Garage salers a dedicated bunch

Ronda Condon, Greencastle and her Danville friends Rose Condon and Fran Simmerman love to garage sale. On the day the BannerGraphic caught them they had been to a sale at the Putnam County Humane Shelter and found some great bargains. Simmerman found a plant stand, London Fog jacket while Condon discovered a beautiful sundress.

With five grandsons to buy for, Greencastle residents Paul and Kathy Brown can almost always find something at local garage sales.

"We go every weekend, it's our Saturday thing," said Kathy Brown. "We've bought a television, furniture and lots of boys clothes," she added.

Garage sales, also called yard sales, rummage sales, tag sales, moving sales and junk sales, are an informal event used by people to get rid of their excess items. These sells are part of the American lifestyle.

Staples of these sales include old clothing, books, toys, household knickknacks and board games. Larger items like furniture and occasionally appliances are sold.

The Browns are avid sale seekers who look through trash to treasures from Terre Haute to Indianapolis. They find sales through newspaper and radio ads as well as street signs.

The couple travels to Indianapolis for the annual garage sale in Woodruff Place in early June. They also hit the Croy Creek Flea Market as well as large sales like those at Heritage Lake and Berry Street. There are also Web sites that list garage sales. We just type in the name of the city and find all the sales," she adds.

"We see lots of familiar faces pretty much everywhere we go," said Kathy. "A lot of times we find out about sales that aren't publicized through word of mouth at other sales. If we don't know where they are, somebody will tell us," she laughed.

"Some of the best sales are at the end of the season. We've bought lots of Christmas decorations and gotten great deals," added Kathy.

Ronda Condon loves garage sales too. She and two Danville friends, Rose Condon and Fran Simmerman recently spent the day in Putnam County hitting garage sales.

"We went to the Humane Shelter sale this morning and got some great buys," said Ruth Condon. "Then we had lunch at Almost Home and came to the Fair on the Square. It was a perfect day."

And, if local garage sales aren't enough you can take part in the Fifth Annual Historic U.S. 40 Yard Sale from May 28-June 1. This 200 year-old highway is the site for anyone living along it to set up a yard sale.

Hundreds of people participated in the past four years. The sales run along the highway from Baltimore to St. Louis. That's 824 miles of yard sales. It's a shoppers' paradise.

Antiques Dealer Patricia McDaniel started and organized the Historic US 40 Yard Sale in Dublin, Indiana five years ago. She provides information about the sale and updates on her Web site www.oldstorefrontantiques.com

For a road trip like this one, veteran shoppers say it's best to come prepared. Crowds in small towns have gotten so big that restaurants run out of food, ATMs run out of money and even bathrooms run out of toilet paper.

Expect everything from antiques and collectibles to furniture, glassware, to fresh garden produce Sales are open from dawn to dusk.