You may have heard the expression “I’d have to tape a nickel to it to make it worth something.”
Well, two former Neosho educators did just that during a city-wide garage sale.
Robert Allen, former principal at South Elementary, remembers when he and Ken Barnes, former principal at Central Elementary, taped a dollar bill to an item just to get rid of it.
“Ken was having a sale with us and put a dollar on this old broken TV he had so someone would take it,” Allen said. “This fellow talked to us for a long time, and Ken said ‘If you take it, we’ll even help you load it.’ ”
The two school administrators carried the television to the man’s car, only to find the man had locked the keys inside. Barnes offered to take the man home to get a spare set of keys.
“He said ‘Where do you live?’ and the man said ‘Anderson,’ ” Allen recalled. “Not only did Ken give away a TV with a dollar attached to it, but he also took the man home to Anderson. He said they had a good conversation down there and back.”
The next year, a man Allen thought was the TV “buyer” returned to his garage sale. Allen told the man about the incident the previous year.
“He said it wasn’t him, it was his twin brother,” Allen recalled with a laugh. “Later, his twin walks up to our sale!”
Allen has had a sale each year during city-wide, but the memory of the “sale” of the broken TV with the dollar taped to it stays in his memory.
A long time teacher and school principal, Allen said he sees a number of his former students come by his sale each year, bringing their own children with them.
“Oh, that’s always fun!” he said. “A lot of them will have their little ones with them, only some of them aren’t so little. And here they are married, and expect you to know who they are! But a lot of them, the faces are the same, it’s just the bodies that’s changed.”
Neosho is gearing up for the 20th annual Missouri’s Largest Garage Sale, to be held from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. next Saturday.
According to Shana Griffin, executive director of the Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce, the event was the brainchild of Gib Garrow, economic development director for the city of Neosho.
“He got the idea from Jenks, Okla., which doesn’t have a city-wide sale, but is big on antiques,” Griffin said. “He thought this would last a few years — he didn’t think it would be this big a success. We were the first in the state to do this, and it’s been very successful, too.”
More than 300 garage sales will be held all over Neosho next weekend, many of which are multi-family sales. An estimated 8,000 shoppers are expected to be in Neosho for the event in search of bargains and treasures.
“The shoppers run about 20 percent local, and about 80 percent from out-of-state,” Griffin said. “We see license plates from all over: Texas, Oklahoma. People plan their vacations around it.”
“We have always had pretty good sales, with 40 or 50 people in the garage most of the time,” said Allen. “It’s kind of a social event, too.”
In addition to those holding sales, the event has an economic impact on Neosho business as well, Griffin said.
“It’s probably the biggest day for the restaurants and the convenience stores,” she said. “The regular retailers, it’s probably not a huge day for them, but shoppers see them and will often come back here and shop. And people see our residential neighborhoods and see how nice our community is and relocate. It does bring in outside money.”
With 8,000 bargain hunters coming to Neosho, regulating traffic flow can be a challenge. Traditionally, Oak Ridge Drive and High Street are designated one-way. This year, the chamber has added Macy’s subdivision and Western Hills as one-way streets to ease traffic congestion.
That’s a good thing, too. Allen, who resides on Mesa Drive, remembers when an Empire District Electric Company truck became stuck in traffic congestion while out on an outage call.
“So many people ask us ‘Why is there only one day set aside for citywide?’ ” Griffin said. “Well, it’s the safety issues. Kids are in school, and we can’t have the streets just being one way except for one day. A lot of people do have sales ahead of time, but we promote just one day for safety reasons.”
Sales start at 7 a.m., but two hours beforehand, a chamber committee puts out the one-way signs, Griffin said. Often, she said, people are putting out sale items while this is being done.
Additionally, maps with garage sale listings will be available at 5 a.m. that day at area restaurants and convenience stores.
Griffin said those planning on arriving in Neosho on Friday should make hotel reservations as soon as possible, as rooms tend to fill up quickly. For a list of chamber-member hotels and restaurants, please call the chamber at 451-1925 or by e-mail at info@neoshocc.com.
