Story by: Doug Foreman
CRAWFORD COUNTY - The Lincoln Highway Buy-Way was in full swing, with all but one location stating that their business was the best, over the previous two years of the Yard Sale.
"Our traffic has been good, and yesterday was wonderful. Our family has done the Yard Sale for all three years, with this year being the best year. Hopefully tomorrow will be as good as today. We have been quite steady", said Mary Koons on Oak Drive. Five families went together to have their sale at Gary & Mary's house.
"Business has been real good this year. We had a sale the first year, but last year we went shopping instead. But this year has been really good", said Bill Coldwell. "The real salesman has been our daughter, Olivia" his wife, Amy said.
There was plenty of wheelin' and dealin' going on, up and down the Historic Lincoln Highway. I watched as people would ask the price, and they would counter-offer. Many times the lower price was taken, just to get rid of something that, the selling family didn't want anymore.
"Traffic has been unbelievable this year! We even had 40 customers stop and buy on Wednesday, while we were setting up for the official start on Thursday" said Ralph Mills in Leesville. His tent and yard was filled with thousands of items from three generations. Over 5000 baseball cards, a little over 1000 knives, clothing, shoes, boots, glassware and furniture. "I had three ladies fill up their Rendezvous with glassware, furniture, baby and infant clothing, plus a baby crib" Ralph said. Ralph went on to say, "We had a customer earlier who was from Illinois who had his truck and trailer. They started out yesterday at the Pennsylvania line, and worked their way back to east of Mansfield, then to here. They told me that they would be staying in Upper tonight, and then finish up heading to the Indiana line on Saturday. We have also had customers from North Carolina, Maryland, Kentucky, Michigan and Indiana".
When I parked in the church parking lot across from Ralph's tent, a car that I parked next to, had North Carolina plates on it.
I then visited the sale of Katie Adams. "Business has been really good this year, better than last year. This is my second year doing the yard sale". Katie's Grandmother told me that she was earning money to buy her Homecoming dress for this Fall, and that her grandson was also helping in selling items during the Yard Sale. They were all very pleased with the business they had today, and yet they were not open yesterday.
My last leg of my trip took me to Crestline. Here I saw a very large Yard Sale being put on by the Calvary United Church of Christ. They had eight vendors in the yard, and two vendors in the Church. The Church also had homemade food and baked goods for sale. This was their third year, with the Lay Life Ministry Committee being in charge. All proceeds from the Yard Sale was going into their Outreach Programs, to help the community and people in need of assistance. They also stated that if business was this good with people still at work, they wondered what it would be like on Saturday.
One common thread that I heard at everyone of the stops I made was this, "People are looking for bargains. People are short on cash due to the economy. People are not wanting to travel very far, but, with this many garage and yard sales going on, the people are coming out to buy bargains. Everyone said the weather was perfect this year. Only one place said that their business was ok, as opposed to the great, and really great responses. One place that has done the Yard Sale for all three years said that business is this good next year, what will it be like next year, since each year it keeps getting better and better.
