Scouting For Bargains?

It is our Scouts Rummage Sale this afternoon. Over the past few years, we have made some useful purchases here. This year I may not be going. The temptation to buy must be overcome- I must not add to the stuff which must be packed for moving in January. We can offload some of our unwanted Stuff, said Bob.

So I will be taking a box of goodies down to the Village Hall this morning -books, ornaments and other bits and pieces which may be of use to others.

Including a blue and yellow ‘cache pot’ [I think that’s the correct name] which can hold a pot plant and is more elegant than sticking the plastic garden centre pot on an old saucer. I feel vaguely guilty about this item [no photo, mainly because I cannot find my camera and suspect I’ve left it in school]

When we lived in London, our house was on the main road, but on the corner of a close, and all the residents there were senior citizens. The day we moved out [August 1995] one of the little old ladies came up and spoke to me “Are you leaving, dear?” I explained we were off to the Midlands. She returned a little later in the day with this cache pot. “I have to give you a parting gift, to remind you of us” she said. She said how lovely it was that whenever I walked past with my little girls we always smiled and seemed so happy, and we had been such lovely neighbours.

I feel guilty because

• I did not even know her name – in fact, I could not remember ever speaking to her before!
• I wish I had been a ‘lovely neighbour’ to her – and not just someone who smiled as she rushed by with the girls, en route to school  [maybe I had said ‘Good Morning!’ occasionally, I don’t know] but she clearly felt we had a relationship, and it mattered to her far more than it did to me.
• I suspect she went out specially and bought the pot for me –but I do not like it and have not used it in nearly 20 years. I have just looked at it collecting dust on the shelf in the garage, and wondered what happened to that generous lady.

I know most of my neighbours in this road,I shall miss them when we load all our stuff into the removal van and set off down south. But the cachepot is not going with us. I am determined to declutter. I am also determined to make sure that when I get to our next home, I will work hard to get to know the neighbours properly, and promptly, and learn their names. It may take time and effort, but like our village Boy Scouts, I will Be Prepared!

10am UPDATE. Just returned from Village Hall with two huge boxes of stuff. The Sale is NEXT Week – my dearly beloved had the wrong date!!