Accents
The world's largest "ukay-ukay"
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA-Mounted high on the wall of the Hilton Head Middle School was how The Island Packet promoted it: THE WORLD'S LARGEST YARD SALE. The billboard lorded it over a hundred or so exhibitors in the campus of the Hilton Head Middle School. Circulating in Hilton Head Island and Bluffton in coastal South Carolina, the newspaper widely publicized the event weeks before it took place March 11, 2006. It was a convenient Saturday for the general public. Various charities were said to benefit from the proceeds with individual exhibitors sharing their sales or keeping the realized cash for their own private ends.
The annual yard sale at Hilton Head is the most-talked-about, "the sale everyone has been waiting for," I think the reason being the place Hilton Head itself. Exhibitors and shoppers come to visit an island which has "12 miles of white sand beaches, 30 miles of bike trails, 23 golf courses, and more than 300 tennis courts." (Its white sand pales in comparison from Boracay's as I've written in a previous column. But of course!) Tiger Woods comes here to play golf. Some of the rich and famous have second homes in the Island, one of them Michael Jordan.
Both sellers and shoppers come from Hilton Head itself and from the neighboring counties. I was attracted by a poster at the back of a very personable young fellow, which reads Please Help Send Me and my Team to SCIENCE DAY. Eddie Watson was his name and helping him with selling was his mother Theresa. I just had to let go with my dollar for a Bahamas fan and bag; I suppose souvenirs from the Watson's family cruise. The Watsons are from nearby Beaufort county. Science Day, Eddie said, will be held in Georgia, next-door state of South Carolina.
Another mother was Beryl Title who took charge of a large display of the "6, 7, 8 Dance Club" where her daughter is a member. Rummaging through the clothes, I found a leather jacket with matching shorts that looked so new and was priced for $20. When Beryl gave both for $10, it was a deal. I presume the brand-new must cost more than a hundred. A blazer with a manufacturer's tag still attached to it-therefore unused-was in another shopper's arm. Alas, I was late for it. In our own town markets, when we do "ukay-ukay," we find unused clothing that still bears the original price tags. Like when the dress has gone out of fashion or has passed the time allowed for its exchange, refund or return before the lady gets to wear it. Then garage sale is its more likely destination.
Senior citizens of the Van Landingham Rotary Club, assisted by students of the Hilton Head Middle School, had their fundraiser by selling hot dogs and soda for the hundreds of shoppers that just kept coming and going. Situated under the school's shady trees, the refreshment counter was a haven after one had bought and haggled or checked out but a part of the myriad of items from books, to entire furniture sets, golf clubs, paintings, household gadgets, toys, etc., etc. ad nauseam.
Yard sale or to use the more picturesque term "garage sale," is when people empty lots of unwanted stuff in the house and put them up for sale in their yard or garage. Housewives (sure, househusbands too) consider holding such sales in their front yard to easily rid the house of clutter-especially those that have been kept in the attic for years or lying in the garage for days. Those who have read one's advertisement in the dailies or neighbors and passersby who saw a poster on a lamppost announcing a garage sale come around to do their own "ukay-ukay"-the philosophy behind such sales being "One man's trash is another man's treasure." For instance, a wall clock that does not go with one's newly bought furniture is dispatched through a garage sale. The same wall clock could tastefully match the interior of another house.
Yard sales are very popular in the U.S. of A. Next weekend the May River Montessori, my granddaughter's school, will have its annual garage sale after a month's campaign for used apparel, used kitchen wares, etc. from the families of their students. Already, a church has announced its own, and I don't know yet what other churches and organizations will follow suit.
Consummate consumerist Americans make rapid changes in their wardrobe enticed as they are by media and flyers to keep in step with prevailing styles and with the season, too. With the onset of spring, malls have it loud and clear: Think Spring. New purchases will have to be accommodated, so winter clothing will be stored for next year or put up for a garage sale along with the rest of unwanted items lest a cornucopia of things dominate the house.
We know that some enterprising Filipinos here in the States buy clothes from the garage sale by the carloads and send them to the Philippines in container vans. Outfits, many of them signature ones, are sold cheap in the popular "ukay-ukay" especially during town fiestas. (I got a Gap blouse in Iloilo's supermarket last year.) Call it a rummage sale, a thrift store or flea market version of a garage or yard sale, "ukay-ukay" is a bat for the environment. Don't just think three R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). Act 'em out. Buy "ukay-ukay"!
Really, one man's trash is another man's treasure. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter. Rather far-fetched to tie that up in this column, but I'll let it go considering the highly volatile political times in Bayan Ko. Put in another way, what's good for the gander ain't good for the goose. Or better yet, what is the dogged, high-sounding defender of Arroyo but a lowlife in the opposite camp. And so it goes...
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)