Countrywood Garage Sale Roundup

Good day, bookies. Stand by for book news.

The Countrywood Garage Sale wrapped up yesterday with crowds and sales much down from previous years. I had promised photos but none came out. It was that kind of day.

Rain early made everything start late. Crowds were thinner than usual, possibly due to the weather, maybe the economy, more likely due to the news the previous night. Some very unpleasant woman representing the Countrywood Home Owner's Association was on the news blasting the sale. Why would anyone oppose a neighborhood event that promotes neighbors meeting neighbors? Heck if I know. About the only thing that I could tell from the venom she was spewing was that people were having fun without her approval. Very sad.

As for me, while I didn't buy much and sold less, the sale still did exactly what it was originally intended to do; it let me meet the neighbors. Indeed, I met a nice lady (whom I first met at last year's sale) and her husband who were interested in some alternate selling site ideas of mine, and I got to handle his authentic 9 mm holster from a WW2 era German Luger. (And later, half a subdivision from that house, I met the man who bought the holster! Talk about synchronicity) I met two friends from a long, long time ago, when I made my living selling audio gear, and come to find out they are both in the publishing/writing field. One is Allan Gilbreath, author of the 'Galen' series of novels. Before that moment I had never associated my old sales companion and the talented writer. Who knew? Cards were exchanged, who knows what might come of that. I met a new neighbor who had just moved in down the cove, said hi to others.

I was here when the first Countrywood garage sale happened and this was the whole point: meet your neighbors, make some friends, maybe make a buck or two. Feel like you are part of a bigger community. Everyone today bemoans that we no longer know the people living beside us the way our parents did, and that's true. But when someone devises a mechanism to correct that, there will always be the sad few who curl their lip and shake their head in disapproval. How sad that the current crop of home owner's association spokespeople are more interested in being controlling than being neighborly. The lady on TV was a prime example. She's probably a very nice lady to those who know her, probably the world's greatest mom, probably brings cupcakes to her kid's school for birthdays and all the other great stuff moms and dads do.