Giving New Life to Old Things

Deedy’s Estate Sales start early in the morning. Inside, Deedy, as she’s known to all, sits at a table with a cashbox, calculator, credit card machine, and bags and boxes waiting to be filled. Outside, a crowd lines up, clutching their numbered tags. Deedy’s husband, Norm, in his black, Greek captain’s cap, has already set up the estate sale signs, laid yellow “Caution” tape on stairs, and now stands at the door collecting the tags – a fair solution — first come, first served.

“We discovered early on that sign-up sheets don’t work; they get destroyed and everyone rushes in at once,” Deedy said. Instead, Norm lets in a limited few, depending on the size of the house. When someone leaves, another enters.

Deedy and Norm Whittington met while attending Oregon State in 1957.

“It was too hard for us to live alone, so we got married in 1958,” said Deedy. After Norm graduated in 1959 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he went to work for Hyers in Portland. When they had two daughters they decided the girls should be raised in the country. In 1972, they bought a 6-acre farm in Oregon City.

Deedy was a stay-at-home mom until the girls entered school. One day her cousin said helpers were needed at an estate sale nearby. It was a pivotal moment for Deedy.

“I realized I could do it better,” Deedy said. “My business courses, my art and appraisal classes fit right in.”

Because of what she saw that day, Deedy also decided that her business would be based on honesty — there would be no “pre-sales” to anyone, even to family and friends.

In 1974 she started her own business called “A to Z Treasure Sales” in Oregon City.

But when the family moved to Bend in 1980, Deedy wasn’t allowed to use her existing business name as “A to Z” was already in use. And so “Deedy’s Estate Sales” was born in 1981.

Since then, Deedy has been running her ads in The Bulletin Classifieds. From day one Nena Close has been her classified representative. Before cell phones, Deedy had to call listings into Nena before the paper’s Tuesday deadline. Quite often, the phone at the

estate sale home had been cancelled.

“I carried a pocketful of coins trying to find the nearest payphone to call her.”

“Now, whenever I go to one of Deedy’s sales, she tells everyone I am her $400 girl because that’s how much she spent on her ads,” Nena said.

Weeks before a sale, Deedy appraises the estate to see if it’s cost effective for both the seller and her business.

“Unfortunately, many are discouraged at the value of their possessions. People don’t realize that value can’t be based on sentiment; an antique or family treasure just isn’t always worth what they’d hoped.”

Furthermore, Deedy explained, styles evolve.

“New trends dictate appraisals and sales,” she said. “A lot of older homes have the heavy, ornate wood furniture which really doesn’t fit into smaller, modern homes.

“Younger people today are gravitating to the mid-century modern movement with the simpler lines,” Deedy continued. “Each person coming in the door has their own quest.”

When asked what was their most unusual item in an estate sale, Deedy pondered but then laughed when Norm busted out with, “Goldfish! In a backyard pond! We had to fish ‘em out with little nets and we sold ‘em for 50 cents!” The grandest thing was a Steinway grand piano and a valuable painting they had to send to Sotheby’s for auction.

Deedy is knowledgeable about antiques and art, but Norm admits to having a really hard time with modern art.

Norm is in charge of taking pictures of each item on Deedy’s estate sale lists. He recalled a time one of the items of the list was “painting of Birch trees.”

“Well, I looked all over for that painting,” he said. “Not a tree in sight.” Then he came across a large painting with three long, vertical stripes. “Sure enough, it was the trees.”

Another time, Norm was surprised when he went looking for a list item described as “Whales.”

“I found those easily enough,” he said. “An entire wall was taken up by a huge metal sculpture of whales.”

The photographs Norm takes are very important, Deedy said.

“Every item must be at the sale as pictured in the listing. Unfortunately, there have been instances where things have disappeared overnight,” said Deedy. “You can’t always know who might still have access to the house. One morning we found several things missing but the culprit did leave some money on the table.”

Norm laughed as he recalled another time someone got into one of the homes the night before the sale.

“We arrived in the morning to open the sale and discovered that during the night a wall clock had been replaced with a similar, but different clock! The thief probably thought it was a fair trade. Just like a pack rat!”

Deedy’s pragmatic style complements Norm’s humor. Years ago, their van was hit by a truck. The van rolled four times before settling. Deedy looked over at Norm and saw that a flap of scalp hung over his face. Without hesitation, she placed it back on his head and held it until the EMT’s arrived. Seeing the awkward position of her arm, they asked if it was broken.

“No,” she barked. “I’m holding his head on!”

At the hospital, Norm still had to joke with the doctor about how many stitches he had. “He stopped counting after the first hundred,” Norm said with a laugh.

Deedy is now 77 and Norm is 84 so the couple is thinking of retiring. But as Deedy looks at Norm across the table and asks, “What do you think? Is it time?” he crosses his arms and murmurs, “Yes, I guess so.”

They have decided to sell their business, but only to someone they feel will be honest.

“A few years ago, someone showed interest. We met with him and had long discussions about what it would involve,” Deedy recalled and then sighed and shook her head. “I didn’t hear from him again but several months later, that man set up his own estate sales business after I had pretty much told him all I knew.”

So, they are wary and think maybe they will just close up shop and literally sail off into the sunset. In one of their large outbuildings sits a 27 foot Trimaran sailboat waiting.

Contributing to their decision, are Deedy’s past bouts with several forms of cancer.

“I lost track of the number of operations,” Norm said as he shook his head.

Deedy shrugs and says, “Well, what are you going to do? You just keep on going.”

There’s no doubt that this enterprising couple will do just that, whether on the High Desert or the High Seas.