I was so moved by Breezy’s compassion that I decided we should do it again the following year. In late 1992, I put out a memo at work that I was collecting blankets for the homeless. It garnered two blankets, and I bought eight more. I enlisted the help of my friend Sandy who baked tons of cookies and provided toiletries that her husband obtained from the hotel where he was working at the time. Sandy brought her three kids, Clay, Cory and Chelsea; and I brought Breezy and my niece, Sylvia. The seven of us (in Santa Hats, of course) caravanned armloads of blankets, cookies and toiletries into HOBO’s. There were people inside the facility escaping the cold outside. It was so sad. They were sitting against the walls surrounded by their meager belongings – solidifying my resolve to do this again the next year, and the next, and the next.

  Year after year, Breezy and I continued to bring blankets to the homeless. HOBO’s closed down, so we started looking for homeless people living under bridges and behind abandoned buildings. It seemed that they wanted the conversation as much as the blankets – and we were happy to oblige. Sometimes it was just Breezy and I making the deliveries. Other times, we had eager helpers. Once Breezy became a teenager, she started telling her friends about the need to help the homeless. Several years she brought friends along to better convey what she had been trying to tell them – Summer Breeze Tucker, Social Crusader!

  Many years ago, I started shopping garage sales for blankets. A few years later, my friend Kate joined me. Every Saturday she gets up at zero-dark-thirty and drives 25 miles to Lockhart to hit the garage sales with me – no, not just to buy things for the homeless. It’s also a great way to spend a Saturday – searching for treasures and haggling over prices; but we do get the majority of our “distribution inventory” that way. We’ve even managed to create a certain amount of “celebrity” for ourselves. We wear a “uniform” of rhinestone tiaras and purple t-shirts with “Garage Sale Queens” lettered in gold paint. When we explain that we are looking for things to purchase for the homeless, people often ask if we have a business card in case they find something later on that we could use. So, I had business cards printed.

  In late May of 2004 after having read Jill Conner Browne’s Sweet Potato Queen’s Book of Love, I had a harebrained idea that the Garage Sale Queens should enter Lockhart’s annual Chisholm Trail Round-Up Parade that was less than three weeks away. My husband, Clifford, and I constructed a giant tiara out of coat hangers, cardboard and over 600 linear feet of duct tape.

  Breezy and I spray painted it silver and glued plastic jewels, mirrors and glitter all over it so it would sparkle in the sun. Then I took our dog’s bed and covered it in purple fabric with gold trim and tassels. Kate made a sash out of purple satin on which I lettered “Garage Sale Queens” in silver glitter.

  We put the cushion on the top of Kate’s silver PT Cruiser, placed the crown on top of it, and draped the purple sash across the windshield and hood of the car.

  On the back of the car, we placed a sign explaining our mission. The crowd loved it and we won second place in our division (clubs and organizations) – not too shabby for a last-minute, first-time-ever parade entry. We won a first place ribbon in the 2005 parade – and honorable mention in our first ever Luling Watermelon Thump parade a couple of weeks after that!