What a weekend!

Having just recently moved from St. Paul to Woodbury, I was a little unprepared for the chaos surrounding the Woodbury Lions Garage Sale.

Fellow residents began warning me about what the next few days were going to be like, which I took with a grain of salt. I mean in St. Paul, people don't have garage sales, they have yard sales and the turnout isn't anything to write home about.

When I pulled out of my driveway on Thursday morning to take my kids to school, my street was already getting busy with cars. And it was only going to get worse as the day progressed. I quickly found that cars were speeding through, parking in front of neighbors driveways, and either parking on the grass or half sticking out into the street. I watched as people raced from garage to garage looking for the "ultimate" deal. I began to get annoyed with the people meandering across the street as I am coming closer to them in my over-sized SUV. If that were me, I would be high tailing it to move out of the way.

This weekend seemed to have caused some people to lose their reasoning skills. I did decide to drive through some other neighborhoods just to see what they had to offer, but nothing that I was interested in, which is good because my husband deplores garage sales. 

Since we had recently moved, we didn't have much to sell and what few items we did have I was able to put in a friend's sale. I anxiously awaited the phone call or text saying someone wanted to buy our Bob Ironman Stroller or our Co Sleeper. But nothing on the first day. By the second day I relaxed a little and found out that by the end of that day two of my items sold! I made $23. Not much but its better than nothing, that will get me a quarter tank of gas, if I'm lucky! 

On Saturday I noticed that the traffic had slowed down quite a bit. Our neighbors son decided to drum up some activity by donning a chicken suit. Yes, a full bright lemon yellow chicken suit. Cars stopped, cars honked, people got out and they bought things. About $200 worth of things just because of the chicken! So there is something to be said for the silly, gimmicky things that businesses do to attract customers. 

I am glad the sales are over, who knows maybe next year we will participate, or maybe not!