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Many Tupper Lakers participate in the Great Adirondack Garage Sale

Rachel Leroux stands in front of her garage sale, part of the Great Adirondack Garage Sale, outside her Tupper Lake home on Chaney Avenue in May 2017. (Enterprise photo — Ben Gocker)

TUPPER LAKE — The lilacs were in full bloom this weekend and so were the deals. This Memorial Day holiday brought with it the latest installment of the Great Adirondack Garage Sale, a three-day regional event where homeowners hawk their wares for pennies on the dollar.

The event, which snakes from Old Forge to Malone, covers more than 200 miles and includes hundreds of sales. Tupper Lake alone had 23 households and businesses participate.

“(Friday) was a bumper day despite the weather,” Ann Hollenbeck said Saturday. “I mean people came and it was like a crazy day. Today has been good, steady all day long, so it’s been a successful sale so far.”

On the front yard of her Joseph Street home, Hollenbeck arrayed a panoply of motorcycle jackets, helmets, and other outdoor sporting gear. Amidst the items, written on red poster-board in black marker, was a sign offering 10 acres of land and a cabin for sale.

“We have a piece of property up in Duane, New York,” Hollenbeck said. “My youngest son, who lived on this property, passed away 6 months ago. He was the one that loved that land, and now we really don’t have any more use for it, so we’re going to maybe sell it. We have a serious inquiry, and we’re supposed to show it on Monday.”

Not far from Hollenbeck’s sale, Rachel Leroux saw brisk business on Saturday under the little tent she had set up in her driveway on Chaney Avenue. “I made $250 today,” Leroux said. “The biggest sale I had was the electronics. I had a first edition Nintendo, a Wii. I sold the original Nintendo and a Nintendo 64 and a bunch of games for $50.”

Among flower pots, bike racks and other knick-knacks, Leroux was also looking to move a champagne-colored prom dress her daughter had recently worn. “Most of my sales were $1. I was just trying to clean out.”

A few blocks over on Lindsay Avenue, Bruce Van Vranken was just beginning to close up his sale for the day at 5 p.m. Saturday. Tucking away one of the Great Adirondack Garage Sale signs provided by the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, or ROOST, Van Vranken stood before three tables of desk lamps.

“I’m exclusively lamps,” he said. “These shades are all hand painted.” His designs include patterns of butterflies, loons, flowers and mooses. “Everything I’ve sold yesterday and today are Adirondack,” he said. “The flowers are plummeting.”

“The sale I would say for me was very positive and productive. I enjoyed it,” Van Vranken said. “People were nice, they traveled these distances. I have no disappointing news or negatives about it. I think it was well worth it.”

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