Damascus City Wide Garage Sale

Damascus Tales from Rosie W.
May 8, 2010 was Rosie W.’s introduction to the Damascus City Wide Yard Sale, and what a spectacular way to begin “the season”. The entire town participates so one can expect to walk a great distance as well as meet an assortment of “characters” along the way.
Up at 5am and on the road by 6:30 am for a lovely drive in the mist through the back roads to Virginia. The clouds lifted as we pulled into Damascus and realized the logic of arriving early. We were lucky to get one of the last remaining parking spaces on the main street. The scope of seeing sales in every direction was overwhelming, but we chose a start point and began the “hunt”.
The first few sales were boring, but then we reached India’s sale on the main street. It was spread over the lawn and porch of a stately older home and the first thing to catch my eye was a Pelican Kayak for $150. Sorry to say the dang thing was just not comfortable for an almost 60 year old body, so regretfully had to pass on the kayak. But I did score a beautiful sun hat with leather strap, and some random funky jewelry. India, you get a dozen roses.
Down the road we picked up a new shower curtain rod still packaged for fifty cents, and finally met up with Rosie P.; quick hugs and hellos before we dashed off with plans to meet for lunch.
We crossed the river bridge with miles of sales before us, and I felt lucky to have “ pack horse husband”, rolling cart, and a fanny pack for what was ahead. On the first stop we found a gently used Coleman camp stove. Price was $10 we got it for $7.
Next stop, pure joy! Found a Paul Klee print that owner said had been in her first apartment in Boston in 1963. Print was $2, and also found some jewelry and two meditation CD’s. Next sale was strange. Not much there, but I bought a wooden figurine from Africa for five cents, yes, five cents! Felt that I needed to rescue it from owners who didn’t appreciate its value. Don’t need it, but will gift it to someone who will love.
Along the way I found a Scrabble game for Rosie P. and a pair of Chuck Taylor’s for grandson. Interesting haggle re Scrabble game, it started at $5. I was able to buy it for $1.
Another kayak was for sale on the outskirts of town. It was in great condition, and very comfortable, but the guy wanted to sell accessories a la carte which moved the price up past my limit.
Best sale for clothing was back on the main street. Lovely young woman named Christine who was selling a variety of interesting goods. I found several items of clothing, including a FLAX dress. This is the sale where Rosie P. found the mustard colored sofa. A dozen roses go to Christine.
The day was a blast, and I even had money left in the Altoid tin afterwards. Kudos to the city of Damascus Virginia; a dozen roses day, hands down.


Damascus Tales from Rosie P
With a slight rain falling outside, the alarm rings at 6am. It is dark and I am warm, but today is the beginning. I cannot sleep in, hitting the snooze button is not an option. The garage sale machine needs to run in a smooth and timely manner. I slowly get out of bed, wake up my husband, jump in the shower, while he wakes up his mother and they make coffee. As we wipe the sleep out of our eyes and decide to leave the dogs behind, we pack our waterproof sandals and rain coats. We are stocked with change and small bills. We each carry large shoulder bags and the discussion on the car ride includes "what we are on the hunt for" today. It can be difficult to keep 3 people together at a city wide garage sale event, so we made sure that all our cel phones were juiced and ready in case we got split up. Forty five rainy minutes later, we arrived in Damascus, a misty Virginia mountain town. Nestled in the high southern Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, this quiet, little village comes alive with their annual Trail Days celebration, a gathering of thru-hikers of the Appalachian Trail. The city wide garage sale kicks it off. Over a hundred garage sales dot the small town streets. It took us over 4 hours to walk through them all. The bargain hunters were out in abundance! I spied some of the Boone regulars who I only know by their nicknames that I have given them, “Patch” and “Lipstick”. Good to know that they are now privy to this sale as well. I always thought I was one step ahead of them, but now I no longer have that sense of satisfaction. Finding a parking space was a chore in itself. I was practically salivating as we drove through the town to the little red caboose park, our designated parking area. Looking out the window, I could see all of the “junk” passing by, I was wide eyed like a child at the circus. People were selling everything from baked good, to cars, to household items, to flea market finds. You could smell the bargains in the air. Jewelry, vinyl albums, milk crates, camping gear, hand thrown pottery honey jar, vintage cloth napkins, mason jars, and jazz cd's were among the prizes we found on our excursion. The grand prize was located halfway through our trip. We were at the right place at the right time when the funky retro mustard yellow couch was unloaded from the back of a pick up truck in front of me. It caught my eye immediately, but a family had already sat on it. In garage sale terms, that translates into they have first dibs. I watched them talk and bounce and talk and bounce and then I went over to them and said " If you do not want it, I do. Is two minutes enough time for you to make a decision?" They agreed and the clock began to tick. Soon, the man came over to me and indicated that I could have it because it would not fit in their RV. I collected the $40 and gave it to the seller, Christine. They placed a sold sign on it and we said that we would return for it at the end of our hunt. She said that would be fine. Upon our return, Christine told us the story of the couch and where she had bought it at an estate sale across the street. The mustard colored couch sat in the parlor of an elderly woman for all of these decades. It was in near mint condition, sans the dog hair from her dogs. I told her that was not a problem because I had two indoor dogs myself. Christine went on to confess her own “love of a bargain” and her thrill in hunting down unique items. We managed to load the couch in the back of my mother-in-law’s truck and secured it with bungees for the ride back to Boone. We ended our morning frenzy with grease-laden comfort food and beer at the local Dot’s Diner. Meeting up with Rosie W. (no longer a Damascus city wide garage sale virgin) and her husband to share our stories. A field of blooming roses goes to this small town and Christine, a newly minted rosebud.