R. O. pre-K.

So we had a yard/garage sale yesterday. This gave us a chance to go through all of our stuff to try and find a good home for all the things we were no longer using. The last time we did this was in Brooklyn, but since no one has a front yard there, everyone calls them “stoop sales”.

It’s funny, there’s a whole subculture of folks who spend their weekends going from yard to yard in search of stuff to buy. Whether they get it for themselves or just to resell I can’t say, but unfortunately some of them can be a bit grumpy about the whole thing, complaining about what might be wrong with what you are getting rid of. For example, one gentleman was looking at a Scrabble set we had (a nice one too, still with all the pieces) and focused on how the box was slightly damaged. Last time I checked, most people play with the actual games and not the boxes! Luckily, a young girl came by later and was very excited about getting it to replace her old set at home (which was missing some pieces). Another funny bit was a box of CDs I had, about 50 in all. It was a mishmash of stuff I had accumulated over the years that were either duplicates, extra stuff from places I worked, or music I just never really listened to. I was thinking it would be lucky to sell a handful of them, but someone came along, looked through them all and liked them so much that he bought the whole box! After talking to him a bit, it turned out he was a dad who used to be in a band and had started writing some kids music himself. It was nice to hear there are other parents out there like us who are disappointed with what’s being put out there for the little ones these days. As I was talking to him, both my wife and daughter poked me and said “tell him about the blog!”

All in all it was a fun day; we got to hang out in the nice weather, meet some new people, chat with a few of our neighbors, and clear some space in our house so we can go fill it with stuff we find at yard sales!

“Rag and Bone” by the White Stripes, 2007
From the album Icky Thump
“Rag and Bone” lyrics

The first time I heard this, it immediately became one of my favorite White Stripe songs. Not only does it have a bit of a funky groove, it also has some playful chatter from Meg and Jack as they try to convince someone to let them take away unwanted items. The term “rag and bone” refers to people who used to make their living going from house to house collecting old stuff that they could then recycle. Hopefully they weren’t as grouchy as our Scrabble man was!