Survival of the Fittest

We wanted to go to yard sales to furnish our new dorm. We were going to be freshman at UT and we were determined to have a cool dorm room. The problem is that, like other freshmen, we were prone to sleeping late. Getting up at 6am was nigh impossible.

The solution, of course, is to stay up all night, which we did. After our shopping expedition we woke up to see what we had purchased. An ice mold to make an fish shaped block of ice, a bowling ball, and a gumball machine. The gumball machine is the one purchase that warrants a story.

We parked at the bottom of the driveway, which started with a small hill and finished with a flat area in front of the garage. We looked through the unsellable trinkets until our eyes caught a glimpse of the gumball machine. This wasn’t one of those cheap plastic ones found at Wal Mart. It was cast iron, a commercial looking model that could be found at a hair salon or something.

We had to have it.

“Would you take 15?”

At yard sales you haggle because it’s expected, not because you aren’t happy with the price.

The person I asked turned to another person and signed to them. They were deaf. They received some sign language back, and in that deaf accent said, “yes”. Cool. It was listed for $25, so we felt like we had gotten a great value.

We paid and started to carry it down the driveway. It was heavier than expected. A slight shake revealed that there was money still in it. Wow – maybe we’d get a few dollars back and make it an even more compelling bargain.

When we got back down to the car we couldn’t resist any longer. A screwdriver removed the top of the gumball machine. We peered in to see a treasure trove of change. It was a score. We drove home to count the money and found that there was over $50 in quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.

How in the world could they not have realized that there was so much money in it?

Oh yeah… They were deaf. They couldn’t hear the change.