JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

I’ve made my annual pilgrimage and paid my tribute to the god of the Rotary Auction. So has the writer of I Love Bainbridge Island. This year I hoped that a few bags of clothing and a bed frame would help satisfy this hungry deity for another 363 days.

An article in the Seattle Times last weekend (can’t access archives) said the island rummage sale was billed as the largest in the West, whatever that means. I’m always amazed to see the huge amounts of stuff on our small island. And as someone pointed out to me, it seems strange, perhaps, that our affluent community would go crazy over rummage.

Anyone want a Nordic Track?

This picture didn’t come out well, since I had to take it through the windshield. But I couldn’t resist the line of exercise machines. So many are donated that at at the end of the sale when remaining items are given away, one can usually pick up a Nordic Track for free….

Or how about a basket?

A bike?

Maybe a window or a door? Hey, looks like there’s a hot tub too!

I heard a rumor one year that extra hardware from Paul Allen’s house ended up at the Rotary Auction. Who knows whose door knob or window you could own in your own home?!

It’s a celebration of possessions and people, the stuff we once owned and the bargain hunters who call Bainbridge home, things we no longer need and relationships crucial to community. Some items are recycled through the Rotary each year as tradition, to see who will get it this time. The Rotary Auction, especially the calmer Friday night preview, is a place to see and be seen, one of those occasions where I find old friends I haven’t seen in years while searching for the proper used flower pot.

We’ll miss both the Friday night preview/auction and the Saturday sale this year due to Gnomedex. But if you can’t make it to the conference, you might as well go shopping… let me know how it goes…