At the far reaches of Heck Ave. a successful sale was underway. Left to right: Mike, Nadine, Rosa and Tony. Paul Goldfinger photo © 5/9/15
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger This is what success looks like at the Blogfinger OG Town-Wide Yard sale; even with some rain. Join us on June 18, 2022 for the 11th Annual.
May 9, 2015. Ocean Grove, New Jersey:
The weather man let us down for the 4th Annual Blogfinger Town-wide Yard Sale. After reports of fine weather for Saturday, fog and chilly temperatures rolled in this morning. The sales all over town quickly burst into a hive of activity. Out-of-towners and Grovers used the Sale maps and address lists which we provided in addition to the Internet post and made the rounds rather quickly.
A lot of goods were sold within the first couple of hours. As predicted, most of the sellers and buyers enjoyed the social interactions as they found all sorts of goodies to buy. We met a man who was buying gold and silver. He told us that he paid one Grover over $2,000.00 for jewelry.
Grovers catch up. Paul Goldfinger photo ©
People drove, walked and biked to the sale locations. At around 10:30 am it began to rain. Although the rain didn’t last long, it did put a damper on the situation. Some sellers folded their tents, while others battened the hatches (thank goodness for porches) and then resumed the marketplace later.
I rode around on my bike after the rain and found almost everyone I came in contact with to be happy and excited about the event. By 2:00 pm, it began to drizzle and fizzle. But I have noticed that our yard sales tend to poop out by early to mid afternoon.
Not enough room? No problem. Blogfinger photo.
I met several sellers who live in Manhattan and Ocean Grove, and they love it in the Grove and they were getting a kick out of interacting with the folks. All said they wished they could spend more time here. Parking was no problem for this weekend, so many buyers drove around town, although I did meet some who walked or biked everywhere, from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Conversations. The heck with the sale—on Heck.
At our sale, Eileen and I had all sorts of interesting conversations about our for sale items, but others had to do with seeing Grovers who had returned from their winters away as well as other topics such as the guy who recommended the new Asbury beer garden as a place to hear first rate live music. He said that he was just there to hear a Grammy nominee perform on guitar, doing jazz in the style of Django Reinhardt.
A woman even had something to say about the music we were playing. She said that she was “acoustically sensitive.” She was liking Nora Jones—–someone worth being distracted by. We were selling some vinyl 33 1/3 records, mostly of Broadway shows.
A Grover showed up who used to perform in Broadway shows, and we had a great discussion about Jerry Orbach’s career, the best songs in Guys and Dolls, and his life as an actor in The Fantasticks at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in The Village. (He played one of the fathers, and he sang “Plant a Radish.”) He told us that the show always began early, so a young performer, getting out of work at 9:30 pm in Greenwich Village, had all sorts of opportunities for good times. His name? Carl Swenson (“Cards by Carl” in Ocean Grove.)
I visited a number of our sites. Someone sold a bicycle for $150.00. Another couple quickly sold a bedroom set.
Several people approached me with a variety of “scoops” for Blogfinger—in the spirit of the citizen reporter. We received enough compliments and words of encouragement for BF to last quite a while.
BEVERLY KENNEY:
