At a car boot sale

from w
Our Geelong East church grounds are green with grass after rain and the large space is abundant for the once-a-month car boot sale. About 25 stalls were set up this morning plus the cake stall, sausage and hamburger sizzle, and book stall where I helped intermittently. The pleasure though is sitting at tables, drinking coffee and yarning with friends and their families, this time the women were telling stories of their youth and early married life - one woman was the daughter of a butcher, another described drinking Expresso Milo - she put a spoonful of Milo in a cup, went down to the milking shed and her mother tugged at a cow's teat to fill the cup with fresh milk! Stories of eating bread and dripping with salt and pepper. Tough meat when the animal was slaughtered traumatically and the adrenalin kicked in. Strange stories about food that we never eat these days.

Anyway, I bought several books - a bundle of Australian Geographic with their magnificant photos and stories, a very old copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
and an autobiographical book by Peter Cawood, a physically disabled man from our congregation. His story is full of humour as well as a story of sometimes alone-ness despite having loving parents.

I guessed at who had been the former owner of the books and felt sadness as they had belonged to one of our church ladies who had passed on some time ago. However now I felt satisfied that I have some of her books to read.

I also purchased a light sponge cake and other sweet edibles, as well as a gift for Peceli of little tomato plants to nurture. Our church organises this car boot sale for several purposes - a bit of fund-raising but also an opportunity to interact with our local community.