I keep worrying that digital currency is one of the world’s coming “safety” reforms. I couldn’t help but wonder how many people would stage garage sales if they had to get permission from the government and customers had to take their digital cards to yard sales.
I suspect the government would let you if you had a digital card reader and … if you paid the government 20 percent in yard sale taxes. The government might also know if you sold Bicentennial plates, which might reveal you are a potential extremist who bears extra surveillance (like Tulsi Gabbard).
Unsolicited advice: Go ahead and do your yard sale now while you still can.
Really? I am a US citizen living in Japan. My wife and kids are Japanese. The US FATCA law forces Japanese financial institutions to spy on each and every transaction through my bank account. I live in Japan and have for over 25 years, yet the US government knows of each deposit and each transfer and each withdrawal. I would love to sell some things I have collected while here. The market for these are overseas (from Japan) for they are items sold only for the domestic market. Funny, non Americans are not to keen on having their financial information shared with the US, which it would be if they sent me money, again, while residing in Japan.
The fact is, the situation you make light of and insult others for pointing out has is in fact been reality in part for a number of years.
Just found your reply... Would have apologized sooner:
I meant no disrespect and flippant language was meant as an endearment to the author but was insensitive to his worldly audience.
すみません
I have become insular specifically because of the very real data surveillance, collection, aggregation, targeting and threat of loss associated in the digital age without which we can hardly function.
My discomfort with the e-commerce living model results in opportunities lost, deprivation and more than inconvenience.
I am blessedly not completely constrained here in USA and so I put a "grin & bear it" flavor to my post as I struggle to cope.
Thank you for reminding me Substack may be congenial but I should be more circumspect.
My location, Virginia, is particularly bad about imminent domain and other seizures of personal property.
Gov entities investigate the copious data including health score, credit info, social media participation, published - leaked and hacked data... then decides Who You Are.
More and more replies are no longer being sent to me as email. I have to go into the app and see if anyone has responded, such as now. Wonder what this is a function of.
It is later than we know with the digital prison they are building around us. I have run across bits and pieces of pieces of info, like glimpse through a fluttering curtain. Not enough to see much but enough to know something wicked is just down the path.
I see that you have subscribed to my substack. Thanks. As time permits and interest calls, please look through my earlier postings, especially those on “Technological revenge” and those on why I cannot accept payment for substack contributions. These pretty much encompass all the pieces of the puzzle that I have been made aware of. There are also newer posts on the spread of unmanned, cashless retail outlets in Japan. Terrifying. It is happening even as we type back and forth with each other on the topic.
The next-door neighbor’s finished their Estate Sale and Auction Saturday afternoon, which was when I was going to end my extended garage sale. However, I was too tired Saturday night to move all that stuff back in the garage. So I made a sign that said “Yard Sale today!” And put it at the end of the street Sunday morning.
On Sunday, I got a grand total of six customers. However, all six customers bought items, netting me another $78, which got me to $800! Six-for-six customers (100 percent) buying merchandise - with an average sale of $13 - might be a yard sale record!
Last yard sale advice: Hold your yard sale in October not mid-August, at least if you live in south Alabama.
We have a wasp problem this summer at the Rice house. Jack, my 8-year-old, has never been stung by a wasp. Just last week he asked me if a wasp sting hurts. I cannot lie to my son. “Yes,” I said. But I added that wasps will probably leave you alone if you don’t bother them.
Saturday morning I was pulling out some art work I had put back in the garage overnight. Sure enough, a wasp was hiding behind one canvas I grabbed and, when I put my hand right on the wasp, the sucker stung me. That was the last thing he ever did, but it reminded me that a wasp sting DOES burn like the dickens.
The good thing was that the pain lasted for only about 60 seconds - which I think is less time than a yellow jacket sting.
Uh - being you mention that, my daughter was visiting us recently, she is 30 years old, and she took are ole Jack Russel dog for a walk in the neighborhood - our dog is and I kid you not - she is 17 years old and still spry, but she does have some dementia - anyhow, then went round the corner per the normal walking pathway and suddenly encountered a hive a yellow jackets (who nest in the ground mind ya), and my grown daughter came back to the home in tears almost cause our dog had them yeller jackets all about its paws and lower body and both my daughter and our dog - her name is Evie - got stung numerous times. Well - hells bells, I walked out to that place myself after I was assured there was no immediate emergency and one of them effing yeller jackets stung my ass even though I was watching close. Sons of bitches, as I'm thinking about this, the fella there who has the property - and his home is for sale now - I'm going to mention this to him next time I see him walking around in the neighborhood.
I never ever want to see my daughter ever again in the level of dismay she was when those yeller jackets attacked her and our dog Evie she was walking - on the regular path on the sidewalk mind ya - and when them damn yeller jackets stung my ass after I was just checking out the situation - all I can say is it firmed my resolve to have a little discussion with the neighbor - and so I reckon tis going to happen.
Not kidding around - and tis true - yeller jackets are mean - and if you are allergic to their sting it can be deadly - so luckily no real harm done, but it takes a few days for the swelling to go down - and that I consider a lesson learned and it has informed my will to talk with my neighbor in the neighborhood.
Cause if we can't talk with neighbors, then why even live with them nearby - and in big cities especially - good communication is critical....so - lesson learned and more lessons on the way I reckon.
Well if your old dog had some arthritis the stings just might cure it. Not kidding. I actually know people who pay cash for bee stings. (I get around.)
May your daughter and your dear old dog feel better soon!
Oh, you know how much and how fond of you I am - and turns out I'm aware of what you are speaking of....and that must be why I'm so fond of you!
~
Ha, ha...it happened a few weeks ago, and my daughter got her senses back, but truly as a father I don't ever ever want to see her as she was a few weeks ago - and she really cared more about our dog Evie than herself - cause she said them yeller jackets were all over our family dog.
~
But - all is well ends well - and my daughter - let me just say - she is seriously tough - she teaches high school in Durham, NC - and her student be advised - don't trifle with her.
~
Thanks Transcriber B - you are a monument of good records in my mind.
You are most kind, dear Buffalo Ken. LOL usually when I mention the cash-for-bee-stings people get creeped out. But indeed, some say it truly helps them!
I have allergies to bug bites/stings of all kinds. It's a bit worrisome (to be far from an EpiPen just in case).
In 1988, my family cleared about 3/4 miles X 30' wide for WV power company. Saved 15K & took all summer. 3men on chainsaws, 3women dragging brush out to burn. Teens drove the tractors pulling & emptying the loaded trailers, and ran beverage/ food/ gas runs back and forth. The littlest kids were sidelined early on because of the yellow jackets.
Beware the yellow jackets. I also have started to think the fire ants are taking over the world - at least in the South. And I keep reading about shark attacks at all the popular beaches everyone from Troy visits. What's going on here?!
I thought I would sell a lot more clothes and miscellaneous housewares because I had been to previous yard sales which are very popular with illegal immigrants looking for bargains.
Like everywhere, Troy, Alabama now has a growing population of migrant workers … but - alas - they never found out about the Great Rice Yard sale.
After the yard sale and the estate sell next door, both sale workers left a big stack of items by the curb to be picked up with the trash on Monday.
This morning when I took the kids to school, I noticed that every item - a veritable curb-side yard sale - was now gone. I think the immigrants did find me. Good question: Why pay 50 cents or a dollar for items that you can get for free?
Lots of estate sellers have a timeframe at which everything becomes free -- usually later on a Sunday. The idea is that giving it away saves them the trouble of moving the stuff themselves.
I was hoping the very nice man who ran this Estate Sale would wander over and make me an offer on all my unsold items. He did come over and we enjoyed a nice visit, but he told me he already has way too much stuff in storage.
He's also an auctioneer. He said the money is in auctions for land foreclosures. Eeeks.
I'm of the opinion - that barter is the best form of trade - and I intend on having some barter goods to offer up soon - and in the meantime, there are some folks in the neighborhood I intend on having a conversation with, cause I don't appreciate yellow jackets stinging my daughter, my dog, nor myself. So - this fella has the property for sale is asking "way too much" - and I know that and I saw him along with my wife walking with me yesterday, and I saw him today as well and next time I see him I'm going to tell him - you best be advised there is a nest of yeller jackets around your property and that is not good for business - and Ponadto fella - (polish word there) - you be advised to lower your price if you have hopes of selling your place anytime soon - but if this is all a ruse, and give the next of yeller jackets stung my daughter - be aware fella - I'm watching you close! That is what good neighbors do.
Speaking of push lawn mowers, I used to cut my grandmother's grass with one. Once I ran over a nest of yellow jackets, which I didn't know were in the ground. I got stung about five times - and it hurt worse than a wasp sting. After my grandmother nursed me back to health, I summoned up my courage to go finish cutting the yard. I put my shirt back on and there were two yellow jackets in my shirt - I got stung two more times!
ha, ha,.....thanks Bill - that made me laugh out loud.....yeller jackets are meaner then hell and seems they must leaves some "guards" around after they feel they been trespassed upon - but thing is even the yeller jackets need to know their place.
I had a big nest in the ground stung the hell out of my kind neighbor more than 20 times such that he ended up in the hospital (it might have just revealed a "bile" issue he already had), but no matter - later on I came back with some kerosene and we poured that down the nest during dusk time as we watched them flying in and out - and we set it ablaze - no more yeller jackets after that and they got what they had coming! Ole fashioned style!
Interesting you say mention that being I was wondering the same thing - but I remember being there close in Reynolds Coliseum when Jimmy V was the coach and the yeller jackets came to town - https://gopack.com/facilities/james-t-valvano-arena-at-william-neal-reynolds-coliseum/20 - the coach of the Georgia Tech team was Bobby Cremins - and damn we gave him hell when he entered the place of the Wolfpack!
Oh man, I remember it like it was yesterday.
I remember one time there was a gathering at a place and us students got to walk in and shake the hands of the coach - and Jimmy V - there can be no denying he had some energy inside hisself - ha, ha - good memories Bill just like Vinny del Negro!
Ken
ps - that is the fellas name and he went on to play in the NBA and coach as well...so seriously - don't take offense for eff sake - and we gave Bobby Cremins hell when we were sitting in the front seats - mean students from NC State we were - in the ole days - when students got the best seats assuming they were willing to camp out - and we were!
I use a poultice of baking soda and water for bee stings on myself and my dog and cat. For the pets, I hold their paws in the cup of sludgy water and they actually like it.
While waiting for customers to show up, I killed time by thumbing through some of the old books I’d found that few people were buying.
One book I found in a box was Dale Carengie’s “Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business.” I have a 1950 edition, but the book became an instant best-seller in 1912!
In my opinion, this book is the best self-help book ever written. I’d read 75 pages when I shut the yard sale down and will definitely not sell this and am going to make my 12-year-old daughter read it (when I finish re-reading it).
I asked my 8-year-old son Jack if I could sell a skateboard he rarely uses. He first said, “No,” and then he got on it - and promptly fell on the driveway.
Besides “Is the lawn mower for sale?” The question I heard more than any other was, “Is it hot enough for you?”
My kids could have paid for an outing to Troy’s new bowling alley and arcade if they’d just held a lemonade sale. I don’t think they need a permit from the City or State, but I might be wrong.
Southern Missouri, and the rest of the state, plus large parts of the states to our west and north have had 2 records setting low temperatures for morning lows in the last week or so.
At my house we have had the coolest July and first half of August that I can remember.
It's been delightful.
It has not made the news.
PS
The interest in rummage sale items changes by neighborhood. I live in the nicer end of an old and decaying part of my town where the lesser houses are becoming or have been rentals. There are a lot of low-income households in the blocks to my south. Plus, just young families who haven't had time to gain much buying power.
Also, it's a small town surrounded by farm country.
I rehab old houses and sell them. I bring stuff from those houses that I can't send out with construction waste to my house and get ready to cut it down and put it in my trash. Junk or old furniture, the occasional door, maybe some used pipe, just about anything.
If I put it on top my two trashcans sometimes it is gone within the hour, sometimes with a few hours, for sure by morning.
I've had almost too old to use patio furniture, a broken "Marlboro" plug in cooler, and a large wooden, homemade flowerbox, old and half rotten, each, on different occasions, disappear within a few hours!
Your neighborhood and your customers are richer than mine!
Stuff, and I mean old stuff, that I can't think of any use for, gets grabbed in an instant.
(Oh, this stuff is picked up almost entirely by regular old poor white people. LOL. A few Latinos but not many.)
OMG BILL. This brought back ALL the memories. We used to do a yearly garage sale with my neighbor/friend. I HATED every second, but it was the only way I could convince my girls to get rid of A N Y T H I N G - with the promise that they could keep the proceeds. Here are my favorite highlights:
Tale #1:
NARRATOR: Picture a staple gun sitting next to a pile of neatly folded 25 cent t-shirts.
RANDOM DUDE [picks up staple gun]: This work?
ME: It does.
RANDOM DUDE [proceeds to press nose of staple gun into hand and PULL THE TRIGGER]: ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
ME: Sir, please don't bleed on the t-shirts.
Tale #2:
My daughters were trying to sell a hideous giant battery-powered Mother Goose stuffed... thing. It had four buttons on its back which you could press and it would tell you a nursery rhyme. Nobody had touched in a decade.
100YO lady: Does this work?
MY HUSBAND: It used to, let me go get you a thousand dollars worth of batteries and you can check!
NARRATOR: Husband retrieves and installs batteries, the goose works, 100YO lady is thrilled and forks over her dollar. Kids are ecstatic. I'm fuming because the dude I married literally just gave away a thousand dollars worth of batteries but whatever. It's for the kids.
FAST FORWARD SIX HOURS. The garage sale is long over, Good Will has picked up what didn't sell, and I am on the couch drinking a glass of wine and swearing NEVER EVER AGAIN when the doorbell rings; I open it.
100YO lady [holding out mother goose]: It stopped working.
ME: Um, wow, I'm sorry.
NARRATOR: Extremely awkward pause while 100YO lady continues to proffer Mother Goose.
ME: Would you like your dollar back?
100YO lady: Yes, please.
I pull a dollar out of my purse and give it to her and take back the duck. I notice it seems awfully light. So I check. SHE HAD KEPT THE BATTERIES.
Did I mention NEVER AGAIN?
Also I'm sad that nobody reads books or rides bikes or wants bicentennial plates. :(*
I'd really only sold $68 by 4:30 p.m. Sunday. I'd just brought in all my clothes and was continuing the clean-up when a man and his wife showed up. He looked to be exactly my size. "You need any clothes?" I asked. "Sure," he said. So back to the closets I went and he did buy about 20 pieces. I was going to charge him $9, but he gave me $10 and told me to keep a dollar for my hospitality.
That made me feel good. And he said might come back and get that grill if he can find a pick-up truck.
"I work at home," I told him. "Just knock on the door and it's yours."
In Australia we have annual bulk rubbish kerbside clean-up. So people put their old junk on the kerb for the week prior to the official day when all the bobcats and rubbish bins come to collect the rubbish. Usually it's building materials and old couches people have been holding on to for the prior year, but I ALWAYS look through the boxes because I find BOOKS.
This year I found a beautiful little blue-bound hardcover English reader from the 1940's - so, a child's textbook. It is a bit water damaged but I don't care. It has poetry, excerpts from classic literature and prints of paintings.
Loved books all my life, for reading and for the tactile comfort they provide.
As a young girl I stayed home from school one day feigning a stomach ache…somehow we were allowed to stay home alone at 9 or 10 yrs old. In those old days gone by, my Mom would call every so often and say just go to the fridge and get some ginger ale haha. That was the extent of it.
As soon as everyone left, I gathered up all our hard cover books and made a library, numbering all of them and making a lend out pouch on the empty back page…then insisted that other family members use my silly system.
Oh, this column of Bill’s has brought up so many fine old memories.
I didn’t become a teacher, a librarian or even a bossy person but I’m sure I was an insufferable sibling !
That was a fun article, but also insightful. People don’t value the things we valued. Some changes are good, many are bad like the not reading or riding a bike.
There is going to come a time - sooner than later I suspect - when the screens become blank - and then these kids are gonna have to learn some hard lessons about life.
I didn't have any devices to sell. Nobody will sell them. I do wish my wife would have taken a picture of my spread. It was like a department store in my driveway!
Bill - I noticed - and I do the same thing sometimes - sometimes a bit of rest from all the hustle bustle is called for - if you had stayed away a bit longer then some alarms may have gone off, but four days of rest is deserved sometimes - and needed to refresh the soul. At my place today for a period of about 30 minutes it was "inaccessible" and I got confirmation of that by 3rd parties, and that is telling - substack needs to decide - to whom they are beholden - if it turns out they are beholden to those against free will and fair communication, then it will be evident soon enough - but efforts made by those of us to share with others will also have been made - after that - when the screens "go blank" if that is what happens - at a minimum we will know there are others out there likeminded and those think they got a calling to control liberty will be in for some hard lessons - with or without the effing screens of devices.....
I enjoyed this Bill! I've only held a couple garage sales. My wife is the master of it, but I can't stand it. When we moved, I had some energy efficient light bulbs for sale. I had about a dozen of them. I was asking 50 cents each and at the time they were going for about $5-$10 each in the store. Some were brand new in packaging, some were used but working. Someone came up and asked If I would take 25 cents instead of 50 cents. I said OK. Then he said, "how do I know they work". I told him that I previously tested them and they all worked. He wasn't convinced and asked if I would show him. So I went inside and dragged out a lamp that I had to move a sofa to get to the plug, brought it outside, fetched an extension cord, plugged it into a garage outlet, brought the other end out to the driveway and plugged in the lamp, and then plugged one of the bulbs into the lamp. OK he said, he was satisfied, he would take it. So I asked him "don't you want to test all of them?" Oh no, I just want the one bulb. I was so pissed, because I had other customers waiting for me. All that for 25 cents! Payback was the next day when he came back and said he wanted to buy more, but I had already sold them all to someone else at 50 cents each.
I can relate. I once hoarded or stocked up on light bulbs when the environmentalist banned all the 50 and 100-watt bulbs. I bought dozens of packages. I should have filled up the whole garage with them and sold them today. I'd make a killing.
For a year or two, I also collected nickels because I read the metal value would be more than 5 cents. This turned out to be true. Alas, I cashed in $1,000 worth of nickels when I got hit with a property tax assessment I hadn't budgeted for and needed a thousand dollars to keep my mortgage payment the same.
My most interesting purchase: I tried to sell my late grandfather's antique clock, which had chimes and weights but was mounted on a wall. I kept the heavy weights to get it running again, but I also had three heavy weights from an old Grandmother clock I once had. One man bought the three heavy weights for $3. He said the weights had lead in them and he could use the lead to make his own ammunition.
That man also bought some silver from me. He's getting ready.
I didn't sell the clock, which is/was very pretty. It's now in the landfill!
OMG, my husband and I were laughing our butts off at this! Every word is true! I finally got sick and tired of people offering fifty cents for a Coach bag and started selling stuff on eBay!😆
You're welcome. I like to describe your essays to my family. I preface my interpretive stories as "my friend from Alabama Bill Rice Jr said..." and then just launch into it.
Glad your sale was somewhat successful! There's a house not too far from me that's had a yard sale, rain or shine, every day for at least a month! I've never seen anyone browsing or buying... maybe they're getting a business loan to have it on constant display? Very strange.
$10,000 dinning room set... I'll give you $50 bucks.... if you'll transport it to my house... and carry it to the 3rd floor appartment!!! And accept it in the form of gift cards... to babies are us.
I had the centerpiece of an entertainment center for sell as well. I didn't try to move it out of the garage because it would take Hulk to move it. This is a prominent piece of nice furniture where we had our TV set for years in our previous house. I tried to sell it at one Estate Sale I did and the price tag was $185. No takers. I did another estate sale a few years later and dropped the price to $85. No takers. This weekend, I just said "free to a good home if you'll come pick it up and get it out of my garage." No takers!
I’m now worried about the absolutely stunning miniature dollhouse that my mother in law lovingly built, often hand painting miniature paintings and furniture, cross stitching and embroidered pillows and quilts etc. the detail is exquisite. The pieces are hand made by an artist. She probably has at least $10,000 in actual dollars in it but at least $50,000 in labor. It’s HUGE. (For a miniature lol). There’s even a science room with real bones. A library. A kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms and a bonus garden on the roof. I will probably never get rid of it in a way that would be respectful of the time and effort she put into it but would love for more people to enjoy its beauty.
Thank you Bill. I really enjoy your 'small town observations' (if you don't mind me putting it that way). I think they are very important, but also, make me feel very warm inside, like someone out there is still living a relatively normal life and has original thoughts. Great work.
Thanks, AU. I try to provide some variety on my Substack. As much as all the Covid scandals still haven't been fully exposed, I don't think I can continue with this newsletter, writing only Covid articles.
But I've got a good one I still haven't written! Maybe today I will.
I keep worrying that digital currency is one of the world’s coming “safety” reforms. I couldn’t help but wonder how many people would stage garage sales if they had to get permission from the government and customers had to take their digital cards to yard sales.
I suspect the government would let you if you had a digital card reader and … if you paid the government 20 percent in yard sale taxes. The government might also know if you sold Bicentennial plates, which might reveal you are a potential extremist who bears extra surveillance (like Tulsi Gabbard).
Unsolicited advice: Go ahead and do your yard sale now while you still can.
Everyone needs to learn the batter/trade system.
Not going to be useful one the get 5G up and running which will allow for the complete electronic surveillance system they are in progress building.
You so funny!
That 'bama heat brings out the tinfoil hat in all of us!
Really? I am a US citizen living in Japan. My wife and kids are Japanese. The US FATCA law forces Japanese financial institutions to spy on each and every transaction through my bank account. I live in Japan and have for over 25 years, yet the US government knows of each deposit and each transfer and each withdrawal. I would love to sell some things I have collected while here. The market for these are overseas (from Japan) for they are items sold only for the domestic market. Funny, non Americans are not to keen on having their financial information shared with the US, which it would be if they sent me money, again, while residing in Japan.
The fact is, the situation you make light of and insult others for pointing out has is in fact been reality in part for a number of years.
Just found your reply... Would have apologized sooner:
I meant no disrespect and flippant language was meant as an endearment to the author but was insensitive to his worldly audience.
すみません
I have become insular specifically because of the very real data surveillance, collection, aggregation, targeting and threat of loss associated in the digital age without which we can hardly function.
My discomfort with the e-commerce living model results in opportunities lost, deprivation and more than inconvenience.
I am blessedly not completely constrained here in USA and so I put a "grin & bear it" flavor to my post as I struggle to cope.
Thank you for reminding me Substack may be congenial but I should be more circumspect.
My location, Virginia, is particularly bad about imminent domain and other seizures of personal property.
Gov entities investigate the copious data including health score, credit info, social media participation, published - leaked and hacked data... then decides Who You Are.
We're all not very far from ruin, IMHO.
More and more replies are no longer being sent to me as email. I have to go into the app and see if anyone has responded, such as now. Wonder what this is a function of.
It is later than we know with the digital prison they are building around us. I have run across bits and pieces of pieces of info, like glimpse through a fluttering curtain. Not enough to see much but enough to know something wicked is just down the path.
'Tis so true. I don't use applications on my phone, but
I believe the big G email is entwined w/an expanding the censorship as I access substack on my phone using DuckDuckGo.
I "found" substack subs notices in my junk folder.
The insidious nature of the loss of privacy and agency is terrifying.
The coverup of our losses is a horrifying nightmare.
I see that you have subscribed to my substack. Thanks. As time permits and interest calls, please look through my earlier postings, especially those on “Technological revenge” and those on why I cannot accept payment for substack contributions. These pretty much encompass all the pieces of the puzzle that I have been made aware of. There are also newer posts on the spread of unmanned, cashless retail outlets in Japan. Terrifying. It is happening even as we type back and forth with each other on the topic.
I EXTENDED MY YARD SALE ONE DAY …
The next-door neighbor’s finished their Estate Sale and Auction Saturday afternoon, which was when I was going to end my extended garage sale. However, I was too tired Saturday night to move all that stuff back in the garage. So I made a sign that said “Yard Sale today!” And put it at the end of the street Sunday morning.
On Sunday, I got a grand total of six customers. However, all six customers bought items, netting me another $78, which got me to $800! Six-for-six customers (100 percent) buying merchandise - with an average sale of $13 - might be a yard sale record!
Last yard sale advice: Hold your yard sale in October not mid-August, at least if you live in south Alabama.
We have a wasp problem this summer at the Rice house. Jack, my 8-year-old, has never been stung by a wasp. Just last week he asked me if a wasp sting hurts. I cannot lie to my son. “Yes,” I said. But I added that wasps will probably leave you alone if you don’t bother them.
Saturday morning I was pulling out some art work I had put back in the garage overnight. Sure enough, a wasp was hiding behind one canvas I grabbed and, when I put my hand right on the wasp, the sucker stung me. That was the last thing he ever did, but it reminded me that a wasp sting DOES burn like the dickens.
The good thing was that the pain lasted for only about 60 seconds - which I think is less time than a yellow jacket sting.
Uh - being you mention that, my daughter was visiting us recently, she is 30 years old, and she took are ole Jack Russel dog for a walk in the neighborhood - our dog is and I kid you not - she is 17 years old and still spry, but she does have some dementia - anyhow, then went round the corner per the normal walking pathway and suddenly encountered a hive a yellow jackets (who nest in the ground mind ya), and my grown daughter came back to the home in tears almost cause our dog had them yeller jackets all about its paws and lower body and both my daughter and our dog - her name is Evie - got stung numerous times. Well - hells bells, I walked out to that place myself after I was assured there was no immediate emergency and one of them effing yeller jackets stung my ass even though I was watching close. Sons of bitches, as I'm thinking about this, the fella there who has the property - and his home is for sale now - I'm going to mention this to him next time I see him walking around in the neighborhood.
Not kidding Bill - and good on you!
Ouch!
Pavlov's ding-a-ling got nuttin' on the automatic wince and run associated with the y'jackets!!
I never ever want to see my daughter ever again in the level of dismay she was when those yeller jackets attacked her and our dog Evie she was walking - on the regular path on the sidewalk mind ya - and when them damn yeller jackets stung my ass after I was just checking out the situation - all I can say is it firmed my resolve to have a little discussion with the neighbor - and so I reckon tis going to happen.
Not kidding around - and tis true - yeller jackets are mean - and if you are allergic to their sting it can be deadly - so luckily no real harm done, but it takes a few days for the swelling to go down - and that I consider a lesson learned and it has informed my will to talk with my neighbor in the neighborhood.
Cause if we can't talk with neighbors, then why even live with them nearby - and in big cities especially - good communication is critical....so - lesson learned and more lessons on the way I reckon.
Well if your old dog had some arthritis the stings just might cure it. Not kidding. I actually know people who pay cash for bee stings. (I get around.)
May your daughter and your dear old dog feel better soon!
Oh, you know how much and how fond of you I am - and turns out I'm aware of what you are speaking of....and that must be why I'm so fond of you!
~
Ha, ha...it happened a few weeks ago, and my daughter got her senses back, but truly as a father I don't ever ever want to see her as she was a few weeks ago - and she really cared more about our dog Evie than herself - cause she said them yeller jackets were all over our family dog.
~
But - all is well ends well - and my daughter - let me just say - she is seriously tough - she teaches high school in Durham, NC - and her student be advised - don't trifle with her.
~
Thanks Transcriber B - you are a monument of good records in my mind.
BK
You are most kind, dear Buffalo Ken. LOL usually when I mention the cash-for-bee-stings people get creeped out. But indeed, some say it truly helps them!
I have allergies to bug bites/stings of all kinds. It's a bit worrisome (to be far from an EpiPen just in case).
In 1988, my family cleared about 3/4 miles X 30' wide for WV power company. Saved 15K & took all summer. 3men on chainsaws, 3women dragging brush out to burn. Teens drove the tractors pulling & emptying the loaded trailers, and ran beverage/ food/ gas runs back and forth. The littlest kids were sidelined early on because of the yellow jackets.
THAT was a cruel, cruel summer!!
I still feel burned.
Well - I think don't take it out on the yellow jackets personal, they are just mean defenders - but I as well prefer honey bees!
Beware the yellow jackets. I also have started to think the fire ants are taking over the world - at least in the South. And I keep reading about shark attacks at all the popular beaches everyone from Troy visits. What's going on here?!
Thanks I needed that laugh!
I thought I would sell a lot more clothes and miscellaneous housewares because I had been to previous yard sales which are very popular with illegal immigrants looking for bargains.
Like everywhere, Troy, Alabama now has a growing population of migrant workers … but - alas - they never found out about the Great Rice Yard sale.
After the yard sale and the estate sell next door, both sale workers left a big stack of items by the curb to be picked up with the trash on Monday.
This morning when I took the kids to school, I noticed that every item - a veritable curb-side yard sale - was now gone. I think the immigrants did find me. Good question: Why pay 50 cents or a dollar for items that you can get for free?
Lots of estate sellers have a timeframe at which everything becomes free -- usually later on a Sunday. The idea is that giving it away saves them the trouble of moving the stuff themselves.
I was hoping the very nice man who ran this Estate Sale would wander over and make me an offer on all my unsold items. He did come over and we enjoyed a nice visit, but he told me he already has way too much stuff in storage.
He's also an auctioneer. He said the money is in auctions for land foreclosures. Eeeks.
People respond to "free." It doesn't matter much what the comparison price is.
I'm of the opinion - that barter is the best form of trade - and I intend on having some barter goods to offer up soon - and in the meantime, there are some folks in the neighborhood I intend on having a conversation with, cause I don't appreciate yellow jackets stinging my daughter, my dog, nor myself. So - this fella has the property for sale is asking "way too much" - and I know that and I saw him along with my wife walking with me yesterday, and I saw him today as well and next time I see him I'm going to tell him - you best be advised there is a nest of yeller jackets around your property and that is not good for business - and Ponadto fella - (polish word there) - you be advised to lower your price if you have hopes of selling your place anytime soon - but if this is all a ruse, and give the next of yeller jackets stung my daughter - be aware fella - I'm watching you close! That is what good neighbors do.
~
https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&sl=en&tl=pl&text=Moreover&op=translate
Speaking of push lawn mowers, I used to cut my grandmother's grass with one. Once I ran over a nest of yellow jackets, which I didn't know were in the ground. I got stung about five times - and it hurt worse than a wasp sting. After my grandmother nursed me back to health, I summoned up my courage to go finish cutting the yard. I put my shirt back on and there were two yellow jackets in my shirt - I got stung two more times!
I don't like yellow jackets.
ha, ha,.....thanks Bill - that made me laugh out loud.....yeller jackets are meaner then hell and seems they must leaves some "guards" around after they feel they been trespassed upon - but thing is even the yeller jackets need to know their place.
I had a big nest in the ground stung the hell out of my kind neighbor more than 20 times such that he ended up in the hospital (it might have just revealed a "bile" issue he already had), but no matter - later on I came back with some kerosene and we poured that down the nest during dusk time as we watched them flying in and out - and we set it ablaze - no more yeller jackets after that and they got what they had coming! Ole fashioned style!
Peace to you and family,
Ken
Yellow Jackets are mean. I guess that's why Georgia Tech made them their mascot.
It's interesting. No sports team is nicknamed "The Wasps."
Interesting you say mention that being I was wondering the same thing - but I remember being there close in Reynolds Coliseum when Jimmy V was the coach and the yeller jackets came to town - https://gopack.com/facilities/james-t-valvano-arena-at-william-neal-reynolds-coliseum/20 - the coach of the Georgia Tech team was Bobby Cremins - and damn we gave him hell when he entered the place of the Wolfpack!
Oh man, I remember it like it was yesterday.
I remember one time there was a gathering at a place and us students got to walk in and shake the hands of the coach - and Jimmy V - there can be no denying he had some energy inside hisself - ha, ha - good memories Bill just like Vinny del Negro!
Ken
ps - that is the fellas name and he went on to play in the NBA and coach as well...so seriously - don't take offense for eff sake - and we gave Bobby Cremins hell when we were sitting in the front seats - mean students from NC State we were - in the ole days - when students got the best seats assuming they were willing to camp out - and we were!
I use a poultice of baking soda and water for bee stings on myself and my dog and cat. For the pets, I hold their paws in the cup of sludgy water and they actually like it.
While waiting for customers to show up, I killed time by thumbing through some of the old books I’d found that few people were buying.
One book I found in a box was Dale Carengie’s “Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business.” I have a 1950 edition, but the book became an instant best-seller in 1912!
In my opinion, this book is the best self-help book ever written. I’d read 75 pages when I shut the yard sale down and will definitely not sell this and am going to make my 12-year-old daughter read it (when I finish re-reading it).
So that’s how you found inspiration for your next story. I love your brand of storytelling/ journalism Bill, it is so priceless.
Once sat through their memory for introductions lesson.
I asked my 8-year-old son Jack if I could sell a skateboard he rarely uses. He first said, “No,” and then he got on it - and promptly fell on the driveway.
“Yes, you can sell it,” he said.
(P.S. Alas, the skateboard didn’t sale either).
Besides “Is the lawn mower for sale?” The question I heard more than any other was, “Is it hot enough for you?”
My kids could have paid for an outing to Troy’s new bowling alley and arcade if they’d just held a lemonade sale. I don’t think they need a permit from the City or State, but I might be wrong.
Southern Missouri, and the rest of the state, plus large parts of the states to our west and north have had 2 records setting low temperatures for morning lows in the last week or so.
At my house we have had the coolest July and first half of August that I can remember.
It's been delightful.
It has not made the news.
PS
The interest in rummage sale items changes by neighborhood. I live in the nicer end of an old and decaying part of my town where the lesser houses are becoming or have been rentals. There are a lot of low-income households in the blocks to my south. Plus, just young families who haven't had time to gain much buying power.
Also, it's a small town surrounded by farm country.
I rehab old houses and sell them. I bring stuff from those houses that I can't send out with construction waste to my house and get ready to cut it down and put it in my trash. Junk or old furniture, the occasional door, maybe some used pipe, just about anything.
If I put it on top my two trashcans sometimes it is gone within the hour, sometimes with a few hours, for sure by morning.
I've had almost too old to use patio furniture, a broken "Marlboro" plug in cooler, and a large wooden, homemade flowerbox, old and half rotten, each, on different occasions, disappear within a few hours!
Your neighborhood and your customers are richer than mine!
Stuff, and I mean old stuff, that I can't think of any use for, gets grabbed in an instant.
(Oh, this stuff is picked up almost entirely by regular old poor white people. LOL. A few Latinos but not many.)
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing, Philip.
OMG BILL. This brought back ALL the memories. We used to do a yearly garage sale with my neighbor/friend. I HATED every second, but it was the only way I could convince my girls to get rid of A N Y T H I N G - with the promise that they could keep the proceeds. Here are my favorite highlights:
Tale #1:
NARRATOR: Picture a staple gun sitting next to a pile of neatly folded 25 cent t-shirts.
RANDOM DUDE [picks up staple gun]: This work?
ME: It does.
RANDOM DUDE [proceeds to press nose of staple gun into hand and PULL THE TRIGGER]: ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
ME: Sir, please don't bleed on the t-shirts.
Tale #2:
My daughters were trying to sell a hideous giant battery-powered Mother Goose stuffed... thing. It had four buttons on its back which you could press and it would tell you a nursery rhyme. Nobody had touched in a decade.
100YO lady: Does this work?
MY HUSBAND: It used to, let me go get you a thousand dollars worth of batteries and you can check!
NARRATOR: Husband retrieves and installs batteries, the goose works, 100YO lady is thrilled and forks over her dollar. Kids are ecstatic. I'm fuming because the dude I married literally just gave away a thousand dollars worth of batteries but whatever. It's for the kids.
FAST FORWARD SIX HOURS. The garage sale is long over, Good Will has picked up what didn't sell, and I am on the couch drinking a glass of wine and swearing NEVER EVER AGAIN when the doorbell rings; I open it.
100YO lady [holding out mother goose]: It stopped working.
ME: Um, wow, I'm sorry.
NARRATOR: Extremely awkward pause while 100YO lady continues to proffer Mother Goose.
ME: Would you like your dollar back?
100YO lady: Yes, please.
I pull a dollar out of my purse and give it to her and take back the duck. I notice it seems awfully light. So I check. SHE HAD KEPT THE BATTERIES.
Did I mention NEVER AGAIN?
Also I'm sad that nobody reads books or rides bikes or wants bicentennial plates. :(*
I'd really only sold $68 by 4:30 p.m. Sunday. I'd just brought in all my clothes and was continuing the clean-up when a man and his wife showed up. He looked to be exactly my size. "You need any clothes?" I asked. "Sure," he said. So back to the closets I went and he did buy about 20 pieces. I was going to charge him $9, but he gave me $10 and told me to keep a dollar for my hospitality.
That made me feel good. And he said might come back and get that grill if he can find a pick-up truck.
"I work at home," I told him. "Just knock on the door and it's yours."
I might end up making $810.
Too funny !
Laughing out loud here through the whole column and the comments !!
That's hilarious. I think I gave you a great column idea!
I have an R-rated garage sale story I will email you later🤣
Dammit I want to hear it!! Those are my favorite!
Get the youngest, sweetest girl, yours or a borrowed one if yours aren't young enough to sell drinks.
I will give little girls money almost without fail. I don't even care if I want what they're selling, LOL.
(It's a great way to introduce very young kids into being an entrepreneur in their life.
You are my spirit animal.
😘
🤣💕
In Australia we have annual bulk rubbish kerbside clean-up. So people put their old junk on the kerb for the week prior to the official day when all the bobcats and rubbish bins come to collect the rubbish. Usually it's building materials and old couches people have been holding on to for the prior year, but I ALWAYS look through the boxes because I find BOOKS.
This year I found a beautiful little blue-bound hardcover English reader from the 1940's - so, a child's textbook. It is a bit water damaged but I don't care. It has poetry, excerpts from classic literature and prints of paintings.
Here it is: https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/52cde89f2162ef05340ca6a3
Such a lovely find !
Loved books all my life, for reading and for the tactile comfort they provide.
As a young girl I stayed home from school one day feigning a stomach ache…somehow we were allowed to stay home alone at 9 or 10 yrs old. In those old days gone by, my Mom would call every so often and say just go to the fridge and get some ginger ale haha. That was the extent of it.
As soon as everyone left, I gathered up all our hard cover books and made a library, numbering all of them and making a lend out pouch on the empty back page…then insisted that other family members use my silly system.
Oh, this column of Bill’s has brought up so many fine old memories.
I didn’t become a teacher, a librarian or even a bossy person but I’m sure I was an insufferable sibling !
That was a fun article, but also insightful. People don’t value the things we valued. Some changes are good, many are bad like the not reading or riding a bike.
I agree! And I was saddened by the two quotes from the 2 kids re: bikes and books. I'm thinking, it's all about the screens now. Very sad
There is going to come a time - sooner than later I suspect - when the screens become blank - and then these kids are gonna have to learn some hard lessons about life.
I didn't have any devices to sell. Nobody will sell them. I do wish my wife would have taken a picture of my spread. It was like a department store in my driveway!
You've described it all so well, I feel I can see it Bill..... have enjoyed your descriptions and conversations with clients thoroughly.
Thank you, Wendy. I wonder if anyone knew I'd gone silent on Substack for 4 whole days. Probably not!
Bill - I noticed - and I do the same thing sometimes - sometimes a bit of rest from all the hustle bustle is called for - if you had stayed away a bit longer then some alarms may have gone off, but four days of rest is deserved sometimes - and needed to refresh the soul. At my place today for a period of about 30 minutes it was "inaccessible" and I got confirmation of that by 3rd parties, and that is telling - substack needs to decide - to whom they are beholden - if it turns out they are beholden to those against free will and fair communication, then it will be evident soon enough - but efforts made by those of us to share with others will also have been made - after that - when the screens "go blank" if that is what happens - at a minimum we will know there are others out there likeminded and those think they got a calling to control liberty will be in for some hard lessons - with or without the effing screens of devices.....
Yep
I enjoyed this Bill! I've only held a couple garage sales. My wife is the master of it, but I can't stand it. When we moved, I had some energy efficient light bulbs for sale. I had about a dozen of them. I was asking 50 cents each and at the time they were going for about $5-$10 each in the store. Some were brand new in packaging, some were used but working. Someone came up and asked If I would take 25 cents instead of 50 cents. I said OK. Then he said, "how do I know they work". I told him that I previously tested them and they all worked. He wasn't convinced and asked if I would show him. So I went inside and dragged out a lamp that I had to move a sofa to get to the plug, brought it outside, fetched an extension cord, plugged it into a garage outlet, brought the other end out to the driveway and plugged in the lamp, and then plugged one of the bulbs into the lamp. OK he said, he was satisfied, he would take it. So I asked him "don't you want to test all of them?" Oh no, I just want the one bulb. I was so pissed, because I had other customers waiting for me. All that for 25 cents! Payback was the next day when he came back and said he wanted to buy more, but I had already sold them all to someone else at 50 cents each.
I can relate. I once hoarded or stocked up on light bulbs when the environmentalist banned all the 50 and 100-watt bulbs. I bought dozens of packages. I should have filled up the whole garage with them and sold them today. I'd make a killing.
For a year or two, I also collected nickels because I read the metal value would be more than 5 cents. This turned out to be true. Alas, I cashed in $1,000 worth of nickels when I got hit with a property tax assessment I hadn't budgeted for and needed a thousand dollars to keep my mortgage payment the same.
That's a lot of nickels!
My most interesting purchase: I tried to sell my late grandfather's antique clock, which had chimes and weights but was mounted on a wall. I kept the heavy weights to get it running again, but I also had three heavy weights from an old Grandmother clock I once had. One man bought the three heavy weights for $3. He said the weights had lead in them and he could use the lead to make his own ammunition.
That man also bought some silver from me. He's getting ready.
I didn't sell the clock, which is/was very pretty. It's now in the landfill!
OMG, my husband and I were laughing our butts off at this! Every word is true! I finally got sick and tired of people offering fifty cents for a Coach bag and started selling stuff on eBay!😆
'Twas eBay that killed the Garage Sale!
I guess I better figure out eBay ... or let me wife figure it out for us.
Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed hearing about your garage sale story . Your a great writer.
He really is.
Thank you, EDAU.
You're welcome. I like to describe your essays to my family. I preface my interpretive stories as "my friend from Alabama Bill Rice Jr said..." and then just launch into it.
Wow. I'm flattered. I bet you tell them better than I do. I really admire your work, which is brave and very important.
They're not big readers so I have to tell them what I am seeing. Your essays make it into my repetoire.
Thank you.
Glad your sale was somewhat successful! There's a house not too far from me that's had a yard sale, rain or shine, every day for at least a month! I've never seen anyone browsing or buying... maybe they're getting a business loan to have it on constant display? Very strange.
That is strange. I have a neighbor who has one at least once a month. He hardly gets any traffic and he lives on a much more heavily trafficked road.
Many towns have sale time limits and will shut you down if you go over. . My town has limits. Plus how many a year you can have.
In "the land of the free" ... you can sell your products for X period of time and only once or twice a year.
I mean, who is really going to do 12 Estate Sales a year at the same address?
Mate...I...don't think they're selling books and clothes.
Omg. I never thought about it like that... your probably correct.
If something looks 'weird' it's usually crime lol.
Yeah... the rack of clothes hanging out near the road in the rain would've been a clue 🤦🏻♀️
LOL
ahahaha! Genuinely laughing.
Now I have to "stop by"!!! See what they have for me 😝
$10,000 dinning room set... I'll give you $50 bucks.... if you'll transport it to my house... and carry it to the 3rd floor appartment!!! And accept it in the form of gift cards... to babies are us.
I had the centerpiece of an entertainment center for sell as well. I didn't try to move it out of the garage because it would take Hulk to move it. This is a prominent piece of nice furniture where we had our TV set for years in our previous house. I tried to sell it at one Estate Sale I did and the price tag was $185. No takers. I did another estate sale a few years later and dropped the price to $85. No takers. This weekend, I just said "free to a good home if you'll come pick it up and get it out of my garage." No takers!
I’m now worried about the absolutely stunning miniature dollhouse that my mother in law lovingly built, often hand painting miniature paintings and furniture, cross stitching and embroidered pillows and quilts etc. the detail is exquisite. The pieces are hand made by an artist. She probably has at least $10,000 in actual dollars in it but at least $50,000 in labor. It’s HUGE. (For a miniature lol). There’s even a science room with real bones. A library. A kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms and a bonus garden on the roof. I will probably never get rid of it in a way that would be respectful of the time and effort she put into it but would love for more people to enjoy its beauty.
Thank you Bill. I really enjoy your 'small town observations' (if you don't mind me putting it that way). I think they are very important, but also, make me feel very warm inside, like someone out there is still living a relatively normal life and has original thoughts. Great work.
Thanks, AU. I try to provide some variety on my Substack. As much as all the Covid scandals still haven't been fully exposed, I don't think I can continue with this newsletter, writing only Covid articles.
But I've got a good one I still haven't written! Maybe today I will.