When we first moved to Gainesville in 1978, I had no idea how to find my way around. There was no GPS on cell phones. Actually, no cell phones. Jim’s relatives were a big help. They introduced me to Publix and the Gainesville Mall, both close to Brookwood Terrace Apartments where we rented while Jim was building our house nearby in Chatworth Court. My daughter and I even walked to both places several times, crossing a little stream to the east called Hogtown Creek.
But I wanted to get to know this place and while reading the local paper, I discovered garage sales, something new to me, unknown in my former hometown in Delaware. I noticed all the garage sale addresses were points on the compass, northwest, southwest, northeast, and southeast so I enquired around and found an interesting formula to use to determine location. Gainesville was divided into four quadrants of the aforementioned compass points and someone told me that if I could remember the word “april”, I would know which direction the thoroughfare names ran. For example, avenues, places, roads, and lanes run east and west. Any thoroughfare names beginning with letters not in “april” run north and south as in streets, terraces, courts, drives, and ways and so forth.
The axis points converged at the intersection of Main Street (north and south) and University Avenue (east and west). All the thoroughfares were numbered and the numbers advanced from that point. House numbers related to thoroughfare numbers. For example, the house at 2700 NW 32nd Street which happened to be where we were building would be located between the 27th and 28th thoroughfares running east and west because Street would be running north and south. Once I determined where the main thoroughfares were such as NW 39th Avenue and NW 34th Street, it was easy to pinpoint a general location. So our future home would be south of 39th Avenue (the 2700) and east of 34th Street (the 32nd). This may seem complicated but once a few addresses are figured out, it becomes easier. And I was grateful that Gainesville had all numbered names...almost.
When the next Saturday (garage sale day) came, I was ready with my pencil list of addresses, sorted to distance from Brookwood Terrace, closest to farthest. I am an organizer so it was natural to make a list this way. When grocery shopping, my list always corresponds to the way I travel through the store. That way I hardly ever forget anything. I see the isles, shelves and products in my head as I make my list.
As I traveled from garage sale to garage sale, I discovered other places of interest and made notes on my list, learning a great deal about Gainesville with little effort and lots of enjoyment. I liked garage sales. As a writer, they gave me insight into people’s lives, and I purchased some great finds (to me at least). It was a wonderful way to spend Saturday mornings.
Vases & a carved elephant I still treasure.
Going garage-saling with friends was even more fun than going alone, especially after I knew my way around. My sister-in-law, who had lived in Gainesville since the late 50s, was amazed at how easily I found places. We would search out some new place to have lunch before heading home to ooh and aah over our special purchases.
As time progressed, garage sales became ho-hum with most of my purchases being books and then along came Kindle to damper even that. With GPS and Amazon, one must be very dedicated to go to garage sales today although once in a while I do get the urge especially when I know I am not supposed to mingle so closely to others due to the pandemic. My daughter visited last weekend and was looking for something in particular and off we went, but sadly it was too late in the day, and she did not find her prize. But the excursion brought back lots of memories and...led me to write this little essay so all was not lost. Hopefully, my way to find places will help if you have any trouble finding your way around Gainesville. Interestingly, I have never had a garage sale of my own, but I am thinking about it.
