The Saddest Thing I Own A collection of life's saddest objects, their sad stories, and our reasons for holding onto these sad things.

Toolbox And Memories

Posted On Monday May 15, 2006 By Steve

Several years ago I purchased, at a garage sale around the corner, a toolbox filled with the usual handyman accessories—screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, tape measure, even a small saw. I don’t do all that much work around the house, but for the next few weeks I used it fairly often, and was a $20 well spent.

A few months later later, the woman who lived at the house (we weren’t really friends, we’d merely nod at one another if we passed, I didn’t know her name) knocked on my door and asked for the tool set. Her marriage had broken up (his doing, she said, sparing me the details), and she was very distraught, as if it happened very recently. I asked her why she wanted me to return the set, and she would only say her husband had been very upset when she sold the tools. She said she would double the price I paid for them. I refused.

A month after that a For Sale was posted in front of her house. Once I drove by and saw her husband walking their kids to his car parked out front. She was at the door, waving.

The house sold pretty quickly (it was during those boom times) and I have no idea what happened to them. I have the tool set, but I don’t use it nearly as much as I probably should.

Tags: garage, handyman, sale, toolbox, tools

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