Well, it's garage sale season again, and yesterday was the Saturday when everyone in my eastern Canadian city descends upon a particular neighborhood that -- for a single glorious spring day -- turns into a giant paradise of garage sale mania. The real bargain-hunters, those with an eye for antiques and memorabilia, get there at the crack of dawn. Most crowds start pouring in mid-morning, around 9 am. I split the difference this year and got there well before 8.
A few hours later I'd filled my bags and was well on my way to emptying my wallet. I was making my way back towards my bag-drop station but simply could not resist at least glancing at each table as I walked by.
And so it was as I was looking through your table of knickknacks (nice enough, though rather outrageously priced by garage sale standards) that, out of the corner of my eye, I saw you stalk over to my end of the table and heard your voice raised in agitation. "Goodbye!"
Startled, I glanced up and saw you making shooing motions at someone standing to my right. "Goodbye! Goodbye! I have nothing at your prices."
Your tone was brusque and dismissive. With a final whisk of your hand, you turned on your heel and stalked off to the other end of the table. Unsure and puzzled, I glanced to my right. My eyes landed on a group of three women belonging to a visible minority -- and my mouth literally dropped open as I stared from the women, to you, and back again.
The women were still standing there, talking among themselves. Perhaps they hadn't fully understood your meaning, or perhaps they were used to such treatment -- resigned, even. And maybe you'd been half-counting on that -- that your racist remark would go, for all intents and purposes, unheard and unremembered.
But I heard. And as I fully realized what had just happened, my heart sank and I felt sick to my stomach. Dropping the object I'd been holding, I took a step back -- then turned and walked away from your table, never to return. Not this year, and not next.
And maybe, if it had just been your table on your front lawn, that would have been the end of it. You would have lost my business yesterday. But it wasn't.
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