Yard Sales And Memorial Day Weekend

Hi everybody! Just a quick note on Memorial Day weekend, lemonade stands, and yard sales.

Memorial Day weekend is what most Americans consider the start of the summer season. Most non-seasonal businesses slow down their operations, and people dress more casually for the workplace. Americans tend to love summer more than any other season, and it shows.

Kids often start "lemonade stands"--they make lemonade, put some ice in it, perhaps purchase a few bags of chips, and set up shop on the sidewalk and try to get passers by to buy lemonade from them. If a child in your neighborhood opens a lemonade stand in your neighborhood and you happen to be taking a walk, it would do no harm to buy a glass of lemonade.

(Lemonade stands do not generally require any licensing or supervision by the government or municipality. There have been incidents of lemonade stands getting shut down by over zealous health authorities or politicians but it's considered by most people to be a waste of resources and there is usually an apology afterwards.)

Be aware that the lemonade will vary greatly in temperature and quality, but you should always smile and thank the child running the stand. This is because, once again, in America we encourage children to learn to work for their own money and earn their own money. It is part of what we call our American work ethic. A child who does things like that is considered to have "moxie" or "gumption"--a kind of get up and go. He doesn't wait for his parents to give him money, he goes and gets it himself. This is consistent with American cultural values.

Americans, particularly on Memorial Day weekend, which this year is May 28th & 29th, hold "yard sales". A "yard sale" is a sale where people put tables out on the sidewalk or the driveways of their home (NEVER THE STREET) and try to sell goods they own no longer use. They advertise their yardsales in the classified section of the newspaper under "garage sales" or "yard sales" (the words "garage sale" and "yard sale" are interchangeable--they are regional expressions for the same thing) and on craigslist and other classified ad sites, and sometimes you see signs around town directing you to a yard sale.

You can get great bargains on used goods at yard sales--most people are trying to sell things for whatever they can get for them, believing that used things that still work should not go to waste or be thrown out (another American cultural value--we think of ourselves as a people that doesn't like wastefulness). A garage sale is a very appropriate place to haggle and bargain. Many people make a day out of garage sales--having breakfast at a diner or a local place early in the morning and then heading out, going by car from sale to sale, looking for bargains on things they want or need.

Sometimes collectors show up at yard sales. There are people in America who collect all kinds of things, from guitars to rock n roll memorabilia to baseball cards--they often go to garage sales. Sometimes you hear about a "garage sale find", where someone finds a high end, expensive collectible at a garage sale for $5-10. I myself have heard of people finding expensive electric guitars and Stradivarius brand trumpets for $10 or $20. Even if something like that is in terrible condition, for $20 purchase price, it's worth it to buy it and have it repaired.

Just a quick note: if you want to hold a garage/yard sale of your own, you'll usually need a permit. It's easy and no trouble to get one--you just go down to the town hall and ask the clerk for one, pay a negligible fee and they'll give you one.

It's unusual for a town to crack down on unlicensed garage sales, but in this era of towns and municipalities desperate for cash, it can happen. The fine for having an unlicensed garage sale will be considerably more than the fee for the license.

So that's the story with garage sales.

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