Yard Sale

There was a historic event on Saturday when I made a special trip for a yard sale. My children wore out my high chair and the grandchildren wore out the used one I bought to replace it. Now we have a great-grandchild and it was time for another highchair. Not more than a high chair gets used in this house, another used one will do the job. I saw a yard sale advertised that had baby furniture so I went to look. I found one for three dollars that will do and brought it home. We're ready for the next time the great-grandbaby comes.

When I said I was going, Leroy said he can't believe I'm driving out of my way for a yard sale. I've been to a few in my life but gave up on it because I could never find what I was looking for and was tempted to pick up things I don't need. (It's not a bargain at any price if you don't need it.) I'm the kind of shopper that goes after what I need and then I'm done. I don't have the patience to spend a lot of time window shopping or running to yard sales for nothing. Leroy always said the way I go yard saleing is to go sailing by. I just never got into it.

The majority of the things at the yard sale was clothing, especially children's clothing. I was amazed at the amount of good outgrown clothing people had to sell. Children must have more clothes today than our children had. As fast as they grow, I can't understand why children need piles of clothes.

There were no yard sales when our oldest children were young. Once or twice a year I would go to an outgrown shop in the city of Reading. That's all that was available. Our children wore hand-me-downs from their siblings and cousins. The boys had one set of Sunday clothes and enough weekday clothes to last from one wash day to the next. By the time the younger ones were growing up there were more outgrown shops where we could buy used clothing, but after the boys were eight or ten years old it was hard to find good pants that fit.

I bought the boys each a set of new jeans at the beginning of the school year and that had to last until the next year. The set from the previous year moved down to everyday. They changed into the old ones when they got home from school so the new ones would last for a year. I bought coats big enough so they could be worn several years, and then handed down to the next sibling. One Sunday coat and one school coat was sufficient for winter. 

We had only one daughter and I sewed all her dresses. She also wore hand-me-downs from her cousins and since she had no sisters I passed on her outgrown clothes to others. She didn't have a rack of sweaters and jackets in every color. 

Were our children deprived? Ask them what they think.