Other People's Stuff

Lately, the yard sales in our area have yielded more good bargains for the adults than for Stanley. There was a five-dollar video camera (the Hi-8 kind) which works just fine; a hedge trimmer for Chuck; eighties cassette tapes for a quarter; and a backpack that holds a laptop from a Mac Geek who was a spitting image of Jeffrey Lebowski, a.k.a. The Dude.

We recently attended two sales of Other People's Stuff put together by local Catholic churches. The setup was about the same--at each, members of the congregation emptied their houses of stuff, others organized it, and a small but committed number came to collect the dough on a Saturday morning. The sales were set up in the gym/eating area, which was a little too small, contributing to a frenzied atmosphere (had to take turns looking at the goods) and making it difficult to navigate with a big stroller carrying the prince.

But the stroller also draws the loving attention of strangers who are usually women and usually mothers or grandmothers. There's a pattern to the patter--how old? so cute! your first?--but occasionally the unusual or surprising happens. Earlier, at one of the church sales in the gymnasium, I met a grandmother-of-several, who, upon winning the $25 grocery store raffle (for which I'd purchased $2 in losing tickets) promptly presented her winnings to me and told me to use it for diapers. Talk about random acts of kindness. Yesterday at a sale a mother-of-one stood up and came out from behind her table to gaze at the boy while I shuffled through some frames. After we went through the pattern of questions and answers, she said Stanley was beautiful and added, "All parents think their babies are cute, but some babies are ugly. Your baby really is cute." I knew what she meant and of course I agree he's perfect in every way, but he's not even six weeks, and he's still kind of scrunchy.