The line stretched beyond the corner of the Chebeague Island Hall, weaving around parked cars and bicycles. Nearly100 people-some in line for more than an hour-eagerly awaited the 11th Annual Island Commons Yard Sale, set to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday. As the clocked ticked toward the hour and the crowd swelled, a thin piece of string was all that separated the bargain-hunters from the untold treasures inside.
Proudly claiming her place at the head of the line stands Jen Belesca, who staked her claim shortly after 8 a.m.. “I’m an islander, but this is the first year I’ve ever been first,” she gushes, clutching a cup of coffee, causing her neighbor in line to roll her eyes and joke, “She’s been telling [that to] everyone she sees.” (Belesca beat out the twin girls from West Bath who caught the 8 a.m. ferry just to make the sale.)
At one minute before 10 a.m., the countdown begins. From this vantage point, the crowd can see bureaus, couches, beds, lawnmowers, chairs, golf clubs and even a small water cooler crowded onto the brick walkway outside the Chebeague Island Hall and Community Center. Inside, as everybody knows, the place is bulging with bargains.
At precisely 10 a.m., Anne Thaxter, an Island Commons board member who helps organize the sale, unleashes the crowd, with a warning to the volunteers standing nearby: “Don’t get in front of them; you may get flattened!”
And the crowd storms the hall, clamoring to find the best deal. The furniture is quickly claimed, guarded by loyal children and spouses. Eager eyes scan, arms flash to grab and reach above, below and around each other to examine the polished, priced and organized treasures. The veterans claim their items quickly, leaving chaos and orange “Sold” stickers in their wakes. The hall is stuffy and loud with the excited voices of prospective buyers and bargainers, a scene compared by some to the legendary bridal sale of Filene’s Basement. Outside, where there is already a line to pay for items, people display their discoveries and are happy to chat about what some jokingly refer to as the “Chebeague Island Mall” or the “most amazing recycling event.”
The real work for the sale begins long before half of Chebeague Island lines up outside the hall. For months in advance of the August event, Anne Thaxter, Charlotte “Pommy” Hatfield and Nancy Olney sort through donations from islanders, price and sort the thousands of items. A week before Sale Day, the three women are gathered at Thaxter’s house, debating the price of a few brass candlesticks, fluctuating between $8 and $10. The final amount depends on what these three think people will pay for an item. “We want to make money, but we also want to sell things,” Hatfield explains.
In Thaxter’s cottage, strewn with framed prints, old suitcases and boxes of newspaper-wrapped mysteries that will be unpacked and displayed at the sale, it seems as though they are divulging the secrets of the universe when they explain their methodology behind pricing items. The three do some research on the Internet (they once discovered that some donated porcelain figurines were actually Hummels, and worth a lot more than they initially thought). Some donations go directly to dealers, where they fetch more than from the yard sale.
In addition to pricing the items, the three women clean and polish. “Pommy makes everything look beautiful,” Thaxter says, jokingly understating Hatfield’s crucial role in the sale. Hatfield, whose yard sale experience began at age six at a card table in New Hampshire, is an expert and always has the final say on the price of an item. “I love yard sales,” she says as she places a price tag on the candlesticks: $8.
Hatfield was president of the Island Commons board of directors when the first sale was held in 1998. That was just two years after the Island Commons Resource Center, which she helped found, was incorporated. “We wanted an event to raise money, promote volunteers and put us on the map,” Hatfield recalls. “It’s just taken off.”
On average, the sale raises between $6,000 and $9,000, with “big-ticket” items helping boost the totals.
Back at the yard sale, the volunteers are distinct with their green aprons and visors. Among them is Leanne Krudner, the Commons’ activities and community relations coordinator. “The community support for our organization is amazing,” she remarks, snapping photos of the shoppers and the quickly depleting stockpiles of goods.
Susan West is seated at a table outside the door, manning the cash box. Her mother resides at the Commons, and West says that her mother enjoys a “better quality of life” as a result. There are countless other volunteers, ready to carry things and keep the peace among the enthusiastic-some might say aggressive-bargain-hunters. The final part of Hatfield’s initial goal-of “putting us on the map” -is evident in the number of people here on a sunny Saturday, many of them veterans who “look forward to it every year.”
Fundraising is ongoing at the Commons, a community supported assisted living home that allows Chebeague Islanders to “age in place.” The Commons provides residential care, respite care and adult day care for up to seven residents. The facility is essential, director Beth Wiles says, because “it allows our elders to remain a part of the island community.”
By 1:30 p.m., things are winding down, and the Chebeague community has hauled away around $7,300 in cookware, furniture, books and some pretty weird stuff. The elephant-shaped watering can was gone, as well as Aunt Mildred’s five-piece ceramic dish set in the shape of lobster claws, and the glass slipper filled with what looked like pimentos. Veterans know the prices are cut in half at noon. After that, what doesn’t sell-and it’s never very much-is either donated to the Island Grange, which operates a thrift shop, or hauled to the transfer station for disposal.
As for Jen Belesca, the early bird, she had a successful day, coming home with a “lovely, comfortable couch” that she plans on using for Friday night family movies with her husband and two boys. She recalls her first visits to the sale with her grandmother, helping her hunt down valuable antique glass. This year, says Belesca, snagging the first place in line was a tribute to her late grandmother. Like so much on Chebeague, the yard sale has become a tradition, one that seems destined to carry on for generations to come.
Anna Maine, a Chebeague Island resident, is participating in Working Waterfront’s summer student writer program.