The Great Glebe Garage Sale: Ottawa’s annual bargain bonanza

The Great Glebe Garage Sale is a bonanza for bargain hunters. Photo by James Morgan

Spring and summer Saturdays mean garage sale time. The 2016 edition of The Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa was on May 28. Driveways, yards, front porches, community centers, church basements, and sidewalks throughout the neighborhood transformed into one big endless sale of whatever unwanted items residents had cleaned out of garages, closets, and basements. The annual sale is a project of the Glebe Community Association. Every vendor is expected to contribute some of their earnings to a selected local charity. This year, the goal was to raise $12,000 for the Ottawa Food Bank. The vendors are quite diverse. Couples and families are set up in their front yards, service and not-for-profit organizations borrow driveways and lawns wherever they can.

The Ralph Mercredi Quorum was performing “Mack The Knife” when this photo was taken. Drums: Dave Finlayson, Guitar: Louis Allard, Saxophone: David Fraser, Trumpet: Derek Smith, Bass: Alrick Huebener. Photo by James Morgan

The weather was unusually hot for this year’s Great Glebe Garage Sale, reaching the low 80s Fahrenheit/low 30s Celsius. I parked the car underground at Lansdowne Park and walked north on Bank Street, headed west on Holmwood Avenue and then north on Ralph Street. Items were for sale everywhere with mobs of bargain scavengers assembled around each table and lawn. I was excited to find some additions to my vinyl record collection. Pete Seeger and Quebec folk legend Felix Leclerc were the first two finds in a front yard. A few blocks north in the basement of St. Matthew’s Anglican (Episcopal) Church, I discovered a book about former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (1957-1963) I’ve been looking for. Across the room, I laughed when I found Whipped Cream and Other Delights by Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass. “Oh, I remember Herb Alpert,” giggled the lady who took my cash at the exit. Whenever I was filing through records and books, there were lots of jokes and conversations happening with other browsers, usually about the garishly awful album cover artwork.

This good old swing the hammer and ring the bell game was a big hit outside the Glebe Community Center. Photo by James Morgan

The entertainment isn’t all on vinyl though at the Great Glebe Garage Sale. The Ralph Mercredi Quorum was jazzing it up on a Ralph Street porch. I heard reggae and Fleetwood Mac covers from other front yards and porches. Youth volunteers outside the Glebe Community Center were running one of those old fashioned games where one has to prove their strength by swinging a sledge hammer to make a bell ring. Inside the mercifully air-conditioned community center, there was lots more for sale, too.  Throughout the neighborhood, there were numerous bake sales, children’s lemonade stands, and tables serving food of all kinds. Of course hotdogs and hamburgers were in abundance, but there were samosas, tacos, and spring rolls, too.

Inside the Glebe Community Center. Photo by James Morgan

The Glebe (pronounced gleeb), is one of Ottawa’s more distinct neighborhoods. It’s located south of the downtown and Highway 417 between Bronson Avenue and the Rideau Canal. A Glebe is an old word for lands owned by a church.

The author and his folkie findings. Photo by Daniel Pellerin

The Glebe in Ottawa dates back to 1837 when 178 acres were deeded by the British Crown to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church as a Clergy Reserve, a sort of land grant that was commonly given to churches in the colonial days. St. Andrew’s still exists up on Wellington Street near Parliament Hill. In The Glebe today, the Presbyterian Church is St. Giles, with its beautiful stained glass windows. It’s also the regimental church of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, a reserve unit of the Canadian Army.

I returned to the car, hot, and slightly sunburned. A young family was returning to their car too, the father pulling a wagon loaded with stuffed toys, and the mother shepherding the two children who were very excited about their acquisition. I was very satisfied with my $6.00 in bargains. I think that’s most of the fun with garage sales, whether they’re just small tables on a quiet street, or a community-wide event like the Great Glebe Garage Sale, everyone likes finding a “deal.” The mix of carnival and community made it even more enjoyable.

Tags: community, garage sale, ottawa, The Glebe