Picture a summer yard sale but without the yard. That’s what took place July 11 at Needham’s Center at the Heights. About 20 vendors gathered inside the senior center to sell a wide range of treasures including a cotton candy machine, jewelry and vinyl records. Organized by Aicha Kelley, the Assistant Director of Programming and Transportation, it was the first indoor rummage sale at the senior center.
“We have people selling art, we have people selling books. You get the table and do whatever you want,” said Kelly. No one had to pay to participate this year. “We want it to be social, we want it to be fun, we are always looking for new things and it gives our participants here something to do: shop and look around.” She said some of the items sold for as little as fifty cents and the buyers felt like they were getting a bargain.
Shelley Krug, a Needham resident for 52 years, was one of the vendors. “We are planning to move to Wingate next year and I had started decluttering my house. I heard about this and quickly gathered some things.” Although she said sales were not brisk, she did sell that cotton candy machine along with some soaps and a little ceramic bathtub that held a bar of soap.
Dudley Cunningham and his wife recently moved to Needham. In “Antiques Roadshow” style, he described his lovely reproduction print of an Adirondack harvest. “It has some beautiful light,” he said proudly. He was also selling a unique, three-dimensional scene of Paris made of clay. “We’ve already sold some clothing and jewelry. My wife has really good taste,” said Cunningham.
Next to Cunningham with a robust display of items were Jenny Torshizi and her two young daughters, Amalia and Valentina, of West Roxbury. The girls, who are METCO students in Needham, were getting a lesson in sales as they set the prices of their goods and conducted the transactions with customers. Jenny said she had originally set aside some things to give to Savers. “But then I started thinking, I don’t know what ends up where. These [place mats] our friends brought from India and someone might actually get good use from them.” She was also hoping to find a good home for some beautifully embroidered dresses she wore as a baby.
Kelley said the Center’s goal is to do anything that benefits people and this sale was just meant to be something new, a pilot program. “I’m not a fan of the term ‘golden years’ … but while you’re here, let’s keep learning and keep your mind active,” she said. She’d like to get rid of the stigma around aging and motivate the staff and volunteers to make anyone who walks through the door welcome. “We’re another set of eyes so we take care of people, too. We have our ‘angels’ here who are always available to help people make new friends.”
The rummage sale was an experiment that may be back again. It certainly was a success for this reporter/shopper, who came home with a beautiful lamp with pink bows for her granddaughter and a sign that reads, “Some days you just have to be the princess you really are.”
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