Last weekend, the Junior League of Tampa called it quits on the annual Trinkets and Treasures thrift sale. After 40 years, members decided the sale was too much work and too expensive to organize.
Shoppers mourned. No more Christian Dior suits for $1.50. No more Coach bags for $6.
"I'm so depressed," said Gina Bednarz of Brandon, who shopped the sale for seven years. "It's terrible."
THOUGH A BLOW to bargain hunters, the demise should come as no surprise. Times have changed, and after four decades the sale probably ran its course.
Life was different when the league first organized the event. Most women stayed home, choosing volunteer work over a career. They had time to sort through boxes at the warehouse. Afterward, they'd go out to lunch.
Today, more than 80 percent of Junior Leaguers work. They juggle jobs, husbands and kids, shuffling between client meetings and soccer practices. On weekends, they squeeze in laundry and oil changes.
School social worker Clara Reynolds, chairwoman of the thrift sale, took vacation time to help arrange Saturday's sale at the Tampa Convention Center. She worked 4:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and from 5:15 a.m. until the last person left Saturday.
LIKE MANY MEMBERS, Reynolds said scrapping the sale was "sad and a relief at the same time." Just keeping up with her voice mail was a full-time job.
Still, Reynolds got teary-eyed talking about the people who benefitted from the sale: a family who lost everything in a fire, a woman unprepared for her baby born months premature.
"That to me is why we do it," Reynolds said.
When I think of the early sales in the 1960s, I think of my mother, now 58. Back then, she was a young bride, just starting a family. She joined a bridge group and spent a lot of time at the swing set, chatting with neighbors.
More than three decades later, that bridge group lives on. One woman divorced, remarried and had three more kids, making that seven in all. Another died of cancer. Most became grandmothers.
I still remember when Mom hosted bridge night at our house. She spent days cleaning house, setting up card tables and baking desserts. Everything had to be perfect, down to the fingertip towels in the bathroom.
On party night, Dad went out for a hot dog with his buddy up the street. My brother and I ate soup and grilled cheese sandwiches upstairs. Ginger, our golden retriever, barked at the door all night.
With hearts and clubs in hand, ladies talked about their kids, their houses and their husbands. Loud laughter made it impossible to sleep.
My mom had a lot of time for volunteering then. She still does. Between counting the weekly church collections and babysitting the grandkids, her calendar is full.
I often wonder whose life is more fulfilling. Hers or mine. She never celebrated a big promotion. She never had her own apartment.
I haven't a clue how to play bridge.
She would have had time for the thrift sale. Me? Honestly, no.
For women, it's all about having choices these days. And that's a good deal - thrift sale or no thrift sale.
THE LAST DROP: We all know Vinny Lecavalier is quite a player. He's also a good dealer. At Tuesday night's Glitz & Sticks at the St. Pete Times Forum, the Lightning center dealt blackjack to female fans eager to lose their chips for some facetime with one of Tampa's favorite athletes. They declared his table women-only. Sorry, guys.
