Spring is garage sale season throughout the region, and in Marshall it gets off to a fast start.

Our city-wide garage sale weekend takes place in early May and always offers something for everyone. It’s a great opportunity to get out and find some bargains.

I never make it to every sale on the city-wide weekend. I start with the paper’s advertisements and map. I figure if people advertise they’re serious about their sale. They’re likely to have more of a selection.

There are a lot of others who just set up shop. They’re worth an extra stop. You never know what you might find.

I’m at a point in my life when I don’t need much. I have plenty of clothes, housewares, and other standard garage sale merchandise.

Still there are usually some good finds. This year I found four things at the city-wide sale. One of them was a set of viewmaster reels, including three from the old television show Mannix.

I also found a spirograph set that reminded me of the one we used to have as kids. The other two finds were a box of tailors chalk and an advertising tape measure. I spent a grand total of $7 for all of that.

Garage sales are an example of capitalism at its finest. They give homeowners a chance to run businesses for two or three days and to serve a wide range of customers. The prices are very favorable. They’re usually much less than what someone pays in a store.

First Lutheran Church took the garage sale traditions to new heights this spring by having a give-away sale. Everything was free. They had some nice stuff. I took home a foot-long scarecrow for one of my houseplants.

They’ve maybe started a trend. Most people aren’t concerned by how much money they make on a garage sale.

The hope is just that someone can use the merchandise, that it will be possible to keep it out of the landfill. It’s good whenever a buyer finds something.

Garage sales are a tradition that seems destined to continue. Almost everyone accumulates more than they can use. It’s a tradition that goes back to the Depression era, when people saved almost everything with the thought that they might be able to use it. Things have changed somewhat since then. Now many people aren’t as interested in antiques or heirlooms. They’re more into minimalism.

In the past the University of Minnesota Extension Service offered a program called “Who gets Grandma’s Yellow Pie Plate?” Now it’s more of a question of who’s going to take it. Even so, the garage sale tradition continues. It attracts a wide variety of people, from young mothers looking for kids clothes to men interested in buying tools. Hopefully it continues to attract young people, especially college students and young adults who are setting up a first home.

A television commercial for a regional flea market proclaimed that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Our garage sale tradition is living proof that the statement is true.

— Jim Muchlinski is a lontime reporter in southwest Minnesota