Mary Shaver, Terlton, stands beside some of the old style ringer washers which she says are still in demand, especially in the rural area because they require less water and soap.
Nickles, dimes and quarters garnered from her perpetual yard sale have first helped a Terlton widow send her children through school. They are now helping her pay off her house mortgage.
She has a couple of years, more or less, to go on the latter and after that she hopes to retire. Much of her house payment money comes from her yard sales as her pension is stretched to take care of her monthly needs, including medication.
Mary Shaver, whose Terlton Yard Sale advertising needs no street address for anyone in the vicinity knows where she is located - not far from the Terlton school - has sold recyclable and rehabilitated merchandise from her yard in Terlton for the past 4 1/2 years. These 4 1/2 years are not the beginning but the culmination of her experience as a seller of used merchandise. She began 34 years ago by chance.
She and her late husband, Clint, and family moved to Oklahoma from Arkansas in 1952. For entertainment and to spot occasional bargains, they got into the habit of attending the Broken Arrow auction sale every Monday. Their regular presence soon drew the attention of the owner.
"One day some guy came over and asked me to do some clerking and sell for him. It took me by surprise and I answered, 'Oh yeah. I've never clerked in my life.' I didn't think I could handle it but he convinced me I could.
"'You've kept books for cotton pickers, haven't you? If you get too busy, just holler for me,' he told me."
Reassured that he thought she was capable, she decided to give it a try.
In 1958 Clint died, leaving her with children to finish rearing and educating. She soon was operating her own sales in Okmulgee, followed by one in Sapulpa, then at Mounds and Broken Arrow and finally at Henryetta.
In 1962, still with one child to care for, she packed their belongings, pulled up stakes and headed for California. Her destination was the San Francisco area where she had heard that jobs were plentiful and wages were better than back in Oklahoma. She had no relatives or close friends out there. Only the pioneering spirit of her forebearers sent her searching for a better life.
She found work but after a year of living in a more heavily populated area, the thoughts of the wide, open spaces back in Oklahoma began to haunt her. Also drawing her back were her five older children, all married and living here, and some grandbabies. Mary Shaver again packed up belongings of her and her son and made the return trip.
After her youngest son finished school in Henryetta, she decided to quit the used merchandise business and moved to Glenpool where she operated a service station for a year. Later the Lambert Oil Co. asked her to go to Bixby to operate a station. She was there three months.
From Bixby she moved out on a farm near Guthrie with her youngest daughter and her family and was there almost seven years before she decided she wanted a place of her own again. She found the Terlton property for sale and it was to her liking. She paid down and moved in. Her earlier interests caused her to gravitate to the nearest auction, which happened to be at Jennings. There she ran into old acquaintances.
"Harold Flatt used to auction my sales and his wife kept my books," she said.
When Mary spotted a sale item she knew to be a bargain, she would bid it in. Sometimes she kept it and other times she sold it. When the Flatts had merchandise which proved hard to move, sometimes they would give her whole boxes of it.
Some of the merchandise Mary acquires for recycling have broken and defective parts which she repairs at home in her spare time. She is adept in the use of a hammer and nails, a paint brush and screw driver. What otherwise would be discarded often times finds a new home.
On the day of the reporter's visit, she was busy repairing a radio bought the previous Saturday night at a sale. She also had a shoe shine outfit which was awaiting her attention.
"Two years ago I had congestive heart and lung failure and I haven't been worth much since," she said with a sad shake of her head, "but I've had a lady come help me out."
Mrs. Shaver sometimes acquires Avon bottles at Jennings and other sales since she has several customers who are avid collectors. She also gets good clothes from time to time which for one reason or another have been discarded. These occasionally find new homes, especially children's clothing, since youngsters often outgrow them before they wear them out.
She also carries an assortment of used dishes but since most of these are kept outside because of lack of room in her small home, winter proves hard on these. If it rains and then freezes, they break.
"A lot of this stuff is just junk but I enjoy buying it and fixing it up. In two more years, I will have my place paid off," she sighed. "Then I will retire."
While Mrs. Shaver's perpetual yard sale seems to keep expanding, she does change its contents by boxing up some of the slow selling merchandise and taking it to the Sapulpa sale, held every Wednesday. Other hard to sell items, after what seems a suitable length of time, are disposed of by removal to the dump grounds. But she still is surprised at times at what sells and what doesn't.
"I can sell all my antiques as fast as I can get them," she notes. "Business isn't as good as it used to be. I used to have customers from all over but the things they buy now are the things they have to have and something to eat."
In addition to bringing back items purchased at the Jennings sale she also buys items elsewhere and takes them to the Jennings sale. She seldom makes much on any one thing - but together they are helping to pay off a widow's mortgage after earlier having helped to educate her youngsters.
A few of the items might prove saleable while the rest she would end by having trucked off.
"It was a little bit of merchandise and a whole lot of junk," she wryly observed.
"Sometimes people would come along and you would have something they needed. One time I had some old sawblades for three or four years and I had about decided to take them to the dump. The some women came along and saw them and asked what I would take for them. I got 50 cents apiece.
"Genrally, I keep a bunch of pipe fittings, and with people moving in and out, they sell good. A man moved in the week before and got just what he needed but a man came yesterday and couldn't find the right size."
Wood burning stoves and ringer washers have been two pieces of merchandise that she has had no trouble in selling. A lot of the rural folk have taken to burning wood to cut down on the high cost of propane. Ringer washers use less water and detergent, she says. They also wash heavily soiled clothing cleaner.
Toys are a good item for resale. Mary says she in the past has been able to sell toys almost as fast as she could get them. Last summer she sold all the bicycles and little wagons she could get.
Note: Mary Shaver passed away on September 17, 1988. Her obituary can be seen in "Lyle Ann Shults Obituaries Collection."
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