70 CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2019
T
hese days, we can buy almost anything online
with a few clicks, so garage sales may seem like
a primitive way to shop. But for one savvy group
in Charlotte, shopping garage sales is a weekly
ritual that’s equal parts camaraderie and anticipation of
the unexpected treasures they’ll nd. For friends Marty
Settle, Steve Nichols, and Jenny Bonk, it’s a game that
requires strategy, stamina, and a little spontaneity.
When the four of us meet at Starbucks on a morning in
late winter, my eyes land on Jenny’s green tweed pea coat.
“Ten dollars at a consignment sale!” she says as she slings it
over her chair. If she’d told me it was a vintage CHANEL, I
wouldn’t have questioned her.
We meet here because our mutual friend, Settle, is
a xture at the Myers Park coee shop. A retired UNC
Charlotte teacher, he’s here every morning between 5:30
and 6:30, working on his laptop. When he’s not chatting
with the baristas or regulars on their morning coee runs,
he’s writing poems or conceptualizing his next sculpture.
To kids, he’s “Mr. Marty,” and he’ll stop whatever he’s
working on to say hello. It’s how I met him ve years ago
when my son toddled over to Mr. Marty and climbed into
his lap.
Settle’s hobbies include poetry, photography, and assem-
blage art, which is best described as three-dimensional
collage. He builds these pieces with objects he scavenges at
yard sales in and around Myers Park. On Saturday morn-
ings in the spring and summer, he plans which ones he’ll
visit that day, and oen takes his second cup of coee to go
to get a head start. It’s peak season, and he’s on the hunt
for some junk to repurpose.
For years, I’ve watched this ritual and wondered if there
was more to know about the local garage sale circuit. Now
Settle and his “brother and sister of the hunt” are about to
school me on the strategy behind this pastime.GARAGE SALE
Groupies
Three friends navigate the yard sale
circuit and show us how it’s doneBY TAYLOR BOWLER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LOGAN CYRUS