A True Story

I will tell you a story about an elderly couple I met. They were perhaps 65 or so. I met them at a swap meet. They had just moved up from L.A. All they had to their name was a beat up station wagon.

Each week at the swap meet I'd check in on them. At first they had a tiny booth with a few necklaces they had strung together with some beads and inexpensive supplies. Soon they had garage sale finds for sell and more and more jewelry that they'd made.

Eventually they had two booths on a corner at the swapmeet, and lived on a houseboat in Morro Bay, CA. Obviously they were doing very well. I asked her the secret, and she said, "Stay out of stores."

They also lived near a bead store, and had a deal with the owner to buy all the discontinued beads at next to nothing so he could keep his store fresh. The swapmeet was on Sundays so they would get the newspaper the moment it came out on Friday and hit all the yard sales early Sat. morning and then sell the stuff on Sunday at the swapmeet. So they worked every weekend, and I'm sure they spent the week making jewelry and such. I am always encouraged when I think of them.