Britishisms & Bowling

[ovc88guelph]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "grannybat84112" 
<grannybat at h...> wrote:
> MMcK wrote:
> > 
> > OK, now I'm officially confused. As a (North)American, I have 
never 
> > heard of a Swap Meet.... A garage or yard sale I know about. 
> 
> Are you located in the far north, where winters are brutal and 
> regular? Every swap meet I've ever attended has been held in an 
> outdoor venue; flea markets tend to be indoor affairs. Maybe swap 
> meets just aren't common in wet, windy regions.
> 
> 
> Grannybat

Not exactly the far north. The winters are intermittently brutal and 
irregular. Today is a balmy -9, with a foot of the white stuff on 
the ground, but tomorrow is going to have a high of -23. However, 
summers are lovely and warm. There is hardly a weekend from May to 
Oct. where one couldn't go to a garage sale (or several) if one's 
heart desired. In fact, there is a whole subculture that spend 
entire weekends at garage sales. Most people who have held garage 
sales have horror stories to tell of chasing away people who arrive 
at 6 a.m. even when the sale is advertised to start at 9! This is 
one of the only places where serious bartering is diligently 
practised, and this seems to be one of the attractions to garage 
sale addicts. Probably, this is why I'm not part of the movement. 
The only time I successfully bartered for something was when I 
repeatedly said no to a model I knew I couldn't afford and therefore 
had no intention of buying. The salesman seemed to think I was 
driving a hard bargain, and kept lowering the price until I could 
afford it! I've tried to do that a few times since, but the 
salespeople can smell my weakness from a mile away!
 
MMcK.