Dates:    

¨   Emory Heights/Emory Hills — April 21st

¨   Briarcliff — April 28th

¨   Rivers Run—May 5th

In January of each year the phone calls start coming in.  Homeowners want to know when their next neighborhood garage sale will be and shoppers call to make sure they are going to be in town the weekend of the sales. What started as a neighborhood activity has become a tradition in several Oak Ridge neighborhoods and among area bargain hunters.  Now in its 11th year, the neighborhood garage sales sponsored by Peggy Sells Homes-Realty Center draw hundreds of shoppers to each of three participating neighborhoods: Emory Hills/Emory Heights, Briarcliff and Rivers Run.

Each week 180 maps showing the location of each participating house are handed out to shoppers as they enter the neighborhood on the day of the sale.  Although the garage sales officially start at 8 AM, the early birds start swarming around 7:30 looking for their copy of the map.  Normally there are 20 to 30 homes participating in each neighborhood although one year 53 homes participated in one neighborhood at one time.

Several of the regular shoppers even bring breakfast and coffee to Peggy as she hands out the maps. One of the more interesting stories is the shopper who proudly drove up to Peggy in a well-broken-in Ford Pinto and announced that he had bought it at the prior year’s sale for a few hundred dollars and driven it since then.

This year’s neighborhood garage sales begin on Saturday, April 21st in Emory Heights/Emory Hills, followed by Briarcliff on Saturday the 28th of April and finally Rivers Run on Saturday, May 5th.  Peggy, who places ads in the local newspapers and in her real estate ads, provides the garage sale signs to the participating homes and directional arrows on the corners. To participate or for more information call RealtyCenter at 482-8200 or send an email to Peg4Homes@aol.com .