What a Texas-Size Yard Sale Looks Like

There are several ways folks in Texas sell their unwanted, unused household clutter. Craig's List may do for some items, and newspaper ads may work for furniture and appliances, but the majority of folks prefer to set out some tables in their driveways or yards and put up a few signs around the neighborhoods and have a yard sale. The best days for yard sales (or garage sales, if the goods are actually inside the garage rather than in the driveway) are Fridays and Saturdays.

Rosanky, Texas, a small community about an hour southeast of Austin, holds a community-wide yard sale a couple of times during the year. Everyone who wants to participate pays $10 for a spot in a field at the intersection of two busy farm roads. Sometimes, there are just a few folks who set up tables, and sometimes there are many.

Today was their spring yard sale. I invited my mother to go with me to see what kind of treasures were sitting on the yard sale tables. That's the reason people go to yard sales, you know. It's because in the midst of all the unwanted household items scattered in haphazard piles, there might be something of incredible value waiting to be found. Urban legends abound with stories of the treasures people have found at yard sales...old masterpieces, fabulous jewelry, rare coins, valuable antiques...the list is endless, and probably true.

So, my mother and I headed to Rosanky to see what we could find.

Would you like to see some of the sights? Here is a collection of photos from the Rosanky semi-annual community-wide yard sale.

Rows of tables line the field. Some vendors bring their own cabanas, some bring big umbrellas....  (that's my mom holding a music box she found.)

Some bring their own campers, like this vintage black and red camper named "Road King Blvd".

These two were sitting under an umbrella while they kept an eye on their goodies. It was hot today, so anyone who had a little shade had a reason to smile.

Today, I found an old door with intricate carvings of flowers under the glass window. It was probably the front door of some cute little cottage built in the early twentieth century. If I had to pick a decade, I would probably say the 1920's. The price tag said $75.

At another booth, I found what looks like an old school house bell sitting on a milk crate. If you look behind the white stool, you can see an old pump faucet. 

Here is an old gas  heater for $50. I have a couple just like this in my old home, and they put out the warmest heat on cold winter mornings. I love standing in front of the grill as the hot air radiates up toward the ceiling. 

Someone apparently has a green thumb. They brought several little pots of cacti, aloe vera and mother-in-law tongues to sell. In the upper right hand corner, there is a poster sized pink print of Hanna Montana. 

I decided this skull was the oddest thing at the yard sale. It is the skull of a javalina, a type of feral hog found in Texas. The teeth have been painted pink and a stylized sun with pink and turquoise rays have been painted in the forehead. 

This sculpture of a bearded gentleman smoking a pipe was not real heavy. It felt like some kind of pottery. He's not the kind of statue that works with my decor or I would have bought him. He's great.

This lady is looking through a table piled with all kinds of odds and ends. When everything is jumbled up like this, it is easy for a treasure to remain hidden for a long time, so even when the yard sale has been in progress for several hours, the shoppers who take the time to dig through the stuff occasionally find a hidden jewel.

Not everyone who pays their $10 fee for a spot in the field is a spring-cleaning home-maker. There are also vendors who make a living selling arts and crafts. This vendor specializes in Texas rustic wood items. The four crates in the lower left are from the Houston branch of the Carnation company bottling plant. I suspect they were used for milk bottles.

Texans like leather, and this vendor brought a variety of leather pouches, purses and wallets to sell.

Now, after showing you a bunch of the items that were for sale, I have to tell you about the best part of the Rosanky yard sale. First of all, as I walked around the tables, I kept hearing some pigs squeal now and then. I assumed some one had a pen of pigs for sale. I have never seen farm animals offered for sale at a yard sale, but, hey, this one is in the middle of a field just outside a farm town, so it could happen....

Suddenly, a man came walking across the field, holding a little piglet by the hind feet, and he was carrying on a conversation with folks as he passed by.

I didn't hear what he was saying. It wasn't long until I saw him running off to the edge of the yard sale field with a big net in his hand, the kind fishermen use to scoop big fish out of the water. Folk were following him and grinning. I asked, because I am just plain nosy, "What's the deal with the pigs?" The vendor closest to me answered that he wasn't sure, but he thought it was some kind of contest. "So what's the prize?" I asked him. He wasn't sure, maybe some bar-b-que or something. 

Looking up, I saw a young girl running toward me, chasing another little piglet. Folks were laughing and cheering. They were yelling directions to the girl, giving her advice on how to catch the piglet. Meanwhile, the piglet ran right past me. 

After asking some more questions, the story I finally got was that the piglets had gotten out of their pen, and kind-hearted folks were all doing what they could to help the farmer catch his pigs. This one got away.

What a yard sale! I had a wonderful time and hope I get the opportunity to attend the next one Rosanky holds.