World's Longest Yard Sale - Wish You Were There

by yardsalers.net and bidbits stringer Jeff Wilson

How far does the world�s longest yard sale extend? Some people say the northern tip is Covington, Kentucky; others vote Defiance, Ohio;  and others claim the sale stretches all the way through Michigan.

One website (www.127saleohio.com/) led me to
believe that the sale was beginning to thrive in Ohio.  That convinced me to try heading north instead of south on Friday.

127 begins about a mile from my apartment.  Hamilton Avenue (a neighborhood in Cincinnati) is also part of Highway 127.  Friday�s lack of sales in Northside could be attributed to one very simple factor: on Saturday an annual neighborhood sale will be taking place with 50 vendors listed on the website (http://www.northside.net/~sale/) and who knows how many unlisted vendors. Anyone who attends the 127 sale anywhere close to Northside should make that a destination.

College Hill and Mt. Healthy were Cincinnati neighborhoods that took advantage of the 127 buzz with sales directly on or close to the main drag. At Rink�s, a flea market in Mt. Healthy, I met Stan Ferguson, who was kind enough to pose for a photograph along with Sheri Bowling. Although Sheri is not his girlfriend, he assured me had several. Along with filling me in about his love life, Stan played me an excerpt from a country music cd he recorded in Nashville.

In the next neighborhood, Fairfield, yard sales either close to or on 127 were scattered about, but the density of sales was relatively light. The same was true all the way through Hamilton and Seven Mile. More disappointing than the scarcity of sales was the fact that most consisted primarily of new and uninteresting wares (like baby clothes and videos) or objects that looked as if they had been purchased in auctions or other yard sales and marked up for increasingly hungry shoppers.

I turned around after Eaton, and went back to West Hamilton, and just wandered�and found much more interesting sales. Although it was mid-afternoon, the front yard of one sale was still packed with tools and other wares. So was the driveway and the back yard. Early that morning there was a line down the block to attend the sale, and people were still flocking to the sale and buying and buying. Again I was reminded that sometimes you have to go off the beaten path to find what you�re looking for.