Credits
Host: Maggie BlahaTheme music: “Thanks for the Memory” written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, performed by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in the 1938 film of the same name
I learned about Coco and Sarah’s yard sale on Facebook, and the description piqued my curiosity:
“I’m moving down the street after 6 years, countless roommates, and a few squatters, and Sarah and I are selling some precious items and a few pieces of trash. Records! Books! Furniture! Artwork! Kitchenware! Clothing! Some things that may actually belong to you! Appliances! Electronics! Kitsch! Souls/soles! Bikes! Potentially a car! We’ll have beer and bloodies if you prefer to just browse and help us ring in a new chapter. Tell your friends.”
While only Coco was moving, the landlord suggested that both Coco and Sarah do something about the sheer volume of stuff accumulating in their basement. And so, they decided to have a yard sale.
From a Jane Fonda workout record to dishes right out of a 1970s dinner party, Coco didn’t really feel any regret about what she was practically giving away. There were a few items—like some mid-century furniture pieces and an old turntable—that sold for less than they were worth, though, and Coco admitted that it felt a little strange.
Coco and Sarah are self-proclaimed hoarders who realized that it was time to give up a lot of their stuff. According to Coco, “Everyone should own [certain things] for a minute.”
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Episode transcript
INTRO. Maggie: You’re listening to Thrift: What Your Garage Sale Says About You, a podcast that explores the stories behind the things we once loved and are ready to let go of.
THEME MUSIC. (30 seconds)
Maggie: I’m Maggie Blaha, and if you tuned into last week’s introductory episode, you know that the idea for this podcast came from finding an old inscription in a second-hand copy of Judith Martin’s Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior that I bought at a local library book sale. While I really love old etiquette books, I only bought Miss Manners because of the inscription and have yet to read it. I was curious—curious about the previous owner, curious about the man (Doug) who gave it to her. And this curiosity inspired me to start a podcast about the stories behind the things people decide to sell at garage sales.
A couple weekends ago, I found a Facebook event page for a moving sale that two young women—Coco and Sarah—were having in the Inman Park area of Atlanta. The page description read:
I'm moving down the street after 6 years, countless roommates, and a few squatters, and Sarah and I are selling some precious items and few pieces of trash. Records! Books! Furniture! Artwork! Kitchenware! Clothing! Some things that may actually belong to you! Appliances! Electronics! Kitsch! Souls/soles! Bikes! Potentially a car! We'll have beer and bloodies if you prefer to just browse and help us ring in a new chapter. Tell your friends.
The post was funny. It had personality, and I knew that I wanted Coco and Sarah to be my first guests on the podcast.
TRANSITION MUSIC. (10-15 seconds)
Maggie: It was 2 in the afternoon on one of the hottest days we’ve had this summer when I pulled up to Coco and Sarah’s house. Although the yard sale started at 10am, there still seemed to be a lot of unsold items, which either means that they just had a lot of stuff to unload or that not many people were out and about on a sweltering Saturday to stumble upon the sale.
The handful of people who were there when I arrived all seemed knew Coco and Sarah: Coco’s parents were buying a lot of kitschy knick knacks they probably didn’t need; a woman was running in and out of the house, trying on different skirts and tops that were hanging on the clothing rack; and a couple of guys were standing around drinking beer.
I figured it was only right for me to make a purchase before I asked for an interview, so I started perusing the book table. It was an eclectic array of tattered paperbacks, from obscure books of literary criticism to The Bell Jar. And every book on the table, at least at 2pm, was selling for under a $1. I bought a vintage copy of the Nancy Drew mystery The Clue of the Leaning Chimney and a Eudora Welty memoir of sorts called One Writer’s Beginnings. (I regret not buying a Jane Fonda workout record and a set of dishes straight out of a 1970s dinner party, but I was too broke even for a yard sale.)
For Coco and Sarah, this yard sale was a vital and necessary purge.
AUDIO CLIP #1
Maggie: I think most of us use a basement, an attic, a garage to dump all our things that have what Coco and Sarah call “questionable origins.” Either we’ve had something for so long that we don’t remember how we got it, or maybe it never actually belonged to us. Have you ever borrowed something from a friend but forgot to give it back? Or has a friend ever asked you to store something for them, but over time you forget it’s not yours?
Just a quick ethical question to ponder: Is it okay to sell your friends’ stuff if you’ve been holding onto it for so long that you can’t remember whose it is?
AUDIO CLIP #2
Maggie: So why do we hold onto stuff that we no longer and possibly never needed? I mean, the fact that we shove these things into the bowels and extensions of our homes proves that we don’t use them, don’t even want to look at them. Yet, it takes us forever to actually get rid of stuff.
AUDIO CLIP #3
Maggie: Coco was ready to sell everything she’d been holding onto for years. There weren’t too many regrets about what she was practically giving away to strangers. And she knew that many of the things she sold were about to start a new life that she could never give them.
AUDIO CLIP #4
Maggie: Coco was ready to sell everything she’d been holding onto for years. There weren’t too many regrets about what she was practically giving away to strangers. And she knew that many of the things she sold were about to start a new life that she could never give them.
AUDIO CLIP #5
Maggie: As I mentioned in the first episode, the beauty of buying things second-hand is that they almost always carry surprises from their previous owners—books especially. Our books often become receptacles for ticket stubs and receipts, a place to hide love letters and postcards from prying eyes, and wallets for spare cash we never think we’ll need. Coco and Sarah didn’t go through any of the books before they stickered and tabled them, leaving them to wonder if they could have left anything potentially incriminating between the pages.
AUDIO CLIP #6
Maggie: Even though Coco was ready to let all the things she was selling go, she and Sarah admit that it was hard for them to get to that point. It’s hard to go through your possessions and learn to accept the fact that they’ll belong to someone else.
AUDIO CLIP #7
Maggie: That’s it for this week’s episode of Thrift.Thanks for listening.
