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Published May 25, 2017 at 1:17 p.m.
My 8-year-old son, Harper, is technically a Leo, but really, I swear he’s an avian. When he was a baby, he squawked so much for food, we called him the Seagull; these days, with his habit of snatching and stashing shiny, silvery things around our home in Shelburne, his spirit animal (determined by the Dunn family) is the crow.
I’m a squirrel, meanwhile, and happen to have a lot in common with Harper, including a love of garage sales. Weird, old, cheap stuff that we can hide away in our house until next spring’s cleaning comes around? Yes, please! So when I noticed a calendar listing for a “Garage Sale for the Birds” at Huntington’s Birds of Vermont Museum to be held last Saturday, I went nuts and Harper was atwitter.
We’d never been to the Birds of Vermont Museum, which is open to the public from May to October. And as we rumbled through the back roads of Chittenden County in my 4Runner, passing neon notices for moving sales, garage sales, yard sales and barn sales (but no bird sales), we became nervous. Where was this place? To keep Harper’s spirits up, I asked him about his favorite bird. “A penguin!” he said emphatically, and grew quiet again. Then, suddenly, somewhere along Sherman Hollow Road, we spotted the sign.
I’m a squirrel, meanwhile, and happen to have a lot in common with Harper, including a love of garage sales. Weird, old, cheap stuff that we can hide away in our house until next spring’s cleaning comes around? Yes, please! So when I noticed a calendar listing for a “Garage Sale for the Birds” at Huntington’s Birds of Vermont Museum to be held last Saturday, I went nuts and Harper was atwitter.
We’d never been to the Birds of Vermont Museum, which is open to the public from May to October. And as we rumbled through the back roads of Chittenden County in my 4Runner, passing neon notices for moving sales, garage sales, yard sales and barn sales (but no bird sales), we became nervous. Where was this place? To keep Harper’s spirits up, I asked him about his favorite bird. “A penguin!” he said emphatically, and grew quiet again. Then, suddenly, somewhere along Sherman Hollow Road, we spotted the sign.
This article was originally published in Seven Days' monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT.
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About The Author
Sarah Tuff Dunn
Bio:
Sarah Tuff Dunn was a frequent contributor to Seven Days and its monthly parenting publication, Kids VT. She is the co-author of 101 Best Outdoor Towns.
Sarah Tuff Dunn was a frequent contributor to Seven Days and its monthly parenting publication, Kids VT. She is the co-author of 101 Best Outdoor Towns.
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