Land of the Flea

What America 1s buying and selling.

- PAIGE WILLIAMS

The World's Longest Yard Sale" was founded in 1987, two years into Ronald Reagan's second Presidential term, and currently runs for six hundred and ninety miles, from Addison, Michigan, to Gadsden, Alabama. The event is widely known as the 127 Yard Sale, because most of it takes place on U.S. Route 127, which cuts through six states like a lightning bolt. For four days, starting on the first Thursday in August, thousands of people set out their wares, eager to be unburdened by what has been taking up space, gathering dust.

Professional pickers arrive with box trucks or flatbed trailers and come from as far away as California and France.

Regulars book hotel rooms well ahead of time or, ever thrifty, sleep in their vehicles. Many bring packing materials to ship their purchases home, leaving room in the car for the next round of impulse buys an unexpected piece of cat art, a T-shirt that reads "MITCH MCCONNELL SUCKS."

Regret is an inevitable part of the 127. Should've bought that T. rex cookie jar, that ironstone pitcher, that surfboard, that sleigh. These laments often surface on the 127's Facebook page, along with images of prized finds. The other day, one of the group's eighty thousand members posed a question to a man who'd posted video of freshly acquired Depression-era glassware in a garage that was already full of it: "What do you do with your newfound loot? Resell it?" The man replied, "I just collect. My kids are nervous about my dying." Another shopper's tableau included retro yard furniture, a metal ice-cream bucket, corroded playground animals, a shamrock sign, a butter roller, a Hoosier cabinet, and, literally, a kitchen sink. She captioned the photo "Spending my kids' inheritance one junk sale at a time."