The other day on Facebook, I got a memory of my Dad and my dog Cali spending time together when I was helping him with a yard sale at the lake. The photo was from five years ago, and it brought back a flood of memories about yard sales of years past. Our family always had huge multi-family yard sales at my parent’s cottage, which later became their home at Lac La Nonne, Alberta. As I reposted this photo on Facebook, I got many comments about how the sales went on through rain, shine, sunburn, and snow. Yes, we even had at least one sale when it snowed on the May long weekend.
The sale was always a gathering place for families, and the more families, the better because that just made the sale larger and gave more variety. In fact, after my dad stopped having these sales, people would still come to his yard at Lac La Nonne on the May long weekend and ask if he would have another sale.
As you can tell, yard sales were a massive part of our May long weekend ritual. But before that, I recall my parents were among the first people to have a yard sale in the 70s at their home in Edmonton. I remembered that it was so different when people first started having yard sales that a reporter had come out to my parent’s sale and interviewed my dad. At that time, the City of Edmonton required a city license to have a yard sale, and you posted them in the newspaper.
So off, I went to Newspapers.com to see if I could find the listing. I searched the address, and there was the classified ad from April 7, 1978. By 1985 my dad had realized that having more families meant you’d have more people come because of the sheer variety of things.
Over the years, the sale included more families, and the hours got slightly shorter.
These ads are from 1985, and the one below is from 2001
I read the paper for a couple of days, trying to find that article in the Edmonton Journal (which is on Newspapers.com but the Publisher’s Extra Subscription), but I never found it. Maybe he was interviewed by a reporter from The Edmonton Sun.
I found a couple of articles about my mom when I searched the family home address, but I’ll save them for an upcoming post about my mom in the news.
When I searched for my dad’s name, I found this photo when he’d participated in a drive to raise funds for the Heart Fund. His picture appeared in the February 14 and 15th editions in 1963.
My dad only had a few careers in his life. He was a hired hand in his teens, and when he left home in Sion, Alberta, he moved to Edmonton, where he became a driver for Palm Dairies in November 1953.
He worked an early morning shift at Palm Dairies, delivering milk to downtown restaurants.
Then on April 13, 1959, he got a job at London Life, where he worked until he retired on May 9, 1992. During his career, he was a sales agent, and when he retired, he was a sales team manager in Edmonton. I’m sure that’s why my dad loved our yard sales because he always had the gift of the gab and loved selling, and it was through selling that he made many lifelong friendships.
My dad was also in the Barrhead Leader when he’d won a $1,000 shopping spree.
During those four minutes, he picked up $680 worth of groceries.
As I recall, my dad had gone to the store to scope out the layout and decide on his strategy for getting the most he could during his four-minute shopping spree.
As you can see, my dad was never famous or infamous, but he did find himself in the news. Have you looked for your family in the news? You may be surprised by what you might find.
This article will be transferred and expanded on in my endeavor to write my family history. I store my photos at FOREVER, and I’m writing my book using Artisan 6. If you’d like to do the same, ask me how. I can help.
This article also has affiliate links for Newspapers.com as well as for Publisher’s Extra, which is required to view The Edmonton Journal. These link help generate income to support this blog. But do not cost more for you, the consumer. #ad