Garage sales and getting OLD

Ah yes, it is the season. Ads in the paper and on the radio. Hand-printed signs along the streetside all advertising “Garage Sale” along with location plus times and dates. Spring, like right now, and fall seem to be favored times but if one looks a sale seems to be announced about any weekend year around.

Seldom is the reason for the sale announced. Words like: Moving, Estate Sale, and Divorce sometimes appear but usually, if the surface is scratched one could suspect that the seller has just accumulated too much “stuff” and is attempting to make a little more room in their home. For some, it may even be a bit of a side business but that would bring up the need to pay sales tax on the proceeds which seems to be mostly ignored.

Grannie Annie and this old guy seldom take the bait and stop by the advertised sale but we know of friends that seem to make such visits their semi-occupation. We might even suspect that it is a business, find bargains, stock up and then when the time seems optimum have your own garage sale. What the heck there are worse hobbies!

Now moving up the scale a bit there are the estate sales generally held at the Red Willow County Fairgrounds. I poked my nose in recently at the two-weekend sessions disposing of years of accumulation for Don and Suzy Burton. Lots of mementos from travel and accumulations from long time business. Two days’ worth with a professional auctioneer selling all that “good stuff”. Great place to visit with old and new friends and catch up on the neighborhood news.

That brings up a comment from a friend. “What I tell my kids is that after I die all that stuff I’ve accumulated will be your problem to get rid of! Consider it payback for all the trouble you have caused us in your growing up!” so said Gene. My mom had a similar outlook on life and it took a year or so to clear the block of all her treasurers. Such is life.

Speaking of life, this week will mark my 86th birthday. That will be 86 times around the sun and working on number 87. Borrowing most of the following from Pastor Jeff Kelley who also just marked another birthday. Let us rejoice a bit as I say that I’m profoundly grateful for the following reasons:

I’m thankful for God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who loves me with unconditional and everlasting love. In scripture, the psalmist says there’s never been a day in his life he’s not been connected in a relationship with God. In Psalm 139, the psalmist declares God’s known him since he was conceived and fearfully and wonderfully made inside of his mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13, 14). Today, I thank God He’s loved me from the moment I was conceived!

I’m thankful for my parents, Doane and Frances. King Solomon writes, “May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful!” (Proverbs 23:25). I’ve known I was loved and wanted from the moment I was born. My parents rejoiced as they carried me into the Old Stone Church to meet Jesus. Then later to be baptized at the Memorial Methodist Church in McCook which set me apart for God as their son. They taught me faith and family, study and play, freedom and responsibility, and instilled within me a work ethic that continues to serve me well. Today, I thank God for my parents who loved me enough to provide everything I needed mentally, physically, relationally, and spiritually!

I’m thankful for saving faith in Jesus! While there’s never been a day in my life when I didn’t believe in God, I was taught I needed saving faith in Jesus. My life has been lived with the assurance the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are with me, working every situation together for my good as I love the Lord, and is always at work, even when it doesn’t look or feel like it. Today, I thank God I’ve never been alone, and the best is yet to come!

I’m thankful for my wonderful wife now known as “Grannie Annie”! She is the best thing that ever happened to me and next month it will mark 64 years married and counting. So I thank God for the vivacious lady who gets more beautiful with each passing year!

Children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren we have been especially blessed to have them nearby. The Good Lord has truly smiled on me by letting me live this long healthy and exceptional life. May it ever be so with you and yours as you too come to mark another birthday.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail