Oddities on sale as dozens of families hit big yard sale

One person’s garbage is another’s gold mine.

That’s the philosophy of any garage or yard sale, and that’s the philosophy that played out writ large on Saturday, when hundreds turned out for a community yard sale at Clemson University’s Institute for Economic and Community Development on Clemson Road, across from the Village at Sandhill.

About 70 vendors signed up to rent $20 lots, on which they could set up shop. Some also forked over $10 for a table.
Paul “Mac” Horton, director of the institute, said the yard sale will bring in about $1,400. Much of that money will cover the cost of mowing the big field where the yard sale was held. What’s left will help the institute get by now that its state funding has been cut.

People brought their food, their household oddities — and a healthy dose of hope that someone would want to buy what they had to sell.

What else could account for the display of the giant ceramic owl/lamp that Sonia Russell and her sister-in-law, Sabrina Walker, were trying to unload?

“It’s $25 for the owl,” Russell said, assuring a passer-by that the owl lamp still works.

The owl, like so many of the items for sale on Saturday, has a story behind it.

Russell’s mother made the owl lamp in 1974 when she was living in Okinawa, Japan, where her husband was serving in the U.S. Army.

Russell said her mother was looking for a way to spend her time while her husband took care of his military duties and decided to take a class. It was there she made the owl, which she also painted.

As the years went on, Russell said, her mother made and collected many things. The two share a love of shoes, and many of them were purchased, too.

In December 2008, however, Russell’s mother had a stroke, and she is not as active as she once was. Russell now serves as caregiver to both her parents and is trying to clear out space in their home so they can get around easier.

So, the owl lamp and boxes of new shoes, all size 9 and 10, were priced to move.

“This is our undercover way of cleaning out space,” Walker said.

Not far away, Sonny Johnson of Tookiedoo (an honest-to-goodness place not far from Elgin) was trying to sell his wares. For him, buying is strictly forbidden, by order of his wife.

“She said, ‘Don’t buy anything if you go out there,’” Johnson said. “I said I’ll try not to.”

Johnson, a retired restaurant owner, is used to snapping up odd finds. He was quail hunting in Texas once when he decided to venture into an old tornado shelter.

His fellow hunters tried to school him on an important local equation: Texas + underground shelter = rattlesnakes.

“They said, ‘Man, there’s snakes out there,’” Johnson said. “I said, ‘They’re going to have to move!’”

Johnson got a pair of old-style kerosene lamps for his trouble, which he had on sale for $100 each on Saturday.

His collection could best be described as old Americana — old signs and farm equipment, an old camera and an old film box. But one item didn’t fit with the rest of the collection.

That would be the Ghostrider-style motorcycle Johnson was trying to sell. He did the detail work himself, affixing University of South Carolina Gamecock roosters all over the bike. The kickstand is a gold-colored Gamecock spur. The seat is hand-stitched leather with the Gamecock logo on the top.

The cock-a-cycle, which Johnson said he’s probably spent $27,000 on, could be had for $11,000 — enough to pay for some home repairs and for a few more forays into the world of other’s people’s stuff.

While deals were being made everywhere, Rich and Kathy Yosick were giving away a few of their items. They had plenty to spare, all with a single theme: Dale Earnhardt.

If things had turned out the way Kathy Yosick wanted, she might not have been spending her Saturday in a giant field hawking Earnhardt memorabilia.

“I prayed for a rich guy and got a guy named Rich,” Kathy Yosick said. But then she laughed, and he did, too.

“He’s been collecting since the 1980s,” Kathy Yosick said.

Most of the stuff commemorated Dale Earnhardt Sr., but there were a few Junior items, too. There were posters and pictures, toy cars and race day ticket stubs. All of it will go.

That’s because a man came by earlier in the day and asked a simple question. “He said, ‘How much for the whole lot?’” Rich Yosick said.

So, the plan was to sell as much stuff as they could and then call that man to see about unloading the rest.

The Yosicks said they’ll be glad to give the Earnhardt stuff new homes, but Rich Yosick looked over it all like a father about to send a child off into the world.

“Yeah, I’ll miss it,” he said. “Absolutely.”