On Thursday there was a garage sale in our neighborhood.

As I drove by with my daughters, we decided to stop and take a look.

An old man, who reminded me of a train conductor (hat, overalls, etc.), greeted us.

He had a lot of junk for sale, but nice stuff, too.

One of the things that caught my eye was a set of cobalt blue beer bottles sitting on a table, which I thought were rather interesting.

“What’s the story behind these bottles?”, I asked him.

I thought perhaps they were from a day long ago.

“Oh, these are really rare, and quite expensive” the old man remarked.

“They’re very special. I  cleaned them up good [he had washed off the labels], and people can use them as flower vases.”

He then showed me how to do this with a bunch of fake flowers, which he was also selling.

As he finished with his flower trick, I turned over one of the bottles and I saw a stamp that read: “Best by 6-30-2012”

“Aren’t these the new Bud Light bottles?”, I asked.

He looked up at me, knowing that he had been caught, and said, “Yes, that’s right.”

Our friendly conversation quickly came to an end.

He went on to helping someone else, and we got back in our car and drove away.