Shooting the Breeze - Oct. 1

Changing from summer swelter to cooler weather is so much more than just pumpkin spice lattes and digging out last winter’s hoodies. It’s garage sale time, folks.

This weekend, Jefferson is hosting its city wide rummage sale Friday, Oct 2-Sunday, Oct. 4. Maps of listed sales will be available Thursday, Oct. 1 after 3 p.m. at 115 S. Polk St. in Jefferson. The Jefferson Flea Market will also be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at 213 W. Broadway in Jefferson.

Next weekend, the seven-city Treasure Trails takes place in Pittsburg, Mount Pleasant, Naples, Omaha, Lone Star, Hughes Springs and Avinger and any point in between that wants to participate. Maps for each city should be available at the city hall or chamber of commerce for each town.

Now in most of your larger cities, you can hit the same number of garage sales on any given weekend as one of these two upcoming weekends – you’re looking at 20-30 on a good weekend in Longview alone. However, for us small town dwellers, these city-wide and several-city-wide sales offer a chance to stay close to home and still get the bang for our buck as driving out of town.

Plus you have a better chance of finding one of your neighbors on your route and it’s always fun to see what they’ve been hiding in the attic. Am I right? It’s said that you can tell more about a person by the things they choose to throw away than the things they choose to keep.

I’d like to add a little to that and say you can also tell a lot about a person by the things they’re selling simply because they own these things. At one time, every item carelessly strewn on an outdoor table had a place inside this person’s home.

I go to garage sales most every weekend and have since I was a kid. My dad and I go together and on years when we didn’t get to be together physically, we’d call each other at our respective sales to talk about our finds.

Over the years I’ve seen many things. Scary things. Things I can’t talk about because this is a family column.

Everyone always asks me what the strangest thing I’ve seen or bought is. I have a simple, though cringe-worthy answer – teeth. Not only have I purchased teeth from garage sales, but I’ve turned around and sold them on eBay.

When I bought the teeth, I didn’t actually know I had bought them until I was back home looking through the day’s treasures. I bought a big jar of buttons just like my grandma always kept. I was sifting through them looking for ones that I could cull out for future projects and a tiny alarm went off in my head telling me to look down before my brain and eyes could even register what I was holding.

It was a set of several teeth, some human, some part of a bridge – all covered or connected by gold. I started to throw them away because…teeth, man…gross. But then I figured if it’s gold and can be melted down then maybe it’s worth something. I was right. I pocketed $60 for future garage sale teeth purchases.

I’ve also purchased several deer mounts. I have no idea why someone would pay hundreds to have a deer head mounted and then turn around and sell them for $8, but I’ve seen it happen time and again. I have two big stags on my wall and I can honestly say I hunted them. Not when they were alive, but it still counts. Their names are Walter and Donny and I dress them up around the holidays. Still looking for The Dude. Maybe one day. If you don’t understand those references, go watch “The Big Lebowski.”

My favorite sales are ones where the person obviously had a certain style – regardless of what they style was. Seeing someone be able to put together these sundry items that obviously match in one way or another is a fascinating bit of anthropology you can enjoy on any given Saturday. My dad collects watches and clocks. I collect Fire King coffee mugs, some of which are on display at The Pittsburg Gazette. My one caution on collections is this – don’t collect easy-to-find items.

If you decide to collect shot glasses or keychains, for instance, your collection is going to get bigger than your storage area real quick. It’s more fun to find an item when it’s a little rare, anyway.

I chose something that had meaning for me because my granddaddy drank his coffee out of white D-handle Fire King mugs. I’ve been gathering these mugs for more than 10 years and I still only own about 30 of them, so that’s a pretty good pace.

If you have a collection, I’d love to know what it is. Send me photos of what’s near and dear to your heart.

I hope to see some or all of you out and about over these next few weekends hunting for treasures and scoring some deals. I can’t wait to see what the next weird find is. Happy hunting, y’all.