Garage Sale

As I mentioned before, we have been spending the last few weekends going through things we had stored in our shed. We got rid of so many things! We had a “keep” pile, a “trash” pile, and a “garage sale” pile. To my surprise, a LOT of stuff went in the “trash” pile. And in the end, the “keep” pile was the smallest one! We found both junk (we have no idea why we kept it) and treasures (keepsakes we put away and forgot we had). I found old greeting cards (I was sure to keep all the ones from my Granny), some old writings of mine, pictures, toys from my childhood, etc. Ray found old drawings of his, high school keepsakes (gotta love those wine glasses from Senior Prom!), origami that an old girlfriend of his made for him with her own two hands (Can I get an “Oh, how sweet!”???), etc. I’m just giving Ray a hard time! ;) We ran across stuff from my past too – old letters, tackle earrings (A guy I dated liked to fish. So, he bought me earrings made with artificial fish bait…go ahead and laugh – I did! Laugh because he gave them to me – not because I wore them because I never did!), and pictures (We found so many pictures that had Ray and I both laughing…but it was one a photo of this particular guy I dated that really cracked us up!).

Let’s call the guy I had in a bright gold picture frame “Jacob”. Knowing I dated Jacob years after I graduated from high school, Ray said, “Why do you have a high school picture of him?" I said, "That was the most recent photo he could find of himself." Ray said, "Did you ask for it, or did he give it to you?" I said, "I don't remember - I think he gave it to me. Why?" He said, "Did he expect you to carry it around in your wallet?" I said, "I don't know...I never did." He said, "What do you want to do with it?" I said, "Take the picture out, throw it away, and let's sell the frame in the garage sale". He had a funny look on his face. I said, "What? Well, just throw the whole thing away. I don't want it!" He smiled. I said, "What?!" He said, "Let's sell it in the garage sale - with his picture in it!" I said, "What?! You're a weirdo!" He said, "No! Let's see if anyone will buy the frame with his picture in it!" I couldn't help but laugh at my husband...he's so cool!

Anyway, that's what we did - put Jacob in our garage sale. I must admit that I hated seeing his face time and time again as I walked our carport throughout the morning. Ray and I kept joking about how no one wanted to take Jacob home with them. After a few hours of working our garage sale in the heat and humidity, we started marking stuff down so we can finish earlier rather than later. We were at a point where we just wanted to make whatever we could. And more important - we just wanted to get rid of everything! All that stuff had become "junk" that was doing us no good. Whatever didn't sell would be donated or thrown away. Stuff that was $1 became 50 cents or lower. Jacob was already marked 25 cents, and still, no one wanted him! Really wanting to get rid of him, I marked him down to 10 cents! When Ray noticed it, he cracked up! I said, "What?! Jacob's gotta go!"

Finally, someone came to our table to be run up - with Jacob's picture in hand. I was smiling the entire time I was calling out prices to Ray. The woman's total came to like $7.10 (or something like that). That was the total to the penny, but since we were trying to get rid of things and I didn't think I had 90 cents in change to give back, I told the woman $7 was fine. We had been rounding off to the lower dollar for people for an hour or so but because Jacob's picture was involved, Ray and I had smiles that couldn't be wiped off. That woman must have thought we were crazy! When she walked away, I said, "Well, we got rid of Jacob...but it took us giving him away!" Ray laughed his butt off...I did too! I can't help but wonder if that person went home and found another picture to put in that frame right away or if Jacob will sit on their shelf or in a drawer until they have time to replace him! ;)

And as I said, I ran across many toys and dolls from my childhood. I got rid of a lot of them. They were in bad shape or just not that significant. I would've loved to have kept several of the important ones but didn't because they were not in good shape. One of the many dolls I had and loved so much was named "Baby Jane". She is a plastic doll that stands about 3 feet tall. When you lifted her right arm, her right leg would step forward. When you lifted her left arm, her left leg would step forward. It might sound creepy...and I guess it kinda looked creepy, but I loved making her walk. I received her from my mom and dad (wait - correction: Santa Claus) when I was 4 or 5 years old. She came with black curly hair, a checkered blue and white shirt that was sewn to blue pants, and white shoes. Somewhere, I have a picture of her sitting under the Christmas tree. What a special delivery from Santa she was! I wasn't much taller than her. She and I walked and walked and walked together. She got propped up to play with me. I'm sure we ate together and had some deep conversations. And on several occassions, she got to sleep in bed with me. How that worked, I have no idea because there wasn't anything soft about her...she is made of HARD plastic.

Like most kids, I played with my dolls and toys less and less as I got older. I got busy with the phone, friends, sleepovers, etc. Even though my priorities changed, my love for them did not. I refused to get rid of them. Many of them got to sleep on my made up bed every day while I was in school. The other ones got to hang out on a shelf in my closet with their friends. And eventually, some got stored away. My mom and I did it carefully...many were bagged and then boxed to increase the chances of them not getting smelly or nibbled on by a rodent. I just refused to get rid of them. Now that I think about it, they probably would've made some little girl or boy very happy, but they continued to make me happy by still belonging to me even though I didn't see them as often. Honestly, my dolls and toys weren't just possessions or "things" I enjoyed. I thought of them as my friends, if not my brothers and sisters. They were fun, and they helped me through some tough times. Anyway, Baby Jane, Monkey Mugs, Coco, Clarence, etc will always have a special place in my heart...and I planned on keeping them until they day I died.

The town in Louisiana I'm from has been known to flood. It flooded twice. The first flood we had (when I was only 4) destroyed just about everything we owned and left me very sick. But if I'm not mistaken, Baby Jane was stored very high in our shed so she was spared from the disgusting flood water. The next flood is what got her (when I was about 10 years old). After that,Baby Jane didn't move well and was very dirty. I should've let her go, but again, I refused to. She got wiped down and stored again. Several years later, I asked to have her sent to a doll hospital for her hair to be replaced. The short black curly hair she had became stinky (like an old moldy storage smell) and matted. I decided I'd like her to have long straight brown hair with thick bangs. The one outfit that fit her (the one that came with her) was ruined. So, for the longest time, she was naked. But when she got discharged from the hospital (with her new do), she went straight to my grandmother's house. My Maw-Maw made her a plaid dress with a lace trim.

After a month or so of great anticipation, I got to meet the NEW Baby Jane! I was so excited! I had missed her so much! But while I was happy to see her, I felt weird too. She wasn't the Baby Jane I knew. She looked nothing like she looked before. I kept thinking about the fun, curly haired girl with the playsuit on I once knew. This girl seemed very reserved, shy, and insecure. She still seemed sweet though, someone I could get to know and like a lot.

I seriously considered giving Baby Jane a new name, one that matched her new look. But I decided that would be too much change all at once. So, she remained Baby Jane. I don't know if keeping her name was a good decision or not. It might have been what kept my good friend, the original Baby Jane, in my mind and heart forever. Baby Jane and I were still good friends, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get too close to her. I got bored with her and had trouble accepting her for who she was. I constantly compared her to the old Baby Jane, the girl I missed so much. And as if that wasn't bad enough, she had permanent damage to her eyes from the flood. When we cleaned them, they only stayed clean for a short time. That chalky film from the flood kept reappearing.

When Ray first looked at her, he said how freaky she looked. Her eyes is what bothered him most, I think. To me, she never looked "freaky". She just looked sick, whereas the original Baby Jane was vibrant and healthy. When I looked at her, she reminded me of how sick I was after the first flood. I didn't want part with her forever, but again, she got stored - for many years this time. While stored, her long hair got very tangled and matted. I thought I might take her to a doll hospital again one day. She wasn't ever forgotten, and she definitley held a special place in my heart. But as an adult with limited space, I decided she was best kept stored. Then, Baby Jane and I met again when Ray and I went through our shed a few weekends ago. It had been a LONG time.

When I first looked at her, I felt more uncomfortable than anything. She was a friend I kept around because I felt bad for her - not because she was someone I couldn't do without. Ray didn't ask me if I wanted to keep her. He didn't think I would consider any other option. At this point in time, I don't have the money to send a doll to a hospital to be cleaned and cosmetically redone. And when I do have the money in the future, I won't want to spend it on her. I will want to spend it on Ray and I or Grayson. Besides, when I look at her, I felt sad - to the point of almost feel nauseous. I thought back to when I was four years old, sick, and in that hospital run by the state under not even up to standard care. I even had a brief flashback of the sights and sounds of that place. I knew I couldn't keep her anymore. She wasn't what she was. She had become someone else - someone I didn't care about...and a reminder of a rough time in my life. So, in the garage sale pile she went.

Like Jacob's picture, Baby Jane sat out in the heat for hours waiting to be picked up by someone - anyone. I watched kids go towards the boxes filled with toys and then walk away after getting a glimpse of Baby Jane. She was, without a doubt, unwanted - by me and kids in search of a friend. She got marked down to $1 or less...still, she sat. After some contemplation, I decided that she had been through enough. She wasn't accepted by me, was stored for years, was set out for garage sale, got looks of fright from kids, etc. That's when I picked her up and put her inside our enclosed porch out of everyone's sight. Then when the garage sale was over, we began the big long process of cleaning up. It took a while to clean off the carport. Then once that was done, we had to collect all the garage sale signs we had posted around the neighborhood.

When Ray opened the door leading into our porch, he saw Baby Jane sitting on the steps next to piles of old newspapers, garbage bags, and boxes. He said, "You decided to keep her?" I said, "No". He said, "What are you doing with her?" I said, "She goes in the trash". He stopped in his tracks and said, "Really?" I said, "Yep, she and I had some good times. I enjoyed her...and I thought she would make some little girl happy. BUT, it wasn't meant to be. So, yeah, put her in the garbage". Hesitant, Ray put her in the bag of trash. I gave him a look to let him know it was okay. Fortunately, the bag she was put into was full of newspaper. I wouldn't have been able to stand real garbage (food and such) on her. That would've really bothered me. It was a little weird, but I felt okay with doing that for the most part. She didn't want to be put back in storage. That is no way to live. She was a good friend when I was little, and she helped make many good memories. So, last Saturday, I said goodbye to a sweet girl that I came to know...my fun, happy friend was gone many years before.

In closing, I will say it felt good to get rid of all that stuff we didn't need or want. We were able to get rid of about 85% of what we put in the garage sale. Someone will find good use for things we just labeled as CRAP. What do they say? "One man's trash is another man's treasure", right? After the garage sale, I thought about all the stuff we went through. The things I put back to be stored are things I want to keep forever. And obviously, I got rid of things that didn't matter to me anymore. Throughout the entire day, Ray kept saying, "How did we collect all this CRAP?" It's so easy to do...many people do it. You just don't realize how MUCH you have. But when he asked that, I specifically thought about all my stuff. Why did I keep so much stuff, things that I can so easily get rid of now? The answer came to be instantly. I hung out to all that stuff to remind myself of the good times...because when I look back at the last 28 years, it is so easy to think about all the unhappy or unpleasant times. The sad truth is that those times were plentiful. But now that my life is so happy as I approach 30 years old with my husband and my son, I don't think much about the past. And when I do, it is easier to make peace with.

So, raise up your glass!!! Toast to the oldy moldy past being dismissed, to the happy giggly feel good now, and to the put on your sunglasses bright ass future!!! :)