Fairfield is the place to be this weekend with three events on tap, geared to shoppers, car enthusiasts and anglers.

The 21st annual community wide garage sale opens Saturday throughout town, the chamber of commerce Show of Wheels has events Friday and Saturday and Fairfield Young Farmers sponsors a fishing tournament Saturday at Richland-Chambers Reservoir.

The chamber hosted its first community wide garage sale in 1989 and drew 51 participants. The event has grown over the years and regularly boasts about 70 sales throughout town.

Purpose of the garage sale is to provide an opportunity for Fairfield area residents to clean out their attics and garages while picking up some spending money.

Shoppers come from throughout Freestone and surrounding counties to search for bargains.

A map of garage sale locations appears on page 10-b of this week’s edition of The Fairfield Recorder.

This is the 12th year for the Show of Wheels, an event started by Fairfield Main Street and adopted by the chamber after the Main Street program closed.

Car show activites get underway Friday with a sock hop at Fairfield VFW Post 5872 from 7:30 p.m. until midnight, featuring music from the 1950s and 1960s spun by disc jockey “Marly Mac.”

Admission to the dance is $7 a person and is open to the public. Car show participants get free admission.

The price of admission includes a hamburger supper for those arriving between 7:30-9 p.m.

Varsity football action Friday evening is between the Fairfield Eagles and Teague Lions, and chamber executive Cheryl Cockerell invites fans to come to the sock hop after the game.

Also on Friday, balloon artist Robbie Furman of Montclair, N.J., will build a life-size yellow Cadillac out of balloons that will be on display during the Show of Wheels.

The car will be put together at Fairfield Civic Center in W.L. Moody Reunion Grounds and moved to the car show on the courthouse square Saturday morning.

Mrs. Cockerell reports that the car, named the

Yellow Rose of Texas,” will hold five persons at a time for pictures.

The Show of Wheels features 36 judging divisions for original and modified cars, street rods, Corvettes,

They solved a big mystery near Grapeland, in Houston County, a few weeks ago. motorcycles, art and race cars.

Cash prizes, trophies and plaques are to be awarded the top two winners in each division.

The winners of five special awards receive $250 cash each. Those special awards are best paint, interior and engine, club participation and “Best in Show.”

The “Best in Show” award will be determined in balloting by show attendees.

Food and entertainment are scheduled throughout the car show Saturday.

Also planned are a blood drive by Carter Bloodcare, New Leash on Life pet adoption and a bounce house for children.

Car show awards are to

Yep, the lingering mystery of the purple deer droppings has been unraveled, according to Grapeland Messenger writer Wayne Fears.

It all began when a hunter we’ll call Jim went to his favorite oak tree during the first day of bowhunting deer season.

As Jim scanned the woods with his binoculars, he saw on the forest floor something he had never seen before.

Climbing out of his deer stand, Jim started studying the ground. As the sun rose, he saw purple deer droppings glistening in the daylight.

Naturally, he was puzzled. All of the deer droppings he had seen in a lifetime of hunting were, for a lack of a better description, a different hue.

So Jim kept walking and exploring the purple deer droppings, hoping to find the deer’s food source, which might explain the purple droppings.

As he approached a forest clearing, where all of the trees had been cut,.

Jim found the answer. The clearing was covered in staghorn sumac and be announced about 3 p.m.

Fairfield Young Farmers hosts its first annual bass fishing tournament Saturday at Richland- Chambers in support of its college scholarship program.

Tourney headquarters is Oak Cove Marina.

Check-in starts at 5 a.m., launch time is the first safe light and weigh-in is at 3 p.m.

The tourney is divided into two competitive flights.

Cost is $200 per team and includes entry, meal, T-shirt, prize ticket and door prizes.

Payout is 85 percent of proceeds and includes big bass prizes.

To enter, go to www.mediabass.com. poke weed. Or, as it’s known in the South, poke sallet.

Both plants produce reddish and purple berries.

When Jim saw the plants, he realized that, because the acorn crop had failed, the deer had switched to a diet of sumac and poke weed, two highly nutritious and palatable deer foods that are among the first plants to regenerate on the ground after a clear cut or forest burn.

After solving the mystery of the purple deer droppings, Jim walked back down the deer trail and found a spot about 20 yards away from the edge of the clear cut area.

He hung up his deer stand and, later in the day, he took a fat, white-tailed buck with eight points, probably filled with the plants that resulted in the mystery of the purple deer droppings.

(Bob Bowman of Lufkin is the author of 44 books about East Texas history and folklore. He can be reached at bob-bowman.com)