It Begins

I had been warned about these people. Yard sale people. Not the kind who occasionally like to check out yard sales to look for bargains -- but the kind who live to plunder for the hope of finding that one special thing that they can take to the Antiques Roadshow. The ones who make it their life's mission.

Today, we encountered our first.

Our yard sale is tomorrow, and we are running a classified ad in the paper today and tomorrow. When Lee and I got home from work, I grabbed the mail out of the box, and noticed a white sheet of paper torn hastily from a notebook and stashed among the letters. Scribbled on it was a note, asking us to please call Sharon and listing a number.

I immediately thought this was one of 2 things: a Jehovah's Witness (they come by a lot), or a yard sale freak. But I could have been wrong. It could have been important. At the very least, it could be interesting.

So I called. Got a voicemail and declined to leave a message, but in the days of caller I.D. or *69, our phone rang shortly. Lee answered. It was Sharon. Wanting to come look at our yard sale items.

On our newspaper ad, we clearly stated, "No early birds." So why does she think that means no early birds, but day-before birds are just fine? Lee informed her that our yard sale would begin Saturday at 8 a.m. Do we have any antiques? Ummmm, no. We have junk. You can buy it at 8 a.m.

From the stories I've heard, we can expect people standing in our driveway at 6 a.m. tomorrow, offering to help us pull all the yard sale stuff out of the garage so they can pilfer as we go. I'll be annoyed, but hey, if they give me their money and take away my junk - I'll still be happy at the end of the day.