Shoppers swarm through Warrensburg for huge annual sale

WARRENSBURG | Tens of thousands of bargain hunters descended on Warrensburg last weekend, as the town held its famed World's Largest Garage Sale Sept. 30 through Oct. 2. Expanded last year to include Friday, the shoppers arrived on Thursday or earlier, boosting the frenzied activity in town to at least four days. Local resident Tony Fidd, a collector of Adirondack antiques, commented on the community garage sale's growth as he watched dozens of people browse through items in five tents on his son's property on River Street. He recalled how the "World's Largest" sale was first proposed to him — when he was a local chamber of commerce official in the late 1970s. He also recollected how it started as a modest sale with 20 vendors in a downtown parking lot but grew exponentially to its present size, attracting as many as 40,000 people from across the northeast U.S. "I remember when Steve Parisi first said we should hold a community garage sale — I told him, 'That won't work, nobody's gonna come up here — but he proved me wrong, and it's a good thing for locals," Fidd said. Local residents, he said, rely on revenue from yard sales and renting booth spaces in their yards so they can pay for heating fuel and other necessities to get through the winter months. "This is the last hurrah before winter," Fidd said, noting that since Thursday, he had sold a bear trap, antique fishing equipment, vintage signs, and traditional Adirondack pack baskets among many other items. Sandy Ackerman, a vendor on the Fidd property, said that the official expansion of the huge sale to Friday prompted "early bird" shoppers to descend on Warrensburg a day earlier. "The crowds on Thursday and Friday were unbelievable," she said, noting that by early afternoon Saturday, she had tallied at least 350 sales. "We've definitely had more people here than last year," she said. "I think it was because the forecast was good and COVID isn't scaring people anymore, so it's back to the 'old days,'" she said. "And every year, there are more people coming into the side streets instead of just downtown." Rick Guillemette of Winchester, N.H., was one of the several hundred vendors downtown on Main Street. His display of antique wood-crafting tools and vintage cast-iron cookware attracted hundreds of shoppers. He spent the weekend explaining to shoppers the history and uses of the hundreds of varied and unusual cast-iron items he had on display, including a fruit press, a bowl adze and a clothing iron rest. Many of the items date back to the 1800s. "You can take this home and cook on it today," he told a shopper about a cast-iron skillet, noting that his antiques provided a glimpse of American history. Nearby, Brad Crannell, a contractor from Malta who bills his enterprise as "Super Gutter Man," was playing "air guitar" on a four-foot gutter lid to the Beatles' song "Good Day Sunshine" in front of his booth as people walked by on a crowded Main Street sidewalk. "Even If I don't get any jobs from this, I'm getting lots of smiles and making people happy," he said, gyrating to music from his boombox. Down Main Street, State Sen. Dan Stec was sitting behind a table that bore handouts including campaign cards and a supply of pens bearing his name. Behind him was a giant banner displaying his photo and name. Stec said he enjoyed meeting not only his constituents, but also people from all over the Capital Region and beyond who stopped by to share conversations. "With some people, it's just small talk, like about the Garage Sale or the weather, while others want to chit-chat about politics or talk about current events," he said. "This is fun, it's different, it's one of the highlights of my campaign season." He said he saw a lot of people carrying a lot of decorative home and yard furnishings as they walked by — but he wasn't planning to do any shopping himself. "I'm all 'knick-knacked out' at home," he said. Selling such knick-knacks as well as a wide variety of goods in front of his home on Library Avenue was Dan Ackley, 75. His array of yard-sale items included generators, tools, M&M characters, antique water skis, a doll crib, an insulated casserole carrier, a miniature clothes washing machine, and a trumpet in a velvet-lined case. "Everything is interesting to somebody," he said with a smile. Ackley's daughters Victoria and Danielle shop at garage sales year-round for Ackley's annual array at the World's Largest Garage Sale, he said. Also, he obtained some of his items by purchasing the contents of abandoned storage units. Among his items for sale on Saturday were children's books and a toddler-size plastic tricycle. He said that he gave away many of these latter items to children who dropped by. "If they look like they need it more than I need it, I just give it to them," he said.

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Shoppers swarm through Warrensburg for huge annual sale

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