By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Thursday was just the beginning of the madness and mayhem that is the Lincoln Highway Buyway sale. Droves of cars lined the historic Lincoln Highway everywhere a garage sale sign popped up and shoppers gladly handed over bills for a collectible or a great deal.
“We’ve been doing this for the whole time that it started,” said Tammie Gerstenberger. She was helping out her parents at Carolyn’s Kitchen, where vendors had surrounded the restaurant with tents and tables.
Gerstenberger said they would be selling clothes, electronics, and other odds and ends.
“Anything we don’t want to take back in our home. It’s not going back in our home; it’s going to be sold,” she laughed.
Gerstenberger said her whole family prepares for the Lincoln Highway Buyway but it was her father Robert Hill who started it. He has also been the driving force in brining vendors to the Carolyn’s Kitchen parking lot.
“He started having everybody come out and put up their stuff for free and it’s gotten really big since he started doing it,” she said.
Thirty-six vendors were set up for Thursday’s sale but Gerstenberger’s father said they are expecting a few more show up later that evening.
“Everybody likes it out here and they come out here and shop the whole thing,” Gerstenberger said. “We have a lot of people come out and set up and really get into it.”
Gerstenberger said the day had been really busy with people stopping by from all over, which doesn’t surprise her too much. She said last year they had a buyer from Georgia who planned on traveling the entire Lincoln Highway Buyway.
“Tomorrow will probably be a lot of people coming from a long distance,” Hill said. “But I hope they will enjoy it.”
“Every year it gets better,” Gerstenberger added.
On the other end of Lincoln Highway in Crawford County, Michelle and Paul Gattschall had set up a yard sale in their front lawn, a prime piece of real estate when it came time for the Highway Buyway sale.
The Gattschalls have been participating in the Lincoln Highway Buyway for a number of years now and have turned it into a family affair by having their kids help out.
“We’ve got too much stuff,” Paul Gattschall said. “We owned a store and closed the store. So this is all of the stuff we had in the store that we wanted to get rid of, along with some other used household stuff.”
“It’s been very busy,” Michelle Gattschall added. “The weather’s good so I think that’s made a big difference.”
The Gattschalls said people had been looking for everything from spoons and guns to collectibles.
Before moving to their current home over six years ago from Marion, Michelle said they never knew anything about the Lincoln Highway Buyway. The Gattschalls said they have never traveled the Lincoln Highway Buyway, mainly due to the fact that they were holding their own yard sale, but if given the chance they would.
The Lincoln Highway Buyway will also be going on Friday and Saturday.