Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 20, 1993                   TAG: 9306200123
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: E1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LEIGH ALLEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FROM ATTIC TO YARD TO CAR TO . . .

It was the first thing she hoped someone else would buy ($5) from her yard Saturday afternoon.

"Believe it or not, he put it in our bedroom," Lynetta Stilwell said of the 2-foot-tall carved wooden statue-of-George Washington-lamp that she had on display at her yard sale on Vinton Mill Court in Northeast Roanoke. "One time, he did put a tissue over its eyes so it wouldn't see anything."

It's that time of year again. The time that usually begins with spring cleaning and ends when you realize there are some things you just can't throw away.

Capitalism at its best: Maybe someone will buy it.

"I sure hope so," Stilwell said. "I'd really like to get rid of him. He's so ugly."

Yard sales were everywhere in the Roanoke area on Saturday (170 were advertised in the Roanoke Times & World-News Classifieds).

And with them came the bargain hunters.

"The antique dealers get here early. There was a big rush around 6:30 this morning and then it tapered off a bit," said Cindy Ross, who helped organize a yard sale with four families on Washington Avenue in Vinton.

People from Bedford County came to check the junk being pulled from attics and basements in Vinton. People from Roanoke couldn't believe what the people in Salem were about to throw away.

"What is it?" asked one curious shopper browsing the tables at a sale to raise money for the Bush Valley Swim Team in Vinton. "I have no idea," sale organizer Alice Hibbard admitted. "I'll sell it for a dollar."

Their finds ranged from the practical - tools, bikes, desks, lawn mowers - to the unusual.

A blue, green and yellow shag-carpet image of Big Bird from "Sesame Street" (framed, $1) languished among preschool novelties on Highland Street in Roanoke. There were no takers.

"A few people have picked it up, but they put it right back down again," Big Bird owner Patsy Sloan said.

Most shoppers said they were looking for household items such as linens, dinnerware and lamps. A few were looking for broken appliances to fix up. An occasional antiques dealer made the rounds.

Some bargains were frightening.

Four-year-old Katelin McKellar was strolling through boxes of children's toys and clothes on Finney Street in Vinton when she found herself looking straight at a werewolf mask. Complete with red fangs and wart-covered skin, it sent her crying back to her mother's car.

"It was my Halloween costume," 13-year-old James Beal said. "I was going to keep it but my dad said I had to get it out of the house."

"I'll sell it to you for $5."