Michelle Goes Back to Cali

This past weekend I went to my very first stoop sale. For folks outside of New York, that is a yard sale without the yard. I learned about them while perusing Craigslist in search of much-needed items for the my space. I was intrigued because a few were listed in Bed Stuy. I passed on those in Park Slope that would have garnered more loot and better bargains just because I love my peoples and wanted to be among them on a beautiful Saturday.

From the moment I stepped off the Franklin Avenue shuttle, I knew I had left caribbean Flatbush and was in the land of the African American. My very first indication was the brother walking down the street, singing at the very top of his lungs, "You Dropped A Bomb on Me... Baby!" Of the Gap Band's offerings from that era, I prefer Whip It and Send For Me, but Day-Day was truly laying it down and no one was bothered. You gotta love Black folk, especially in New York.

The sale I attended was hosted by Michelle, a transplant from Los Angeles. I bought a great set of lucite tumblers from her that would be perfect by the pool if I had one. Nevertheless they are were a great find. There's nothing in the world like glasses that won't break. I've broken enough to know. Originally, she wanted $5 for the set of eight, which is not unreasonable, but my grandmother, a second-hand store aficionado, taught me never to pay full price for anything. So I paid $4, which was worth it, for the conversation alone.

We talked about a few things... the fact that neither of us had ever heard of a stoop sale, living in Brooklyn and gentrification. She told me that her girlfriend, born and raised in the Do or Die, saw what she thought she'd never see; two black nannies pushing white babies in Bed Stuy as if they were in the more posh Park Slope or the year 1939. The times, they are a-changing... back it would seem. Michelle is going back too. Relocating to the Bay Area of California to battle Becky on another coast. Godspeed!