On Friday I pulled back the curtains in the kitchen, peered at the pouring rain, and called Helena. The rain wasn’t a surprise. Weather reports predicted our windy week would end wet. By silent agreement, discussions of weather were verboten. Lips sealed. But this was Friday, the first day of Helena’s epic three-day estate sale. I thought the rain deserved at least a mention. She answered the phone on the first ring.
“Hello!”
“Hey. So…the rain?”
“What rain?”
I watched three leaves ride a wave down my driveway and into the gutter. “Okay, so we’re ignoring the rain?”
“It’s not raining. And we have tarps.”
I thought about how hard Helena worked since August, surrounded day in and day out by memories and waste, and thought about what the next three days meant to her. “You’re right. It’s not raining. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Two hours later I was standing under an umbrella, tipping collected rain water out of a silver-plated chips and salsa bowl. It sounds miserable, but it was the opposite. Everything was peaceful and quiet, and I took advantage of my unusual circumstances. Adults are rarely allowed the luxury of standing in the rain for long periods of time without a destination in mind. Work, school, errands, kids–something is there to command your attention. Not me. My biggest job was to make sure no one stole the pots and pans.
Helena and I eventually met in the middle of the flooded driveway. She held my umbrella so I could wring out my bangs. We stood there for a while in the rain and watched strangers paw her parents’ possessions. I wiped the running mascara off my face as well as I could without a mirror and looked up at the pouring rain.
“Dude. Your mom is pissed.”
Then we laughed and made jokes and took pictures of our feet in 3″ of standing water.
I worked half day on Friday and all day (7:30-4:30) on Sunday. It was a 13 hour educational experience. My favorite! Some things I learned:
- Estate sales bring out the cray-cray people.
- A deluge won’t stop a bargain shopper.
- A bargain shopper will stand next to you in the rain, show you the weather forecast on their phone, and caution you that no one else will brave such hazardous conditions. Consequently, everything should be marked down 75% immediately. They will gladly take everything off your hands at this price, to be nice. The 50 other bargain shoppers milling about? Coincidence.
- If you tell a person who is haggling you on price that a portion of the proceeds from an estate sale goes to a charity benefiting under-resourced children, they will stop you mid-sentence and say, “Yeah, I like animals better than kids.”
- A family practice physician will wait until 50% off Sunday to buy a 20 year old Ralph Lauren denim jumper for $20. A manicurist will drop $1000 on clothing, shoes, and purses. A professional escort will spend even more, and then buy two 13×9 pyrex dishes to bake bar cookies.
- There is always one guy with a Camaro.
- Expect bargain shoppers to throw down, often over something random.
- Estate sales motive me to clean and reorganize.
- And, most important, people are generally good.
I had six friends who don’t really know Helena come out and show support by shopping and volunteering their time. Most of them drove an hour one way to get to her house. I was touched and overwhelmed by their generosity. The kindness wasn’t limited to my friends, either. The people who realized the decedents’ daughter was handling the sale immediately gentled their tone and were more respectful of the house and its contents. One woman came back with a condolence card. Many turned around and called their friends to help spread the word and the price haggling stopped.
The rain was nice. My friends are nice. People are nice. Not the girl who doesn’t care about the future of at risk children. May she trip on her new spectator pumps and land in a puddle of beloved animal excrement.
You are a good friend.
xx.
I love the photo–and I love how your ended the post!
You are a good friend . . .
Thank you! Helena took that with her iphone.
I love the story. Your friend is blessed to have you.
Great story Jules – I almost felt like I was there with you and your friend (which, given that I’m crazy about estate sales, I would loved to have been). :-)
I hope it was a success! You sound like a great friend, and I loved the last sentence of your post as well (call it Karma or something like that;)
It was, thank you! She’ll be having another one soon, since there is still much leftover and rooms full of stuff that didn’t even make it to the sale. She ran out of time and space at the end.
Bummed I didn’t know about it.
I would have loved to be there…(that is, if my daughter wasn’t hooked to an IV).
Andrea came, but I didn’t even bother telling you about it once I saw on FB how sick Frankie was. Don’t worry–that wasn’t the last of it. There was so much stuff that she couldn’t pull all of it out. She’s having another one in a couple of weeks.
me and you Rachel – we’re trekking out together for the next one okay? And Jules, I still can’t believe i tried on that dress in front of her. I still can’t!! I know I already said I was sorry and you assured me it was okay, but I still feel bad. please tell helena I’m not a jerk :) And tell her how much my kids love those stools.
I will. She’ll love that.
Hi,
I’ve been lurking since I found your site about a month ago through Small Notebook (I think…) Your 31 days project has inspired me, but I’ve been enjoying your ‘regular’ posts too.
I’m glad the sale went OK, despite the weather and everything. I loved your last line too. :)
I had to laugh at your previous post where you had to research Bowler hats. I hate not knowing something. Friends laugh at my stock of (random and fairly useless) general knowledge, but I just. Have. To. Know!
And my piece of relevant but useless information about Bowler hats is that one of the brothers who is credited with inventing the bowler (Thomas Bowler) lived in the next village to me, where my children go to school. http://www.deddington.org.uk/history/worldwars/personalstories/index/thebowlerbrothers
It sounds as though it was a weekend home for his family.
Just to complete your mental picture!
That is so neat! I also thought it was cool that bowler is a surname. I always assumed, wrongly, that it was because of the hat’s bowl shape.
I’ll say it again: you’re such a good friend. Thanks for the laugh. Now, I want a pair of cool rain boots.
You should get some! I love mine.
I want cool wally rain boots too!
SOMEONE has drawn to my attention my history of unnecessary purchases over the past, oh, decade of my life, and since it hardly ever rains in Colorado, I guess I will put off getting cool rain boots. I’ll keep my boring, Elinor Dashwood, snowboots. In unusual fashion for me, however, I did get a $5 Starbucks pumpkin spiced latte this morning. P-A-R-T-Y!
Helena’s boots are very nice and belonged to her mother. Mine are cheap and from Target! My friends laughed at me when I bought my rain boots since we get very little rain here, but they ended up being a handy purchase! I can’t believe how often I’ve used them! My boots are worn out now, and I think it’s time for them to retire. I’m going to get some new ones at the end of the season, and I think this time I’m going to get some really nice ones that will last a long time.
Here’s what I know-
A) You are a great friend
B) It was difficult to stay quiet when I really wanted to remind people that if you are going to haggle with me about paying 5 bucks to enter the high end room, you PROBABLY can’t afford the Faberge eggs for sale. Even though the 5 dollars is going to go toward the hat that is for sale for 6 dollars… that you asked for a discount on…
C) People are strange and I love that you can find the goodness in mankind because I am REALLY struggling.
D) I ask that anyone reading this please enter estate sales with a level of sensitivity. These are people’s things, and I get that . However, the things belonged to people that are missed and most things hold memories so we don’t need to know your opionion of said things. If you don’t have anything nice to say, please don’t come to ANY estate sale.
E) You were smart to buy rainboots, you made a believer out of me- I am going to find a good pair also.
F) You are a really, really great friend and we are blessed to have you in our lives.
I have never been to an estate sale before. But, I think I will go to one now. Probably I will buy a couple of things. But, I’d also like to see the remnants of a person’s life–perhaps learn a little something about the person, if the family is there. Thank you for reminding me about the personage of seemingly-impersonal exchanges. Maybe this sort of exchange helps grieving people–to know that a little something of their loved one might be cherished by another, even if it’s a stranger.
Kara is still traumatized by some of the rude people who were there at the sale. ;)
I agree. You are a good friend. People are generally good. People are kind.
I am very, very glad I stumbled upon your blog. I love the eloquence with which you write. It warms my heart. Really, I feel warmer inside. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much, Judie!
Hey Jules! Close to my daughter’s name!! I’m Melissa and I REALLY enjoyed your William Morris series. And I love your redesign! I wanted to officially say hi, and applaud you for your attorney grumpiness b/c I too used to be an atty and it made me grumpy as well!!! I’d love it if you skipped over to visit me sometime at http://www.juliasbookbag.com b/c I write about Children’s Books and I think you’d like it!! :) Also you=awesome for researching bowler hats. Much aloha! Melissa
Thanks, Julia. I will check it out. :)
Cray-cray people? I laughed so hard when I read that… Somehow, you have never seemed slangy enough to write something like that. Lol…
And, you are pretty.much an awesome person. Best wishes and thoughts to your friend…
I know some slang! I promise you, I’m not nearly as formal in real life. I’m a huge dork. :)
It’s true, most people are basically okay, especially once they get the context. I will say though, that (at least around here) “Estate Sale” often means “overpriced yard sale,” not the remains of someone’s…well, estate. I come across sellers all the time who don’t even know that that’s what Estate Sale is supposed to mean and are confused when people come up to them asking who passed away (not that I ever do that) or shoppers who don’t understand why everything in the house is for sale or why you have to pay to go into certain areas. Sad, but true.
Some people are just awful at these types of things. I love a bargain and I might ask for a better price, but I’m always respectful and I never try to rip someone off. I usually ask for some kind of bulk price, like if I buy all the dining room chairs, can we knock a few bucks off the price of each? I’m never far below what they’re asking and chances are I like it enough to buy it even if they say no to a reduced price. But anytime I have a yard sale I always get that guy who wants to buy all the small appliances and a pair of roller skates for $7 total and tries to guilt you into it by telling you about how he served in ‘Nam. And then lists all your stuff on Craigslist for 10x as much later that day.
Yup. That’s what was frustrating. I had to respect the guy in the Camaro. At least he was honest and said he had to be able to flip it for a certain profit.
Estate sales always seem so sad to me. We go to them every once in a while and it does seem strange to pick through someone’s life. I feel for what Helena is going through. I can’t imagine what that moment will feel like. It must be comforting for her to have good friends to help her make sense of the senseless.
You are good friend & everyone needs someone like you in their life.
In your honor, I’m gonna use ‘cray-cray’ at least once this week. That cracked me up!
I love estate sales. To me, the treasures I find are just a continuation of their previous owners.
Love your observations from the sale, mad crazy people watching skills.