TREASURE HUNTING

It was a Friday evening and my son Alex and I were walking around our neighborhood when we noticed a lot of families setting up tables in their driveways.

“Must be the town wide yard sale this weekend.” I said as we passed a woman wheeling out a rolling rack of clothes. I began shaking my head. “I've only had one yard sale and I hated it!”

“Why?”

“Well, we were downsizing, and your Dad wanted to clean out the garage and shed to get rid of all the extra contracting materials he'd been storing.” We passed a house that was lining up a row of bikes on their front lawn. “I thought it would be a good idea to start cleaning out the house and get rid of the stuff I wasn't planning on taking when we moved.” We saw a woman with her dog on a leash walking towards us. We stepped into the street until they passed then got back on the sidewalk. “I couldn't believe how much work it was dragging everything out on our porch, trying to decide what to charge and grouping them in some sort of order! It was exhausting.” I shook my head at the memory. “Then the day of the sale came and the creepy part started.”

“What creepy part?”

“When I came down early the next morning there were some dollar bills laying on the porch!”

Alex stopped walking. “What?”

“Yup! Someone was on our porch and decided to start shopping early!”

“What did they take?” We'd begun walking again.

“I have no idea! There was so much stuff I couldn't figure out what they took. They really creepy part was I hadn't put prices on anything yet so whatever they took they decided on what they'd pay for it.”

We were passing another family setting up. I scanned what they were putting out on the tables. Then shook my head. “Nope I'm not even going to look. Once you downsize your treasure hunting days are done.”

“I remember I sold a lot of my old video games.” he said.

“Oh, yeah!” I looked over at him. “Do you remember how much you made on them?”

“No, but I regret selling them.” Alex sighed. “Some of them are classics now.”

“I'm sorry.” I said sadly as I patted him on the shoulder.

“Do you regret selling anything?” he asked. We were at the end of our street, headed home.

I thought about it for a moment. “Maybe a few things, but when your downsizing you have to make some tough choices.”

We were just passing our neighbors house, who were also getting ready for the sale. I could see they had a table with some crystal pieces on it. “Oh, I'll have to come check that out tomorrow.” I said as I turned into our driveway.

“I thought your treasure hunting days were over?” Alex pulled the house keys out of his pocket.

I shrugged my shoulders as he opened the door and I walked in. “I guess I was lying to myself.”