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Bud Grant, the legendary former coach of the Minnesota Vikings, has been holding an annual garage sale at his home for over a decade now. This year’s sale is scheduled to start this Wednesday, 17 May, at 5 PM at the same location. . .8134 Oakmere Drive in Bloomington. If you’ve said to yourself that you’d like to attend but you’ll hit the sale next year instead, that’s not going to be an option anymore.
According to an interview he did with Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, this year’s garage sale is going to be the last one for Coach Grant. Why? Well, for the obvious reason, of course.
“I’m running out of stuff,” he said.
Coach Grant has been advertising a few things that will be available for purchase this week on his Twitter account. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the tweets here because the account is only visible to those who follow him. However, I will tell you that among the things he’s posted on there so far are old Vikings’ playbooks ($500 for the playbook of the 1979 Vikings) and the big one. . .Bud Grant bobblehead dolls, which will be available for $150. There are only 50 of those bobbleheads, so if you want one you might have to get there early.
Why bobbleheads?
“They’ve been after me for a bobblehead doll for years, and I just never felt the need to do that,’’ Grant told the Pioneer Press. “It’s an ego-trip kind of thing. But somebody suggested to have them at your garage sale to advertise. You’ve got to have a hook.
“You can’t just say, ‘Come to my garage sale and buy baby clothes.’ ’’
I’m a bit astonished that “because I’m Bud freaking Grant” apparently isn’t a sufficient “hook,” but I digress.
This year’s sale will be stretched out over three days. Wednesday will be the shortest of the three days, with the hours of the sale only running from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. That will be followed up by a full 12-hour day on Thursday, with sales starting at 8:00 AM and running until 8:00 PM. Friday, the final day of the final Bud Grant garage sale, will get underway at 8:00 AM and go until 3:00 PM.
Are any of you fine folks going to find your way to Bloomington this week to get your hands on some of the merchandise? If so, is there anything in particular you’ll be on the lookout for?