Town-wide garage sale

On Saturday, May 1, Rensselaer held its annual Town-Wide Garage Sale. I spent an hour and a half checking them out and never did find any treasure that I could not live without. The weather was great--the rain that had come during the night was, according to the radar, in Ohio this morning, and it was partially sunny. As in past years, there were many sales.

If you have a baby, there is an endless supply of clothing and toys for your child. Many of the sales had little else except clothing. If I had to pick my favorite sale, it would have been one on Fleming that had little clothing for sale. They did have, however, a couple of motorcycles and also this antique wheel chair with a stuffed gorilla sitting in it.

I saw less odd stuff than I saw last year, but this sale of West Washington was as odd as anything last year. It had container after container of very large Christmas tree ornaments. They were much too big for most indoor trees.

The most creative sale sign was on the corner of College and Washington. This sign was hand painted and connected in the back with a board. My only reservation about it is the yellow--wouldn't bright blue or black be more noticeable from the highway?

If you want more of the flavor of this events, see the posts from last year: here, here, and here.

What do people do with all the things that do not sell? Some of it goes out on the curb for bulk pick-up week. (Last year I wrote about it here and here. Unless I see something special, I probably will not post on it this year.) Some of it goes to Jasper Junction. I stopped by their flea market in the old Schumacher Building (just east of Columbia Park) on Sunday. They have a new sign and also more stuff than they had the last time I was there.

 I talked to Howard Marshall about how things were going, and he told me that when Jasper Junction first opened, he did not know where they were going to get things to sell. So he printed up fliers and took them around to the sales during the City-Wide Garage Sale, and told the people that he would pick up whatever did not sell if they wanted him to. He was able to fill several box trucks and the items he collected formed a good part of what Jasper Junction had when they opened.

Also on Saturday was a scavenger hunt. I did not see anything about this until I read about it on the library blog. I passed by the Doghouse at about 10:00, and it did not seem like there were many participants.

Did you have any adventures at the town-wide garage sale this year?