A weekend bargain hunt

Published 3:20 am Saturday, October 3, 2009

Do you have a closet or garage full of unwanted items?

I’m sure you do. Most of us do.

You enter a rarely-used bedroom, a guest bedroom closet or dry corner of your garage and think to yourself, “One of these days, I’m going to have a yard sale.”

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Famous last words.

But today is the day.

The Demopolis Area Chamber of Commerce and the Tenn-Tom Tourism Association will host the Trash and Treasure along the Tenn-Tom, a 234-mile yard sale, this weekend.

The massive yard sale starts near Iuka, Miss., and follows the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to Demopolis.

A map and listing of participating locations is available by contacting the Chamber of Commerce office.

More than 200 miles of “trash and treasure” is a lot of shopping for those who enjoy bargain hunting.

The route originates at the Tennessee-Mississippi state line and extends south along Miss. Highway 25 and other highways bordering the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway through Tishomingo, Itawamba, Monroe, Clay and Lowndes counties in Mississippi, and ending in Demopolis.

So, if you’re one of those people who are tired of staring at your pile of trash or treasure, you’d better get going.

Locally, those who wish to participate as sellers should set up at the Demopolis City Landing barbecue field.

The George Franks Field will be open at dawn, and space is available on a first come, first served basis. There is no charge to participate in the event, and reservations are not required.

Ultimately, I have no guess as to how many people will make the 200-plus mile trek to scavenge for deals, but I suspect there will be several.

On the local level, this could easily become one heck of an annual community yard sale.

We’re all aware of how many people Franks Field will hold, thanks to the barbecue festival. Even if we don’t get a lot of participation from our neighbors up and along Highway 43, we could still develop an interesting and strong local event with good participation this year.

I encourage each of you to put those dreams of a yard sale to work this weekend, and for those of you who are more interested in collecting treasures than selling them, make Franks Field the first stop on your early bird bargain hunting. You never know what you may find.