Throng Turns Out For Bargains Annual Junior League Sale Brings Crowd To Fairgrounds
The chilled Saturday morning aside, Spokane bargain hunters were in a lather.
An hour before the annual Junior League Rummage Sale’s start, a crowd huddled near the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds doors, scheming about where to go and how to get there first.
“There’s a map on the door,” said Ray Grimes, a studied, rummagesale regular with a longing for electronics. “You have to head to your area right away.”
“The good stuff goes,” said Bonnie Fiebelkorn, intent on scoring some clothes.
Full-body padding is optional, but it’s an accepted fact - scrambling for deals is a full-contact sport.
“It can be like a rock concert,” Fiebelkorn said.
“One year, they knocked my father down,” said a woman positioned near the line’s front reading a paperback copy of “How to make a man fall in love with you.”
By 8 a.m., nearly 100 rummage sale faithful waited in a starved pack for the start. A few minutes prior to the opening onslaught, the line stretched longer than a city block.
“It’s usually a pretty congenial crowd up front,” said Grimes. “We’ve been here so long, we get to know each other.”
Once the doors opened, people dashed to land deals. A Junior Leaguer called out red-light specials over a loudspeaker.
“For you Steve Martin fans, there’s a copy of Steve Martin’s ‘Wild and Crazy Album’ in the Sight and Sound Department,” she said.
Want some flash? Score a sequined fish tie. Feeling a little chilly? Throw on a llama wool coat. In the mood for some political powerbrokers? Bring home George and Barbara Bush in life-sized cardboard.
With nearly $100,000 in donated items discounted by as much as a half, there’s something for everyone, said Candace Dahlstrom, chairwoman of the sale at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds that ended Saturday afternoon.
“We turn this huge exhibit hall into a department store with about 25 departments,” she said. “We have Nieman Marcus things here that you can’t even get in Spokane. Gucci, too.”
Dahlstrom said she hopes to raise about $50,000 from the sale, with the money going to league-backed projects such as Anna Ogden Hall and the YWCA. Leftover items are given to the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
Two hours into the sale, Marylyn Conachen and her daughter, Lisa, had filled a shopping cart and four arms with everything from a bicycle to baby clothes to a puzzle.
Heading toward a check-out stand, Conachen laughs at her daughter’s guess they’ll total out at $25.
“I’ve never written a check for less than $100,” said Conachen, who hasn’t missed a league rummage sale in 28 years.
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