t read in several years, there was a little stack of doilies to go through.
“We don’t need doilies,” Bert said.
“Hush!” said Maizie. “People will think you aren’t friendly.”
Then she spotted the lamp.
It was only five bucks, and it was a golden brown like a big fat vase and had a nice amber shade on it.
“Oh Bert,” Maizie said. “It’s a lot like the one we used to have. Remember that one? It used to sit on the end table closest to the door to your den. I really miss that lamp. Let’s get this one, Bert. It’ll remind us of the one we used to have, OK?”
“It is kinda nice,” Bert said.
Maizie bought it and Bert loaded it in the pickup, along with the new ironing board, game cartridge for the grandkids, plant pots for the geraniums, dishes for Maizie’s dish collection, a serving spoon holder from Niagara Falls, and a five-gallon milk can to put magazines on.
When they got home and were unloading, Bert noticed Maizie’s initials on the bottom of the new table lamp. Didn’t the Johnson’s buy this from them in their yard sale about 10 years ago?
Oh well, nothing shines like a new lamp, and Bert might be tired of yard saling, but he is still gentleman enough not to spoil it for Maizie.
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Brought to you by the new book Home Country ,at www.slimrandles.com
HA! That’s funny, and I’ve seen exactly that sort of thing happen before. Amateur radio operators have what we call hamfests, which is like a giant flea market of amateur radio equipment, most new and used. One fella was looking through the gear and told his lady friend that the old rig there was just like the one he’d built back in the ’60s. “Except,” he said, “I put my callsign here inside.” He opened the top, and you guessed it, there was his old callsign… four decades and several states later… there was the rig he built years ago. Needless to say, the rig went home with him.
Great stories! It’s funny how things come back around to you sometimes. 🙂
I’ll add one to the collection: My roommate came in one day, wearing a pair of my jeans. I told her it was okay, but why? She said they were HER jeans, that she’d just bought at Goodwill. Then I remembered I had donated them to a church clothes closet on the other side of town.
Marian Allen
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Very cute. I loved the way the story circled around.
Funny how life can be! I love yard sales, garage sales, rummage sales. It’s such fun to see what I can find.
Really cute lamp!
Morgan Mandel
I like the lamp, too Morgan. Maybe I can find one at a yard sale. LOL
Marian and Susan, thanks for sharing your stories. As Helen said, it is fun to see how things come full circle.
Haha! Funny story!