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June 7, 2008

Crowds turning out for 90-mile Dixie Highway Yard Sale

By Kim Sloan

Randall Nicholson sat under a grove of trees near Valley Point Middle School on U.S. 41 among his lawnmowers, clothes and knickknacks.

This was the first year he decided to try the Dixie Highway Yard Sale, a 90-mile bargain bin of sorts that is now in its third year.

Despite a great location in southern Whitfield County, “I’ve been having more lookers than buyers,” he said.

His luck seemed to stay on the down streak as one potential buyer declined to bargain for a set of drills. After staring intently at them, she told Nicholson her husband had just bought some.

About 12 miles north in Tunnel Hill, Shannon Phelps was having better luck. She sat underneath a tent near the Dollar General drinking water to beat the heat, which at 1:30 p.m. registered 91 degrees on a nearby bank thermometer.

Phelps and her mother arrived at the streetside storefront at 5 a.m. to display the clothes and other items they had cleaned out from their homes.

By 6:30 a.m., Phelps said the first looker arrived.

“So far it seems to be worth it,” Phelps said.

Terri Iseman said she made $640 on Friday “a quarter at a time” selling yard sale goods for change from her Rocky Face antique shop. Business moved at a brisk pace in the searing heat and the cool of her store, Terri’s Antiques.

“We doubled our sales from last year,” Iseman said.

Like Phelps, Iseman was up early — at 4 a.m. and had her first customer at 6 a.m.

While many people pitched tents and placed wares on covered tables along the roadside, many residents who live along U.S. 41 set up tables outside their homes. Churches were able to hold yard sales to raise money for missions and building projects.

Phelps said most of her buyers were local or from the south Georgia area. Iseman, who sells rare peacock chenille bedspreads in her shop, said she has many customers from Atlanta and some from as far away as California and New York. A survey of tags lined along the highway early Saturday afternoon revealed most potential buyers were from Whitfield County and the surrounding counties of Catoosa and Gordon.

The Dixie Highway Yard Sale continues today.

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