Now that black flies have come alive around here, Maine’s largest industry is also showing signs of life. I’m referring, of course, not to BIW, but to the YSI – the Yard Sale Industry. It’s as important to Maine’s socio-economic life as BIW, tourism and potatoes combined and is overseen by the little-known but very powerful Flea, Barn, Garage and Yard Retailers Association.

It doesn’t matter what you call them – yard, lawn, garage, barn or attic sales. They are all part of the same industry and are all based on the same idea: Get some stuff out on a lawn somewhere and sell something – anything.

An article in the paper recently told about a sale that took place on a stretch of road between Cornville and Skowhegan. In fact, it’s called the annual 10-mile yard sale, with at least one yard sale every 100 feet or so on both sides of the street and running for 10 miles..

A man setting up his yard sale was quoted as saying, “Yard sales are as vital to life in our state as moose, lobsters, lighthouses and smelts.”

This particular yard sale was the 31st and like yard sales of the past, this year’s 10-mile yard sale brought bumper-to-bumper traffic to the area. Skowhegan police mobilized towing services and patrolled the area for traffic violations. The Morning Sentinel reports the event began with a handful of families and has grown in size and popularity.

It begins every year at West Ridge Road in Cornville and ends at Dr. Mann and Malbons Mills roads in Skowhegan. Dozens of side roads in between are also included.

The whole thing lasts from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. Popular items for sale often include baseball cards, Army surplus clothing and farm equipment.

Historians don’t know exactly when or where Maine’s first yard sale took place. The average Mainer doesn’t care when the first one was. He or she only wants to know when and where the next sale is.

If you go to enough YSI events, you’ll marvel at how this giant industry works. For example. you’ll be at a sale in Bristol and think, “Didn’t I see a combination hot dog steamer-wall paper remover in Bethel?”

That’s one of the many things the YSI does so well. It moves tons of items – both cheap and high-end – from places like Bristol to places like Durham, while remaining totally unregulated and completely untaxed.

When the YSI is really humming, it manages to unload tons and tons of items onto tourists, who just can’t wait to strap the stuff to their vehicles and haul it all out of Maine.

There has been some evolution of the YSI through the years. The industry used to rely on Maine’s town dumps to supply product before they were all replaced by “transfer stations.”

In the old days, a fella would load up his pickup and head for the town dump to heave everything down over the bank. He would then stand there beside his truck and scan the dump’s contents for discarded treasures.

Eventually, he’d spot an old tub that would be perfect for watering the cow he planned to get someday. Into the truck would go the tub.

Then he’d spy some old barn boards for the deck he planned to build some day, an oil drum for starting his outboard each spring, when he actually got an outboard, an engine block that would make a perfect mooring for the boat he planned to build some winter, and a beautiful home entertainment center that looked like it just needed a little “tinkering.”

He would end up hauling twice as much stuff out of the dump as he hauled into it. After five or 10 years all these items would be prime YSI material. And it all changed when the dumps closed.

But the YSI took the hit, retooled, adjusted and came back stronger than ever.

And now it’s your turn. In keeping with the spirit of the season, drag some junk out onto a lawn and start selling.

John McDonald is the author of five books on Maine, including “John McDonald’s Maine Trivia: A User’s Guide to Useless Information.” Contact him at mainestoryteller@yahoo.com.