Monday, July 26, 2010

A Record-Breaking Sidewalk Sale!


Well, Saturday was quite fun at 2nd & Blanchard. We had our sidewalk sale and a record-shattering six people (myself included) got in on the action. I had all my crap for everyone to paw through, but the best sellers were the CDs and the LPs. I didn't actually sell about 20 78s, but I'm pretty sure that most people who bought them had no idea that you need a special turntable for them. I tried to explain to one guy, but he seemed to oblivious to my warnings. Well, I tried. Of course, you can't have a sidewalk, sale without a lemonade stand. That was Tommy's racket and boy, he really cleaned up. Observe:


He had a cool hat with a lemon on it. He also wore a lemonade shirt. You can see my two prized items in back of him (that didn't sell): the framed smurf hook rug and the Mariners vs. Yankees chess set. Anyhow, I totally expected Tommy to get bored with it after 20 minutes, but he stuck with it most of the afternoon. He ended up making around $30. For a six-year-old, that's some huge money.

So everything got underway around noon. People came and went. I fell into a nickel poker game with ID and Walnuts for something like four hours. At my high point, I was up at least $20. Yeah, that was $20 in pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Then I trash talked Walnuts, the gods reversed my luck and he and ID won half of it back. I still came out ahead and it was really pleasant sitting out on the sidewalk, playing cards and drinking beer for the entire afternoon.

Like so many things at the Rivoli, this event turned into a barbecue. Witness:

The next day was Martin's birthday, so he claimed the grill and did up a bunch of chicken. It was pretty good, though this new charcoal I got from Trader Joe's made everything taste slightly funny.

I eventually folded my operation and took my stuff down/upstairs. Damn, those 78s are as heavy as cement! Anyhow, it seems that I made around $50 from the sale and $10 from the poker. They played a game in the basement later in the evening, but by that time, I had totally conked out. It had been a really pleasant day. Here is a final shot of Martin's chicken:

I'm pretty sure this won't be the last sidewalk sale of the season. Stay tuned for more details.

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