I always get a little melancholy at this time of year. Fall is beautiful, of course, but it's also a bit sad. I guess that's because in many ways it's an ending, as the vibrancy and life of spring and summer shuts down for the winter.

The signs of the season are everywhere. The mercury dips below zero, leaves change colour, plants start to brown and wilt. After struggling for its life all summer, my poor little tomato plant has finally perished in the cool fall air. All we have left to remember it by was its harvest: Two bland-tasting tomatoes, each barely the size of pea.

But the saddest thing about fall to me is the street corners. Little more than a month ago, the street corners and intersections of this city were crammed with garage and yard sale signs, a beautiful array of cardboard and paper and Bristol board.

Now, those same corners sit all but empty.

And alas, it's but a sign of what is to come.

Garage sale season is winding down, and soon it will be dormant for another
year.

The end of garage sale season is a tough time for avid garage sale fans like myself, and the first few weeks of knick-knack withdrawal can be particularly difficult, believe me.

Oh sure, there are second-hand stores and classified ads and all that, but it's just not the same as the whole garage sale experience.

That's because the garage sale isn't just like shopping; it's more like an adventure.

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POMPTON LAKES, N.J. - Tables have turned on a retired policeman who ticketed nearly 40 motorists during a borough-wide garage sale in Pompton Lakes.

The town is investigating whether George Gerhold's driveway is legal.

The municipal judge has dismissed four parking tickets and ordered three others to pay just $7.50 in court costs. An eighth was found guilty of idling next to a fire hydrant.

The judge says he's not convinced the driveway was properly installed.

Gerhold said he had a verbal agreement with the town's zoning officer when the driveway was built in the 1970s.

The 62-year-old had told the town he was frustrated with people parking in front of the 30-foot driveway during the July garage sale.

Mayor John Murrin tells The Record of Bergen County the Building Department will investigate.

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Yard sales have always held fond memories for me. I remember as a little girl my grandma and I would always go out to the rummage sales Saturday morning. She’d buy me books, dolls or basically whatever I wanted. I think most of my childhood clothes probably came from yard sales.

Yes, my grandma loved yard sales. My grandpa wasn’t a fan of them, so he never really gave grandma money to "waste on that junk." Little did he know that she always found ways to get cash for going "rummying," even it meant selling brand new clothes she ordered from Sears, using his credit card of course.

Grandma and I helped with the church rummage sales quite often as well. It was always a fun time. As I was sorting through my own items for a yard sale, I couldn’t help but think of her and wish she was around to be a part of it all.

The downside of having a yard sale is that you have to get up terribly early. My friend Melanie and I advertised our sale to start at 7 a.m. Of course, we knew we’d have a few early birds, but we weren’t prepared at all for what happened next.

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Residents of a Lehigh Acres neighborhood say they are sick and tired of living around half-built and overgrown homes. This weekend, the group plans to clean up the streets. It's not just to beautify the neighborhood - but to sell it to potential buyers.

The idea is that a dirty lot simply isn't going to sell. So the group plans to pick up the garbage and rip out the brush, but they won't do it alone. They're calling on the realtors themselves for help.

Deborah Sebastian isn't happy with what she has seen. She says the Lehigh neighborhood she chose to build her dream home turned into a dump.

"Dump trucks, pick up trucks and business trucks - they dump all over and that gives us a bad look," said Sebastian.

To get to her home, Sebastian says she passes garbage galore. She says the the garbage is stacked, bagged and lingering - festering in Florida heat.

"They are going to come see all the trash, this is a trashy neighborhood! Why would I want to live here?" said Sebastian.

She says many builders have given up on their lots, abandoned landscaping, and can't even keep their signs in the ground.

"There are a lot of duplexes half-built. Some are all the way built but grass is overgrown. They are just not selling," said Sebastian.

Deborah is no realtor, but she thinks she knows what won't sell.

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