No gold in those false teeth or trash dumps

Spring has arrived, my most favorite time of the year. Last year I saw my first flock of robins in April. When they first arrive from their winter haven they prance around my front lawn in groups. Later they disperse to mate. They also disperse my Youngstown winter blues.

Another harbinger of the spring is garage sales. After many thousands of miles and sales for the past 28 years of my retirement, I am calling it quits.

After reaching a ripe old age of 90, I no longer own a car, so I can’t drive. I estimate having attended 16,000 garage sales.

Dump rat

The focus of my autobiographical book “Rag Man, Rag Man” is my summer vacation of 1937, at age 13, when I worked the East Side city dump, in front of East High School, six days a week from dawn to dusk. I was truly a dump rat.

Always hoping to strike it rich, I have yet to find that treasure among the trash. It is still a learning experience, since I have often said, people have everything to offer but the kitchen sink for sale.

In the spring of 2014 it happened, lo and behold, there was a self-standing sink at a garage sale. This was the second day of the sale.

I rarely attend after the first day and then you have to get there early to be the early bird to catch the worm. One of the most unusual items I have ever seen at a garage sale was a set of false teeth, I didn’t buy them. If they were gold filled, that would have been a different story, because they would have been worth their weight in gold.

memorable moments

My two most memorable garage sale moments that I would like to forget were when I ended up at the hospital emergency due to a dog bite and a bee sting.

I will surely miss garage sales. I named my book “Rag Man, Rag Man,” but “Junk Man, Junk Man” would have been more appropriate.

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and member of the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.