In Liberty County, as in other nearby counties, you’ll find many yard sales around the first and middle of the month, likely scheduled to coincide with paydays.Being a military community, the Liberty County area seems to have more yard sales than less transient communities.People are always moving in or leaving and getting rid of extra things and clothes their families have outgrown.But, as they say, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure!”
Last Saturday, Oct. 17, was the first cool, brisk morning we’ve had this fall. I was up early, as usual, writing out my grocery list on the corner of the sale paper as I ate breakfast. My husband asked if I was going to stop at any yard sales. Why, of course, there were three right on my way to town and it would be foolish not to stop. There is absolutely nothing that I need, but I never know when I may find an unexpected treasure.
The first sale I stopped at had a bunch of baby items, so I didn’t buy anything. The second sale had some very unusual items. I selected a few and the hostess had a box of freebies. I found a nice, large wind chime, which I hung in our oak tree. I love to hear chimes when the wind blows.
I stopped at the third sale and the hosts had just about sold everything. The sale had been going on for three days and the lady I spoke with said she had lowered her prices on almost everything to get rid of it. I sorted through some beautiful and unusual antique saucers and picked up an old, worn out white enamel pan with a tiny red rim around it, like one my mama used in the kitchen when I was a child.
Then, I came to another weakness of mine — books. I found a tiny book full of cut-out recipes. Somoene had clipped these recipes for pickles, relishes and jellies and glued them to the pages of an old almanac distributed by the Ford Company in 1935. One pickle recipe called for 10 cents worth of brown sugar and 10 cents worth of saccharin powder.One page that hadn’t been covered with recipes listed household hints. For chapped hands, it said mixing cornmeal with vinegar and coating your hands would make them smooth and fresh.
To kill weeds or grass growing between the bricks on your walkway, the book said to use some old oil from the crankcase of your Ford V-8 car or truck. Pour it on the weeds and soon they will die and the oil will disappear.All those good recipes and information for just a quarter!
I saw another book about writing and told the lady that I enjoyed writing. She said she did as well. We talked about the things we’ve written and why we penned them. The lady said she’s writing about her life growing up in Nebraska before and during the Great Depression. Her family lost everything and had to travel, camping alongside the road on the way to live with some more fortunate relatives in Tennessee.
We both said we’d written articles and stories to let our children know about the times we grew up in. Children think we are making up stories when we tell them how we watched as our homes were first wired with electricity. They simply cannot comprehend how we lived without electricity — and especially without computers and cell phones.
When I finished shopping, the lady holding the sale gave me two large bags of Reader’s Digest condensed books to donate to someone who would read them.As she helped me load them into my car, she told me how she had lost her 15-year-old-son many years ago when he was electrocuted by a power line. I asked her how a parent overcomes such a tragedy.
The lady replied, “You never forget the child, but you have a choice of attitudes you can take. You can choose to accept the sad things in life, and go forward or remain bitter the rest of your life.We chose to thank God for the 15 years we were blessed to have our son.Attitude — that is what makes the difference in people’s lives. You may not be able to change the circumstances, but you are able to select your attitude and how you will react to what life tosses your way.”
As I drove off, I knew that I had found my treasure for the day. It was not the few material items I purchased, but the conversation I had with a lady who is filled with wisdom and a great attitude for living, even though life threw her a few lemons.
Last Saturday, Oct. 17, was the first cool, brisk morning we’ve had this fall. I was up early, as usual, writing out my grocery list on the corner of the sale paper as I ate breakfast. My husband asked if I was going to stop at any yard sales. Why, of course, there were three right on my way to town and it would be foolish not to stop. There is absolutely nothing that I need, but I never know when I may find an unexpected treasure.
The first sale I stopped at had a bunch of baby items, so I didn’t buy anything. The second sale had some very unusual items. I selected a few and the hostess had a box of freebies. I found a nice, large wind chime, which I hung in our oak tree. I love to hear chimes when the wind blows.
I stopped at the third sale and the hosts had just about sold everything. The sale had been going on for three days and the lady I spoke with said she had lowered her prices on almost everything to get rid of it. I sorted through some beautiful and unusual antique saucers and picked up an old, worn out white enamel pan with a tiny red rim around it, like one my mama used in the kitchen when I was a child.
Then, I came to another weakness of mine — books. I found a tiny book full of cut-out recipes. Somoene had clipped these recipes for pickles, relishes and jellies and glued them to the pages of an old almanac distributed by the Ford Company in 1935. One pickle recipe called for 10 cents worth of brown sugar and 10 cents worth of saccharin powder.One page that hadn’t been covered with recipes listed household hints. For chapped hands, it said mixing cornmeal with vinegar and coating your hands would make them smooth and fresh.
To kill weeds or grass growing between the bricks on your walkway, the book said to use some old oil from the crankcase of your Ford V-8 car or truck. Pour it on the weeds and soon they will die and the oil will disappear.All those good recipes and information for just a quarter!
I saw another book about writing and told the lady that I enjoyed writing. She said she did as well. We talked about the things we’ve written and why we penned them. The lady said she’s writing about her life growing up in Nebraska before and during the Great Depression. Her family lost everything and had to travel, camping alongside the road on the way to live with some more fortunate relatives in Tennessee.
We both said we’d written articles and stories to let our children know about the times we grew up in. Children think we are making up stories when we tell them how we watched as our homes were first wired with electricity. They simply cannot comprehend how we lived without electricity — and especially without computers and cell phones.
When I finished shopping, the lady holding the sale gave me two large bags of Reader’s Digest condensed books to donate to someone who would read them.As she helped me load them into my car, she told me how she had lost her 15-year-old-son many years ago when he was electrocuted by a power line. I asked her how a parent overcomes such a tragedy.
The lady replied, “You never forget the child, but you have a choice of attitudes you can take. You can choose to accept the sad things in life, and go forward or remain bitter the rest of your life.We chose to thank God for the 15 years we were blessed to have our son.Attitude — that is what makes the difference in people’s lives. You may not be able to change the circumstances, but you are able to select your attitude and how you will react to what life tosses your way.”
As I drove off, I knew that I had found my treasure for the day. It was not the few material items I purchased, but the conversation I had with a lady who is filled with wisdom and a great attitude for living, even though life threw her a few lemons.