Halloween Post-mortem and Why I Blog

Well, another Halloween has come and passed and my second year of participation in the Countdown to Halloween has concluded.  And while I gained a few followers (I thank all 3 of you) and set an a new personal record of monthly viewings for my blog at nearly 7,500 hits (a paltry sum compared to other blogs, I’m certain), I sometimes wonder if it’s worth the effort.  I put a lot of effort and time into scanning, researching, and coming up with a readable post.  Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t an announcement that I’m quitting the blogging business, although it seems a lot of others have, moving to the bluer pastures of Facebook. I’ve toyed with the idea of a Garage Sales FB page, but it would simply be a redirect back to my blog and frankly, I have enough trouble keeping up with the blog. I’d like to think other people enjoy what I write about, but I’ll admit, my blog covers a wide range of topics and items whose only common theme is that I found them at an estate or  garage sale and I like them. Like my banner says, "Profiling garage sale treasures and sometimes trash".  Looking at my stats, the vast majority of people stumble onto my blog searching Google.

I must admit, having "hubba hubba hiney" lead to my blog is somewhat satisfying

So if it isn't a legion of fans that keeps me blogging, why do I keep it up?  When I began this blog, I'd been garage saling in silence for 30 years.  One day, I realized I was running out of room and I knew I had to let some stuff go.  I was on the verge of becoming a hoarder and I’d seen enough episodes of “Hoarders” to know that lifestyle doesn’t end well.  So, I found that if I took a few pictures and wrote some words about an item, it was that much easier to let it go.  It was cathartic.  And hey, if I was going to do that, why not post them on the internet? My final motivation was preservation, be it preservation of a yogurt ad from 1960, memory book scribblings from the 1880’s, Valentines sent to a young girl in the 1930’s, the too-short career of a 1940’s nightclub singer or 35mm slides of a swinging 1960’s party in someone’s basement.  I’m sure there’s a psychological diagnosis for it, but I don’t want these things to be forgotten.  I feel like I’m saving them for future generations.  Crazy as it sounds, I imagine some day an internet archeologist will be sifting through the remains of long-forgotten disc platters and will discover what the label from a 1930’s can of LaChoy bean sprouts looked like…and will thank the long-gone person who posted it.  Internet immortality.

So yes, I’ll continue to blog.  If you’re a regular, I thank you again and hope I bring you some amusement.  If you just stumbled onto my blog, I thank you as well and invite you to stick around. You never know what I’m going to post around here.