100 miles of bargains

Despite a few raindrops, serious shopping was going on at the 100-Mile Yard Sale by 7 a.m. Friday. Festive tents, awnings and gazebos attracted attention while providing shade and shelter from the rain. Traffic along Highway 25 between Jackson and Kennett slowed at cluster sales or where unique items brought in rubberneckers. If you could name it, it was for sale, from dress forms to fresh produce to antique farm implements.

The sale began Thursday and continues through Monday.

New McKendree United Methodist Church's South Campus made good use of the building's covered driveway with ample room for tables that were protected from rain.

Angie Dunlap, New McKendree United Methodist Women's former president, busily folded clothes on the tables at South Campus. Though the sale didn't start until 7 a.m., she said some people showed up at 6 a.m. and were feeling items under the plastic the group covered the tables with the night before. She said they brought in $1,000 Thursday. The money benefits outreach committees that do mission work here and overseas and helps fund education programs.

The Safe House for Women and SEMO Network Against Sexual Violence fund-raiser, operated by Lorie Peats, had to move across the street to South Elementary School on Thursday after battling winds that her gazebos wouldn't withstand.

"The prices we set for the donated items tries to honor the donation people made while trying to make customers feel like they got a bargain," Peats said.

The youth ministry group's refreshment stand, run by Mark Bowles, was a new addition this year. The goodies included homemade cakes and savory Welsh rarebit bread.

Signs at streets off Highway 25 advertise huge family yard sales. Shady Brook, a street near Gordonville, drew shoppers into a block-long shopping adventure with a vintage vehicle, a 1922 Willy's Overland 4 in good condition with an owner's manual to match. The tires are only 6 inches wide, and it starts with crank. The vehicle was offered for $3,800.

Further up the block, six vendors set up shop on Tammy Morrison's property. She doesn't charge them. Tonight they'll gather for a barbecue, and Sunday will be a fish fry. In Morrison's own stand she is surrounded by stacks of Irish Spring, Sure and other household items, products of her hobbies of couponing and going to flea markets. "I help others by passing on the savings," she said.

One of Morrison's vendors, Pris Jones of Murphysboro, Ill., is participating in the 100-Mile Yard Sale for the third year. "We look forward to getting together with all the flea marketers at Tammy's," she said. "We all have fun." Her in-laws are suppliers of indoor/outdoor items, including flags, barbecue accessories and garden decor.

Sales dwindled south of Gordonville until traffic noticeably slowed at Dutchtown. Highway 25 was lined with vehicles from the Dutchtown Store to the Highway 74 intersection. Traffic slowed to about 25 mph as pedestrians walked from sale to sale.

Marcie Freed of Morley was at the Dutchtown Store looking for an old kettle to put flowers in. She had started the day at 7 a.m. at Jackson and planned to go as far south as Dexter on Friday. Today the plan was to travel the sale route from Dexter all the way to the southern end at Kennett. Her 14-year-old son, Ben, and 17-year-old daughter, Kelsey, accompanied her. They were hunting for baseball cards, quilting supplies and country music.

In Dutchtown the sale included old trunks, a collection of more than 100 dolls, a shiny black, portable Singer treadle machine, old movie projectors and a lemonade stand operated by 4-year-old Breanna Williams and 5-year-old Grace Lemons. Volunteers wearing hand-made signs taped to their backs stood in the road with empty sandbags to gather donations for a levee the town wants to build to protect itself from Mississippi River flooding. Doyle Parmer, a Dutchtown alderman since 1993, said they'd done this three years ago for the Fourth of July.

Volunteers were also selling fish and chips Friday and will do so today. The proceeds will go to the levee fund. "We're trying to avoid turning into a Smelterville or Red Star district," Parmer said, referring to areas of Cape Girardeau where houses were wiped out by flooding in the 1990s.

The dozens of volunteers raised $1,400, Parmer said, while the sale of fish and chips raised a total of $630 Thursday and Friday.

cpagano@semissourian.com

Traffic was stop and go along Highway 25 in Jackson during the 7th annual 100-mile Yard Sale Friday. (Diane L. Wilson)

335-6611, extension 13