Friday 2/10/06

New St. Decatur - “Estate Sale” (so called)

At times people play loose and fast with the jargon of yard sales. An estate sale as I have said before is the full sale of someone’s full estate. It should be the final divestment of what a man or woman has accumulated in their lifetime. Yet there are those who ignore the fundamentals of the nomenclature and declare so many other events as such for the express purpose of bringing in a crowd to buy their clutter. Such was the case this Friday at this sale in Decatur. The address was a tip off as New St. is a short passage lined with small businesses and restaurants. This sale not surprisingly was not in the decrepit manor of a deceased octogenarian but in the back warehouse of some small office building. When I entered it was obvious that the collected goods were not even from one single estate. It was simply a bunch of assorted junk that one might find in a sub par thrift store. I at first intended to simply turn and leave but since this is the off-season I decided to look around. This sale not only resembled a bad thrift store but an overpriced one as well. There was a vast assortment of junk but little of it was very interesting. Among the boring merchandise I found were shelves filled with mismatched track lights, garden implements, wicker furniture and several old sleeping bags. Of the few items that did catch my eyes were two large fish traps and an anchor. In the front office room were a number of framed prints and painting one pictured an Asian woman. In the same room I found an oversized cordless phone as well as some lamps and carpets. If anything this sale was notable for its lameness. Some disorder did perk my interest such as a sofa piled over with towels and blankets and two large overturned domed shaped dog houses did offer some welcome contrast to the otherwise bleak scene.
I bought nothing.