Dixie Highway Yard Sale

The third annual ninety-mile Dixie Highway Yard Sale will
be held June 6-8, it's always the first weekend in June.

Beginning on Highway 41 at Ringgold, Georgia, it
meanders south, ending at Marietta. Some of the
town names south of Ringgold:

Tunnel Hill
Rocky Face
Resaca
Kennesaw

will be familiar to Civil War buffs, they are also the names
of battlefields. Most of the vendors are located along 41,
which used to be the major north-south highway. When I
moved to Chicago in 1963, that was the route I took. It
went through every city and required a sharp eye to keep
up with all the twists and sharp turns.

Those were the days of mom-and-pop motor courts, long,
low buildings of stucco or concrete every few miles. The
rooms were small and spartan, the baths tiny, just
functional. But a room for the night cost only $5 to $15.

41 through Dalton, as we drove through North Georgia,
used to be called bedspread alley. Clothes lines hung with
chenille bedspreads lined both sides of the road. It was also
called candlewick and started there as a cottage industry
with the colored tufting done by hand. The invention of
tufting machines enabled the change to a major town
industry. The bedspreads had colorful patterns, a
favorite was the peacock.

They also had housecoats. I had one once. The cloth was
thin with little warmth between the rows of tufting. It
wasn't very good for getting up on cold winter mornings
to build fires.

I've been told that chenille items bring a good price now
as vintage clothing and spreads.

Someday I'm going to drive 41 north again as far as I can
go. A friend visiting me a few years ago did this. She
got discouraged after being cut off too many times and
went back on the interstate. The interstate was just being
built when we were driving back south during the 1970's.
Much of 41 was two-lane and even the four-lane sections
were slowed by traffic lights, so it was a luxury when we
hit a stretch of completed I-69 or I-24, but it was always
back to 41 again.

The yard sale vendors will be set up along 41 and 293, a
map will be available to show the various turns. The route
will take us through the main streets of the towns, just as
folks used to have to travel. Sounds like only one thing is
lacking: the Burma Shave signs.

More information about the yard sale here.