The 127 Yard Sale

For 24 years now, a phenomenon known as the 127 Yard Sale has taken place the first weekend in August on a 675-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 127 - from Hudson, Michigan to Jamestown, Tennessee. Folks all along that venerable roadway set up their booths, tents, and folding tables to display wares of all kinds for what has become the world's longest yard sale. Although we've lived in Kentucky for more than a couple of years now, this weekend was the first time we'd explored what treasures the event had to offer. With stories of snarled traffic and crazed bargain hunters occupying our thoughts, Wonderful Wife and I set out (not too) early Saturday morning to dip our toes into a ten-mile sampling of the madness.

Our first discovery was that the stories we'd heard were just that - stories. Sure, there was an increase in traffic and practically every sale we visited was crawling with people, but there were no obvious instances of insanity (except for the prices on a few items). Packed into the ten miles we travelled were three large concentrations of vendors, one of which boasted 300 booths, and a labyrinthine subdivision with a dozen individual sales. With a temperature hovering around 90 and a humidity percentage equally high, the ten miles seemed considerably longer and we were both ready for a long air conditioned ride home by the time we'd finished browsing the last tent.

So what did we score? Not much, to tell the truth. There were a number of things that we could have bought, but very little that we absolutely needed to buy. I piked up John Wayne's Angel and the Badman on DVD for my newly-started collection of Western movies and Wonderful Wife snagged a lovely bowl to replace the apple bowl that The Daughter chose to throw away instead of wash. Teenagers.  Anyway, pictures of the bowl are below for your perusal. A bit of online research found another example being offered by an auction house for $15, so in light of that the $5 we spent was a bargain. The auction house labelled their piece as Depression Glass, but as to the manufacturer we haven't a clue. Although we didn't return home overburdened with loot, we had a great time together experiencing a true bit of Americana - and plan to expand our experience next year!