ONE MAN'S JUNK IS ANOTHER MAN'S YARD SALE

A rocking chair sat in a trunk outside the home of Kenneth Griffith at 918 S. Ellis St. Griffith has had three yard sales in the past five years.

Toys rested near the curb of North Main Street in the Maglone's yard during a sale.

Kenneth Griffith of Cape Girardeau says he would rather hold a yard sale than throw the stuff away: "That's what a yard sale is for, isn't it?"

Griffith held his third and final yard sale for the year last Friday and Saturday. He wasn't alone; there were more than 100 yard and garage sales advertised in the Southeast Missourian's classified section last weekend.

Griffith said yard sales offer a good chance to sell items that he and his family don't need anymore while maybe making a little money.

"Me and my kids just throw a bunch of stuff together and set it out in the yard," he said shrugging his shoulders.

Seems simple enough.

His daughter "threw in" some dolls, old books and kitchenware. His son had just bought a new bedroom suit so he wanted to sell his old one.

Griffith contributed a slew of other odds and ends, enough to fill his front yard, and waited for the people to show up.

While talking to a reporter, Griffith was interrupted by an older woman inquiring about an antique rocker that turns out to be his daughter's.

"She'll take $25 for it," he tells the woman.

"That the bottom dollar?" the woman asks suspiciously. Griffith's silence is answer enough: "All right, I'll take it," she says.

Griffith put the money casually in his pants pockets and continued: "They also give other people a chance to find a good bargain," he said. "Where else you going to find anything for 25 cents?"

He walked over to a table with some of what he called "hard-to-find" items on it. There's a clock shaped like a unicorn, several beer mugs with humorous sayings on them. Next to the table is a bicycle from 1933.

"The unusual things go quick," Griffith said.

Mary Catt of Cape Girardeau is the woman who purchased the rocker. She said she goes to yard sales all year.

"I love to make the yard sales, they're right up my alley," she said. "Especially in the spring when people do spring cleaning; that's when you can find your best buys."

She directs the man accompanying her to put the rocker in the trunk and they head for their next stop: Another yard sale, of course.

At a yard sale across town, Jeralyn Maglone said she's having one because she and her family are moving in a couple months. She is selling, among countless other things, a couple of Barney lamps, tons of clothes, a bowling ball, a motorcycle and ... a decorative toilet seat plaque?

"If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie," it read.

Maglone said the point of having a yard sale isn't simply to make money. "Well, honestly, we have them to get rid of stuff we don't need anymore since we're moving," she said. "And to help people save money. Everybody likes to save money."

Maglone said she likes having yard sales well enough but she especially likes going to yard sales.

"I've clothed my whole family with yard-sale clothes," she said.

Jimmie Fischer also holds a periodic yard sale. He has lived at the same house for 57 years and he said he has accumulated a lot of stuff.

"I have eight rooms in there that are full and I have to get rid of some of it from time to time," he said, motioning to his two-story house.

On a table in his front yard is an old-time ice cream freezer, dolls, pillows, watches, birthstones and books.

"I've got a little bit of everything," Fischer said.

He said the main reason he enjoys having yard sales is meeting people: "You never know what kind of person you're going to meet at a yard sale," he said.

That certainly seems true.