Garage Sale
Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 7:08 pm
We were afraid that we were becoming hoarders so this weekend we held a very large garage sale. We even included some of our cul de sac neighbors and the sale drew a lot of people.
As part of the deal with myself and my wife I put some old backpacking gear out. Some of my car camping tents and my older backpacking tents got set up on the front lawn. The point of this thread being I got to thinking about my old Walrus Swift tent.
The more I thought about it the more I bumped up the price whenever anyone inquired. I guess that I was hoping to put it out of range of the Saturday garage sale type. I did the same thing with my old Cannondale CAAD3.
I kept thinking of the 10 years of trail use that the tent had given me. Out of those 10 years the tent and I had seen 8 of them end with snow. Through the rain, wind and snow that little tent kept me warm, dry and with peace of mind.
Later, during a lull, I crawled inside and a flood of memories hit me. From the very first gust of wind that never touched me to the 3 days of blowing snow near Siberian Pass I remembered how much I loved my Walrus.
After the moment passed I turned to get out and realized why I quit using my tent. I had to scrunch my shoulders and neck to get out and the memory of trying to change clothes flared up. I just got too old and couldn't pull off the near contortionist moves to use such a low tent. Too bad, because everything else screamed that it was perfect tent.
As the day wore on I thought that I had escaped sending that sweet little tent to another home, a home that might have included little respect and much neglect.
I don't know what I had been thinking. When we pulled the signs down and closed the garage door, I breathed that sigh of relief and thought that even though I might never use my tent again, it would always have a good home.
An hour later the doorbell rang and a neighbor and her daughter were standing there. It seems that the girl was going on a backpacking trip with the girl scouts next month and needed a tent. How much did I want and how good was the tent?
I spent a good 15 minutes boring them with "delightful" backpacking stories that included Walrus references. I showed them how to set it up and when they asked how much I wanted for it I hesitated...then made the girl promise to take care of it as I just gave her the tent.
I am sure that it has a good home and will feel useful for many more years.
As part of the deal with myself and my wife I put some old backpacking gear out. Some of my car camping tents and my older backpacking tents got set up on the front lawn. The point of this thread being I got to thinking about my old Walrus Swift tent.
The more I thought about it the more I bumped up the price whenever anyone inquired. I guess that I was hoping to put it out of range of the Saturday garage sale type. I did the same thing with my old Cannondale CAAD3.
I kept thinking of the 10 years of trail use that the tent had given me. Out of those 10 years the tent and I had seen 8 of them end with snow. Through the rain, wind and snow that little tent kept me warm, dry and with peace of mind.
Later, during a lull, I crawled inside and a flood of memories hit me. From the very first gust of wind that never touched me to the 3 days of blowing snow near Siberian Pass I remembered how much I loved my Walrus.
After the moment passed I turned to get out and realized why I quit using my tent. I had to scrunch my shoulders and neck to get out and the memory of trying to change clothes flared up. I just got too old and couldn't pull off the near contortionist moves to use such a low tent. Too bad, because everything else screamed that it was perfect tent.
As the day wore on I thought that I had escaped sending that sweet little tent to another home, a home that might have included little respect and much neglect.
I don't know what I had been thinking. When we pulled the signs down and closed the garage door, I breathed that sigh of relief and thought that even though I might never use my tent again, it would always have a good home.
An hour later the doorbell rang and a neighbor and her daughter were standing there. It seems that the girl was going on a backpacking trip with the girl scouts next month and needed a tent. How much did I want and how good was the tent?
I spent a good 15 minutes boring them with "delightful" backpacking stories that included Walrus references. I showed them how to set it up and when they asked how much I wanted for it I hesitated...then made the girl promise to take care of it as I just gave her the tent.
I am sure that it has a good home and will feel useful for many more years.