Great Glebe Garage Sale

Well, garage sale season is now in full swing. Here in Ottawa, the unofficial opening sale is the Great Glebe Garage Sale.

Every year, on the Saturday after the May long weekend, you will find thousands of people downtown, partaking in the Great Glebe Garage Sale . It's been going on for years. What started as a collection of garage sales has become a real community event. Along with the private garage sales are a good many sales where the money raised goes to various causes. Many of Ottawa's charities…Habitat for Humanity, Ecology Ottawa, Grandmothers to Grandmothers, and so many others, have huge fundraising sales. Along with new and used items they offer crafts, baking and plants.

The Great Glebe is a feast for all your senses. People arrive very early.  Breakfast at home is unnecessary because so many homes offer all kinds of food.  I had lemonade from a young girl raising funds for CHEO (Ottawa's children's hospital) and a peameal bacon sandwich from teens who were raising money for a summer trip to an orphanage in India. Here's a vendor with a sense of humour with her aptly named, breakfast on a stick.

Then there are the smells: all kinds of barbecue offerings plus the fragrance of so many flowering trees. It is possibly the loveliest week to go for a walk because lilacs, crab apples and so many other flowering trees are at their best.

It is a people event. With everyone crowded onto the sidewalks you hear some pretty funny conversations as friends and families try to stay together or find each other . With so many people all over the streets we always bump into someone we know. The highlight of the day for me, at this year's sale was a conversation I had with Clive Doucet. He was a city councillor here in Ottawa for many years and ran for mayor in the last municipal election. He is a fine person, very concerned about the environment. His retirement from civic politics is our loss for sure. What a wonderful mayor he would have made.

Musicians are playing on many corners. My absolute favourite sound from this event is this lively jazz band. Every year they are out there, accepting donations for the Ottawa food bank.

Of course there are all kinds of interesting sights: crowds of happy shoppers of all ages, people walking down streets carrying all sorts of bulky articles and beautifully manicured gardens.

After all is said and done, it is a shopping day. Unlike shopping in a mall where everything is predictable, this is fun, surprising shopping. That's what I like; the unpredictability of it all. You never really know what you will find. The challenge is to buy only what you truly need. If only I could follow my own advice. I didn't exactly need this; my favourite buy from this year's event!

Really, who could resist this Little Tykes slide for $6.00? Not I! While it awaits Avery's next visit, it  has taken up residence in a neighbour's yard.

You may not find what you are looking for at the Great Glebe Garage sale but it is always an entertaining walk on a spring day.