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."
Denne historien er fra September 16, 2024-utgaven av The New Yorker.
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Denne historien er fra September 16, 2024-utgaven av The New Yorker.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prÞveperiode pÄ Magzter GOLD for Ä fÄ tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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The Football Bro - Pat McAfee brings a casual new style to ESPN.
If, on a cool weekend morning in autumn, you happen to be watching âCollege GameDay,â on ESPN, donât worry about figuring out which of the broadcasters behind the improbably long desk is Pat McAfee. Heâs the one with the roast-pork tan, his hair cut high and tight, likely tieless among his more businesslike colleagues. The rest of the onair crewâLee Corso, Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, and, newly, the former University of Alabama coach Nick Sabanâtend to look and dress and talk like participants in an old-school Republican-primary debate. McAfee, though, favors windowpane checks on his jackets and a slip of chest poking out from behind his two or three open buttons. If the others are politicians, heâs the cool-coded megachurch pastor who sometimes acts as their spiritual adviser.
The Dark Time. - On the Arctic border of Russia and Norway, an espionage war is emerging.
On the Arctic border of Russia and Norway, an espionage war is emerging. The point of contact between NATO and Russia's nuclear stronghold is the small town of Kirkenes. For years, Russia has treated the area as a laboratory, testing intelligence and influence operations before replicating them across Europe.
MIRROR IMAGES
âA Different Manâ and The Substance.â
OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY
Proximity to wealth proves perilous in Rumaan Alamâ novel Entitlement.â
EYES WIDE SHUT
How Monet shared a private world.
WITH THE MOSTEST
The very rich hours of Pamela Harriman.
HUGO HAMILTON AUTOBAHN
On the Autobahn outside Frankfurt. November. The fields were covered in a thin sheet of snow.
TRY IT ON
How Law Roach reimagined red-carpet style.
SORRY I'M NOT YOUR CLOWN TODAY
Bowen Yang's trip to Oz, by way of conversion therapy and S..N.L.â
SNIFF TEST
A maverick perfumer tries to make his mark on a storied fashion house.