'It's like a reunion': Yard sale along U.S. 11 designed to bring new life to historic roadways
Etowah County summers are bracketed by a pair of massive roadside vendor events: The U.S. 11 Antique Alley yard sale just before the official start of summer, and the World's Longest Yard Sale in early August.
The U.S. 11 sale — which this year stretches from Meridian, Mississippi, to Bristol, Virginia — kicks off Thursday and runs through Sunday. But for Gloria Sitz, who rents vendor space at the Old Home Place on U.S. 11, north of Attalla, work has already begun.
Some of the vendors who come to the Old Home Place year after year bring as many as eight loads of cast iron items, primitive antiques, and farm equipment, and other vendors take up places along U.S. 11 in Attalla, Reece City, and Keener. They started setting up days ago.
Sitz, better known as Blues Woman Alabama Annie, she said, has rented space to two of the vendors setting up in her yard for 15 years. There are two new vendors this year, and one auctioneer who will be selling, if not auctioning, along this year's alley route.
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"The U.S. 11 Antique Alley is a good example of how we can bring new life to historic highways," Sitz said. "U.S. 11 used to be a busy north-south route until the interstate came through."
The sale brings traffic to a less traveled roadway, and brings visitors through communities that get bypassed when adventurers opt for the interstate. If they visit those towns on the tour of antiques, the locals have a chance to lure them back.
The four-day event, known as the "Happenin,'" according to fleamapkt.com, started in 1997, and it's known to draw more than 30,000 people throughout the 502-mile route. Along the way, shoppers can encounter anything from local honey to unique sculptural artwork.
The route goes through Southern cities: Bristol, Chattanooga, Collinsville, Attalla, Birmingham, and Meridian.
For Sitz, it's not about business. "I make a little money," she said, by renting the vendor space. But she's made more friends. Along with the loyal vendors who come back to rent from them year after year, they have shoppers who return again and again.
"It's like a reunion," she said.
Johnny Mathis helps organize New Harmony Baptist Church's involvement in the sale. It's something the church has done for five or six years now, with church members bringing items and selling them, and offering space for whatever people might want to donate.
"We just figure that more people who get to sell, the better," Mathis said. Like Sitz, he said the church sees many people come back to visit year after year.
The church sells hot dog plates and opens bathrooms for use. Usually they open the fellowship hall for people to come in to eat, but this year dining will be outside. Mathis said they had some structural damage to the sanctuary and had to move into the fellowship hall.
The church usually brings in money for its ministries from the sale. Mathis said anything he sells will go to the church; some other members do the same. A family moving away from the area donated items to the church for the sale. Mathis said they had sold some things already, making $500 before the sale has even begun.
"We have a good time," Mathis said, and they value the fellowship perhaps more than any funds raised.
The church participates in the sale on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but not Sunday.
The City of Attalla also rents spaces in the grassy area near the underpass, and the whole concept of an antique alley is a perfect fit for downtown Attalla's year-round antique stores.
Sitz estimated she usually sees 300 to 500 people who stop, visit and buy. With gas prices (among other expenses) up significantly this year, she wonders if that will affect the number of people who come out.
"We will see," Sitz said. The vendors are coming — that she knows.
Even if people don't buy from vendors set up on her property, they may well buy from others — whether it's other vendors, food in local restaurants or gas.
There is a great opportunity, she said, for food vendors along the route. "We need a barbecue guy, and a corn dog guy," she said.
"Downtown Grover Brown, who sold hot buttered corn on Broad Street, used to come out," she said, but he doesn't do it anymore.
"Even a taco truck would be good," Sitz said.
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The Meridian-to-Bristol route is 502 miles long. Typically, vendors begin at sunrise during the four-day weekend of the sale — always on the weekend after Mother's Day.
For maps of the route, visit us11antiqueally.org.
Contact Gadsden Times reporter Donna Thornton at 256-393-3284 or donna.thornton@gadsdentimes.com.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: U.S. 11 Antique Alley sale brings sellers, buyers to north-south route
