Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Princeton Way - Druid Hills “Street Sale”

I have discussed in the past the pros and cons of neighborhood street wide sale. Quantitatively the sales a good but qualitatively they are often poor. They also do not offer good insight into the individuals having each sale but give one a feeling for the street as a whole. Princeton is a horseshoe shaped street that the goes from N. Decatur back to N.Decatur. One end is a very dangerous blind exit.
The first sale had the most stuff as the family was moving to Hawaii, they were selling a kayak, a copy of the Newlywed game and Scattergories, a set of bamboo steamers and a how to shag VHS tape.
Further down the street was a coffee and donut stand set up by two kids, one of the children chased after me like some Tijuana street child demanding that I buy a cup of coffee. The other child stood at the stand repeatedly shouting Donuts! Donuts! I bought a donut in hopes of shutting them up. The sale across the street from the unruly children had just a few children’s items. A few doors down just a dozen or so items were displayed in a yard. There a Korean mother and daughter bickered with a Druid hills matron over the price of picture frames in the shape of sunglasses.
Around the bend was a more interesting sale, here a woman was divesting her home of unwantedcat items and fly fishing décor. She told me her baby’s room was done in a fly-fishing motif but some of the shower gift just didn’t work in. She had a number of bizarre patriotic items such as an Uncle Sam and Statue of Liberty nutcrackers. These deformed looking creature looked as though they would crack the nuts of any immigrant who dared cross our borders. In addition she was selling an Uncle Sam as Santa Christmas ornament. Proclaiming “I want you”, this jingoistic Kris Kringle might threaten not to deliver your presents unless you fight in a foreign war.

Across the street was a less exciting sale that had lots of pillows and vaporizers.
The final sale of the street was not on Princeton but across busy N. Decatur. There a few things awaited in the yard for those quick enough to cross this deadly thoroughfare.I bought nothing.

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