Is it a Garage or Garbage Sale?

I've never been too familiar with garage sales. Nor have they interested me. Not until one day when my co-worker walked in with a slightly used radio with a cassette deck, CD player and a mini TV to boot. And to top it all off the owner left a Luther Vandross CD in it. All of this for the bargain basement price of $10 dollars.

My co-worker continued to boast about all of the finds she'd made over the years. She felt she hit the mother load.

My mouth began to salivate with all the possibilities of treasures to be had. With much anticipation I tossed and turned in my bed all week, waiting for the golden garage day, Saturday morning.

With my cup of hot chocolate in hand I began to strategize. My strategy was to only hit garage sales in the best neighborhoods in Charlotte. I scoured neighborhoods such as Ballantyne, South Park, Piper Glen and the prime parts of Providence Road.

But to my dismay I found out the hard way that all that glitters ain't gold. I was horrified at what some of these garage sellers were selling. There were broken lamps, scuffed up shoes, torn clothing, one legged dolls, one eyed stuffed animals and the list goes on.

The best find I ever came across at a garage sale was a love seat and chair in excellent condition. It was a beautiful color and had plump sturdy pillow cushions. I bought if for my sunroom.

On one occasion I went to a garage sale of a Charlotte Bobcat player. I purchased a vacuum cleaner for $10 dollars for my cleaning business. When I returned home and tried it out it emitted an order similar to the smell of feet that we couldn't get rid of.

Another garage sale I attended the family invited us into their home to take a look around. As soon as we entered the stench slapped us in the face turning us all the way around. There were clothes everywhere, boxes of things that I didn't care to look into. And cats on top of everything, need I say more?

As we continued to explore additional garage sales we started a system. We would drive by the garage sale as slowly as we could. If we couldn't see anything from the street then one of us had to get out of the car and quickly assess the situation.

That's when we came up with the phrase "garbage sale." You would cough and quickly mutter under your breath "garbage sale." Once you heard the phrase "garbage sale," you turned around, got back in the car and we sped off.

In my quest, I learned that one mans' garbage is another man's treasure. And some men's garbage just needs to be thrown away.