I haven’t lost my mind…yet…even though this sinus thing is kicking my butt.  Yesterday we had our massive, epic garage sale.  Chris and I got up at 5 am and had stuff all pulled out of the garage by the insane starting time of 7 am.  Who was the wise guy that started this sale at 7?   Guilty!  I was still on summer hours and it was pitch black outside and our outside lights here are a tad bit lackluster.  We did have 2 hardcore garage salers here picking through the stuff in the dark with a flashlight.  There was so much stuff.  Unbelievable.  We had Flower Alley.

We had stuff lined up 3/4’s of the way down the driveway.

Pictures don’t do it justice.  It was slow in the beginning because I guess the people in Lima KNOW that it is too dark outside at 7 am to look at stuff!   Then we got busy.  We were dealing left and right.  Grab a box and fill it up and make us an offer.  Stuff was moving. It was wonderful.

And then there were the characters who came. The ones who hit all of the garage sales.  There was the 80 year old former coal miner from West Virginia who used to hand shovel coal and made 75 cents a ton.  He told us all about rabbit tobacco and field blossom.  If you could smoke it he did.  He made pipes using acorns as the bowl and some grassy stuff that he took the pith out of for the stem.   I suspect that he may have smoked some of that wacky tobaccy at some point in his life but he wasn’t telling. Said he didn’t smoke any more—-had to quit cause it was killing him.

Then there was the Nips man. Oh how I loved the Nips man!!!  One guy who was a regular sale visitor who knew him told me he did not even know his real name–he was just the Nips man.  This guy was 90 years old and a character.  Said he gave Nips away for years and years and years.  Gave me a bunch!   His bride of 52 years, Martha, was right along side him and she was a character herself.  She folds dollar bills into fun creations.  She told me that between the 2 of them they had 103 grandchildren.   Good golly.  The Nips man (aka Bob) was a sweetie—you know how I love my little old men!   He told me that they also called him Cosmo because he Caused Mo Trouble…..sigh.  I can’t make this stuff up, folks!

Anyway, Nips man found 2 crisp dollar bills in the change I gave him from his purchase of a Big Bird clock so he gave them to Martha and the magic began.

She wanted to make a folded shirt for a guy (the other regular saler) who had lost his.  I am a really bad videographer but you get the idea.  And most importantly you hear the conversations.   Martha was worried in the beginning that Nips Man might leave without her—-if you listen closely you will hear him say “My car doesn’t go anywhere without her.  ” Now how sweet is that????

They were an adorable fun couple. She made me my own shirt which is in the change box with my sister in law so no picture of the completed project but these people definitely made my day!!!  Enjoy the badly filmed video!