They were selling it all, including the kitchen sink of an out-of-business restaurant from somewhere up north - $1,000 or the highest bid.
The 50-mile stretch of Route 90 between Montezuma and Homer transformed once again Saturday to a make-shift marketplace for the heaps of clothing, stacks of china, and mounds of chachkies that characterize any decent garage sale and raise the question “who is going to buy all this stuff?”
But mixed in among the miles of unwanted items were the possessions once special - now roadside memories, for sale.
The folding table Ashlee Wheeler had piled high with baby clothing looked like many others along the highway in Union Springs, except every nightie, sweater, and bootie set was a shade of pink.
Wheeler, of Auburn, was selling two years worth of her daughter's clothing that she had saved since Julianna was born.
“I felt like I was going to cry every time I went to give it away,” she said. Until now. Wheeler's 3-week-old son, Caleb, in blue, slept near by.
“I'd wished I was having twins so I could keep some of it,” she said. “It's hard, but it needs to go.”
Down the road, Tom and Ann VanEpps, of Wolcott, had unloaded a car-full of fishing and hunting gear they needed to get rid of to make room for the new.
They were selling the bust of a jackalope and mounted deer horns - trophies of game Tom shot in their own backyard that no longer had a place in their home. Photographs of their great-grandchildren had replaced the antlers, Tom said, but he kept three bigger mounts - two 10-pointers and an 8-pointer.
“Those,” he said, “are probably going to the grave with me.”
The 50-mile garage sale used to require vender registration, but now anyone is welcome to pull off the road and set up shop, like the VanEpps. While residents of Route 90 homes take the meaning of a garage sale literally, setting-up modest displays of kitchenware, old toys, and electronics on their front lawns, many who do not live along Route 90 erect party tents in empty lots, crammed with everything from car parts to fur coats.
And store owners, like Harold Gulliksen, come from miles away to reach a new clientele.
Gulliksen, a music equipment dealer from Syracuse, had for sale on a friend's lawn a collection of electric guitars. But his specialty is less popular vintage amps - “the orphans and the oddballs” - a passion rooted in his rock star days as a guitarist in the 70s and 80s, he said.
“I guess I was chasing after stuff I couldn't have when it was new,” he said, the black, thigh-high Kustom amp, a relic of the 70s, at his side was not for sale.
While it was free to set-up a table of grandma's old jewelry and excess Christmas decorations, the county this year required food vendors to obtain a permit, which cost $30.
The Cayuga Fire Department Ladies Division had a permit to sell doughnuts in front of the fire house, said Donna Orchard, a member, but that they had not seen any of the officials the group was told would be checking-up on food vendors.
Orchard said the Ladies Division has been making doughnuts for as long as she can remember, certainly for all 22 years she has been a member.
Saturday, their mixers were working double-time in the back of the department's garage; a sign at their table out front warned customers of a 30 to 40 minute wait. Grease-spotted bags were ready to be picked up, but Orchard said she did not know how many doughnuts they had sold. “Tons,” she said. “We never even count.”
Folding tables and for sale signs were spottier in Cayuga than in years past, when an unbroken chain of vendors crowded each other along the sale route. But shoppers still wandered back to their cars, arms loaded with prizes.
Don Baldwin carried a plastic bag that bulged with clothes and a toy tractor. By noon, Baldwin and his two children, Caleb, 5, and Catricia, 12, had browsed for 7 miles, from Montezuma to Cayuga.
Catricia clutched to her chest her yard sale find, a yellow Care Bear - it's fur worn and smudged after years of attention from someone - a new addition to her collection,
Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net
But mixed in among the miles of unwanted items were the possessions once special - now roadside memories, for sale.
The folding table Ashlee Wheeler had piled high with baby clothing looked like many others along the highway in Union Springs, except every nightie, sweater, and bootie set was a shade of pink.
Wheeler, of Auburn, was selling two years worth of her daughter's clothing that she had saved since Julianna was born.
“I felt like I was going to cry every time I went to give it away,” she said. Until now. Wheeler's 3-week-old son, Caleb, in blue, slept near by.
“I'd wished I was having twins so I could keep some of it,” she said. “It's hard, but it needs to go.”
Down the road, Tom and Ann VanEpps, of Wolcott, had unloaded a car-full of fishing and hunting gear they needed to get rid of to make room for the new.
They were selling the bust of a jackalope and mounted deer horns - trophies of game Tom shot in their own backyard that no longer had a place in their home. Photographs of their great-grandchildren had replaced the antlers, Tom said, but he kept three bigger mounts - two 10-pointers and an 8-pointer.
“Those,” he said, “are probably going to the grave with me.”
The 50-mile garage sale used to require vender registration, but now anyone is welcome to pull off the road and set up shop, like the VanEpps. While residents of Route 90 homes take the meaning of a garage sale literally, setting-up modest displays of kitchenware, old toys, and electronics on their front lawns, many who do not live along Route 90 erect party tents in empty lots, crammed with everything from car parts to fur coats.
And store owners, like Harold Gulliksen, come from miles away to reach a new clientele.
Gulliksen, a music equipment dealer from Syracuse, had for sale on a friend's lawn a collection of electric guitars. But his specialty is less popular vintage amps - “the orphans and the oddballs” - a passion rooted in his rock star days as a guitarist in the 70s and 80s, he said.
“I guess I was chasing after stuff I couldn't have when it was new,” he said, the black, thigh-high Kustom amp, a relic of the 70s, at his side was not for sale.
While it was free to set-up a table of grandma's old jewelry and excess Christmas decorations, the county this year required food vendors to obtain a permit, which cost $30.
The Cayuga Fire Department Ladies Division had a permit to sell doughnuts in front of the fire house, said Donna Orchard, a member, but that they had not seen any of the officials the group was told would be checking-up on food vendors.
Orchard said the Ladies Division has been making doughnuts for as long as she can remember, certainly for all 22 years she has been a member.
Saturday, their mixers were working double-time in the back of the department's garage; a sign at their table out front warned customers of a 30 to 40 minute wait. Grease-spotted bags were ready to be picked up, but Orchard said she did not know how many doughnuts they had sold. “Tons,” she said. “We never even count.”
Folding tables and for sale signs were spottier in Cayuga than in years past, when an unbroken chain of vendors crowded each other along the sale route. But shoppers still wandered back to their cars, arms loaded with prizes.
Don Baldwin carried a plastic bag that bulged with clothes and a toy tractor. By noon, Baldwin and his two children, Caleb, 5, and Catricia, 12, had browsed for 7 miles, from Montezuma to Cayuga.
Catricia clutched to her chest her yard sale find, a yellow Care Bear - it's fur worn and smudged after years of attention from someone - a new addition to her collection,
Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net
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