Community sales gone mild 9/29/07

For some reason whenever there are community wide yard sale event I feel compelled to go and spend several hours perusing an endless collection of small meager sales. I don’t know why this is. I should know better. There is seldom anything notable. My defense of these events is that they are not just a conglomeration of small tedious yard sales but a true community event that brings neighbors together. Community event yes but yard sale affection ado and musician James Kelly put it this way when he commented in Facebook “..."...these big organized neighborhood yard sales are set up by yuppies trying to get rid of their useless unwanted wedding gifts, and TONS of baby stuff. A waste of time...".
Today my own neighborhood of Lake Claire claimed to have 75 sales (I did not bother to count them) and neighboring Druid Hills also had a similar event as well.

This was the first highly organized event of this kind for Lake Claire. I like my neighborhood; it’s a locale of aging bohemians mixed with upscale younger families. We have the lots of green space ranging from Frazier Forest, several city parks and the Community Land Trust. There is a sound to my neighborhood, from front porch I can hear aging hippie bands playing Doobie Brothers tune, the staccato endless rhythm of drum circles, the lonesome cries of train whistles and the call of “table for party of six” outside the Flying Biscuit. It’s a pleasant place to live. This weekend I wish the 75 yard sales were as pleasant as the sounds of my neighborhood.
I think I started off the wrong way. Atlanta had just gotten over days of torrential flooding rains and the Air was densely humid and warm. Warmer and more humid than I was prepared for when I left the house thinking I could cover the event on bicycle. After one block of ho hum sales I was drenched in sweat and spending more time getting on and off the bike to make it worthwhile. In the first five sales that I visited on bike I did not see one memorable thing worth photographing. Not wanting this to be more painful then it needed to be I retreated to the comfort of my Camry and cruised to the sales with the air conditioning blasting. The more I toured the area the more James Kelly’s words range true. Except that the toys far outnumbered the wedding presents. Most sales were so meager they dropped from my memory shortly after I left the premises. But while the goods were nondescript the multitudes of lemonade stands were notable. One on my street was made to resemble a tree others were simpler. But all had child-crafted charm and did offer cooling refreshment on this humid morning or boring sales.
Some photos depicting what I encountered.


Is the ladder part of the water slide?





















This is from a little know Christian sect that has a nativity sans Holy Family.


















Lincoln and handgun together again!






















Lemonade stand with canine host.






















Wetsuit and Impala for sale.
















Yuppie humor?

















Druid hills was not much better. I’ve documented this annual event several times in the past five years but this year after the countless sales in Lake Claire my energy was drained. This was made worse since the first two sales I attempted were at the top of steep driveways that were nearly a quarter mile long. In addition by the time I reached most of the Druid Hills sales all the interesting stuff had been taken away. But I was happy to see the house with the two furbies once again and the seller remembered me from past visits. She said she’s considering selling the ugly talking toys on eBay.














Children's costumes in the Druid Hill
























They're ugly, they talk and you can't sell them - Furbies.