Every time I go on a “dig” and I am lucky enough to find an attic or basement door to the past, my hope is to discover something rare and valuable. The truth is - it’s rare that I find something valuable. Fortunately, more often than not, I find something with an intrinsic value.
A month ago I was returning with my wife and daughter from the Friends of the Newtown Library Book Sale. Interested in keeping my stress level low, I decided to skip the highway and drive the longer “back” way home. It was about 4pm, and as we rounded a hill I turned my head to the right and suddenly everything went into slow motion. There was an estate sale closing down that I must have missed from my usual scan of the local listings.
This is where the sound effects technician would cue the vocal effect to make my “NO!” into a deep and elongated, “Noooooooooooooo!” As the closing garage door and accompanying dumpster disappeared from site I felt dread and disappointment settle in the pit of my stomach.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
I continued to curse internally and question how I could have missed this one sale just a town away from home. As we pulled to a stop at the next intersection I noticed a car parked to the side and a lone figure coaxing the estate sale sign from the ground.
I moved past the stop sign and lowered the window yelling across my wife in the passenger seat, “Is the sale on tomorrow!?” My wife gave a half sigh and tensed as I was now on the main road exposing us to cars actually going somewhere. “It’s on from 10-4 tomorrow!” I heard the reply as the grassy curb finally let go of the sign. I accelerated away with a renewed sense of purpose and a plan for the next day.