Bargain hunters’ paradise

‘Oh! That is cute!” Shawna Clark, 28, says to her friend, Amber Boone, 24, as she points to a faded blue Old Navy long-sleeve shirt. Amber grabs both shoulders of the shirt and holds it against her body. It’s too large, so she quietly folds it and puts it back in a stack of shirts.

Shawna and Amber rifle through the next pile of shirts on a brown folding table, looking quickly at the tags for the magic size.

Shawna pulls out another long-sleeved shirt and shows it to her friend.

“What do you think of this? Is this cute?” she asks. Shawna is on a mission.

It’s the Sturgeon City Wide Garage Sale, and Shawna has $27 left to spend. She won’t stop until the folded bills in the pocket of her faded blue jeans are nothing but a handful of jingling nickels and dimes.

Shawna’s fiancé, Patrick Boone, 26, — Amber’s brother-in-law — shuffles his feet back and forth with his hands buried in his pockets, waiting for Shawna to finish her transaction. After Shawna purchases a pair of Gap jeans and a few sweatshirts for her 8-year-old son, Brandon, the three adults pile into their green Buick Century to drive to the next home.

This is Shawna and Patrick’s second year of garage-sale hopping in their hometown of Sturgeon, so they know exactly which houses they want to visit.

As Patrick drives down the narrow streets in Sturgeon, he stops in front of a white, one-story home where Brandon Montgomery is watching his sister Kathrine Montgomery, 9, ride her bike.

“Brandon, come here,” Patrick calls to Shawna’s son.

Brandon bounces to the car as Patrick unloads a bike.

Brandon quickly takes the handle bars of the bike and starts to swing his leg over the bike seat to ride the new gift, but Shawna

interrupts.

“What do you say to your dad?” Shawna asks.

Brandon lets go of the bike’s

handles and jumps into Patrick’s open arms.

A big bear hug is shared between the two until Brandon, too anxious to ride his new wheels, pulls away.

“Just follow us to the next house,” Shawna says to Kathrine and Brandon.

The two children jump onto their bikes and pedal as fast as they can to keep up with the car as it drives to the next garage sale, where $27 is waiting to be spent.