Big Church Sale redux- 6/4/09

The Yard Sale, Decatur

This is a yearly sale that actually generates talk on the street. “Did you see that church with all the crap in front of it?”, “It looks like a 747 carrying the contents of 10 Goodwill stores crashed at a church in Decatur” or “The stuff goes on for miles”. People were calling me and sending me emails. When I heard church and yard full of junk I knew it was a reprise of the sale I had documented last summer. The sale is a delight not so much for the uniqueness of its goods but more for the massive volume of its clutter. It is a sight, a veritable field of clutter all scattered in a somewhat organized manner across several acres of grass.
Today I was just getting around again. I had had surgery only last week and was not moving to well but I decided that this event would be a good way for me to return to normalcy. While I mostly needed to protect my still bandaged abdomen I cautiously proceeded around the sale hoping no one would jostle my midsection with bedrails or curtain rods. I also found it challenging to bend and dip to inspect sundry goods and take proper photographs.
The sale this year had been dampered (as nearly all local sales for the past two months) by on and off rains showers. But while I was there the skies were clear. The organizers of the sale clad in “The Yard Sale” t- shirts had separated the contents by use and type much like in a large thrift store. Some things were more organized than others.
The art section (one of my favorite areas) had the work divided by size with tiny five-inch framed works on one end and sofa size art on the other. Among some of the better art work was a wonderful naïve painting of a duck family, a painting of a drooping palm tree, a print of a busty fraulein and a hand carved boy scout plaque.












All manner of holiday décor was represented here in no particular order. It appeared that at the start of the sale Xmas, Halloween, Easter items had been separated but by the actions of so many shoppers the seasons had been mixed into an tangled endless sea of holiday charm. I was most impressed by a highly degraded light up Nativity set that now presented the Holy family as a trio of lepers.












The technology section is notable for its excess in dated devices, most of which I fear will end up being recycled. In some ways it looked like the last stand of the cathode ray tubes as old TV and monitors were huddled together hoping to have once last chance at life and utility. The sale also demonstrates how disposable ink jet printers have become as these nearly covered the front steps of the sanctuary. Telephones, CPUs, cheap small speakers and masses of tangled cabled completed the mix.
Two surprising pleasant displays were the old baskets and luggage gathered underneath two large blooming magnolia tress. Nothing says the deep south more that a bunch of old crap piled under a magnolia. It was at this point that my doctor called me to come in and have my bandages removed. I would not see the rest of the sale but I felt I was now fully on the path to recovery.



Tangled mess of holiday decor.

















Duck painting.