By PAT JENKINS The Dispatch If you're a statistics believer, consider this one: There are 160,000 garage and yard sales on any given week in the United States. And it doesn't take a statistician to know that Eatonville has its share of them. There are no specific numbers to back up the claim, but for a town of less than 3,000 residents, Eatonville might have one of the highest per-capita rates of sales in yards, garages, driveways, patios and wherever else the mood strikes. One weekend in particular when the sales are virtually on every corner and every neighborhood block is the first full weekend in August, also known as the annual spectacle that is the three-day Art Festival organized by the Eatonville Lions Club. Taking full advantage of the influx of art lovers the festival annually attracts, garage and yard sale hosts put out their signs and treasures and wait for the bargain hunters, collectors and oddity hunters who inevitably come. For Ron Manwiller, this year's festival that was staged Aug. 7-9 is one of three weekends a year that he puts on a sale. The others are during the Fourth of July and Memorial Day holidays. The art show, which also features live music, food booths and a beer garden among its attractions, always brings the most shoppers to his yard. Living next to Glacier View Park, the festival's annual site, also helps. "They come for the festival and they do the sales, too. The sales are a bonus," said Manwiller, who was displaying a long table filled with his collection of Mason jars and assorted other items. A few blocks away, Bobbi Allison was running a sale in a back yard. Strangers and friends streamed in and out of the yard to see the wide array of clothes, furniture, carpets and household decorations. Any pf the clothes that didn't sell would be donated to the food bank operated by Eatonville Family Agency, Allison said. One item that did sell was a fedora that was worn by Allison's uncle, Lou Grant, who was Eatonville High School's first football coach. The headwear went for $10. Allison, who like most sale organizers was cleaning out garages and attics, noted she hadn't had a sale in years, "so there's a lot to sell now." There always is in Eatonville, it seems.
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