A few weeks ago, it was a rare Saturday in which the missus and I had what I like to call a "Spontaneous Day." A "Spontaneous Day" is a day in which no prior plans have been made, no kids (or grandkids) have called and said "Let's do this!..." It's a day where we sort of plan as we go.
There was one exception to this, however. We had a friend whose husband was tragically killed in a car wreck a few days earlier and we needed to pay our respects. Both his funeral and wake were in a country Baptist Church in Allegre, Kentucky. Our middle son's birthday was Friday and he was up at our lake home Friday night with several of his friends celebrating and we were invited to come up and grill hamburgers for them. We did this and it made it impossible to go by the funeral home Friday night so we elected to go Saturday morning. Other than this selected time, our day was pretty much free.
If you're unfamiliar with where Allegre is (or even what Allegre is), it's a small community (probably about 200 folks) in Northern Todd County.
We got there by taking Highway 171 (the Weir Road) out of Greenville and winding for 30 miles or so down a narrow two-lane strip of pavement to highway 507 and turning right. The church was about 200 yards on our left. Simple enough. We went by and visited with the family and friends and in about an hour, our day was ready to be conquered.
I mentioned to Pat that since we were this far south, we should go to Nashville. The monthly flea market was being held at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds and we hadn't done this in a couple of years so we should "try it out." She agreed. She has been having trouble with her back of late (bulging discs) and couldn't get in to see her specialist for several weeks.. We decided that if the walk became too difficult or the concrete too hard, we'd just "quit" and head home. She works on a concrete floor every day and she feels better standing rather than sitting, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem Should make a good way to spend the day.
We left the little church and drove over to Highway 181 and turned South. The scenery was beautiful as the fertile farms were green and well-kempt. We encountered a few Amish Buggies on the back road (something that still amazes me...I have friends who have driven to Pennsylvania to see this and it's here in our back yard). We went through Elkton and Guthrie and St. Bethelem before we got on I-24 and took I-65 to Wedgewood Ave, where the fairgrounds are. I know the route well as I used to go to the NASCAR races regularly at the old Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville when both NASCAR and I were much younger.
The flea market is pretty much the same it has been for the twenty-something years I've been going (albeit not EVERY year). There are approximately 300 vendors there hawking wares from purses to beautiful hand-crafted furniture. Since it was so hot, (it was about one hundred degrees indexed), both the number of vendors as well as attendees were down considerably. The vendors on the outside were especially non-busy while most of the crowd browsed the displays in the seven or eight air conditioned buildings.
Flea markets are similar no matter how big or how little they are. About 25% of the merchandise is marketable...the rest is junk! I suppose they pack it around from flea market to flea market just to have something to fill up their booth. They sell the good stuff and pack home the junk. They buy more good stuff, take it to the next flea market, sell it and pack home the junk. Anyhow, I got to thinking. I don't remember any flea markets or yard sales when I was a kid. Know why? There weren't any.
That's right....there weren't any. I was well into adulthood before I saw my first yard sale and I remember flea markets being mostly around areas like the Smoky Mountains and Kentucky Lake. I believe the reason there weren't any yard sales was because our parents either (1) kept everything until it was completely worn out and finally tossed it or (2) when they didn't need an item any more, they would pass it on to a neighbor or acquaintance that did.
When my brother and I were boys growing up, one of my mother's best friends was Myrtle Campbell. She had four children, the two older of which were boys. The boys were a little older than my brother and me. When the oldest, Steve got a new pair of jeans or a shirt, he would wear it until he outgrew it (about 6 months). It would then become Jerry's (the younger son) property and he'd wear it about six months until he outgrew it. Then it became mine and I'd wear it about that long and when I outgrew it, it became my brother's. Finally, when Bub (my brother) outgrew it, and even though it was "pretty worn" by this time, Mom would give it to someone at Church or to a less fortunate friend. There was no need for a yard or garage sale because there wasn't much merchandise.
I do remember the ladies at Church having an annual "Rummage" sale. People would donate items they no longer needed (mostly clothing) and the ladies of the church would then resell it. The profits were usually spent on families that needed help. That was the closest thing I can remember about a yard sale. All profits went to the church for charitable purposes, no individual made any profit.
According to Wikipedia, the yard sales spawned an event in England called "Boot Sales." The world's first "Boot Sale" was held at Nepicar Farm, Wrothen Heath, Kent, England. The originator and promoter was one Barry Peverett and it became a popular weekend activity. A "Boot Sale" is whereby vendors (sellers) fill the trunk of their car with unwanted items (in England the trunk is called a "Boot," hence the name).
Since they began in 1980, I'm sure our "Yard Sale" or "Garage Sale" precluded it but I just don't know where or when the first one was held.
I'm sure it was later than 1970, however. If anyone has any exact information about the origin of yard sales, I'd like to hear from you.
I remember for several years, the downtown merchants would move tables in front of their stores, usually on a Saturday and sell them at dramatically reduced prices, some even "bartering" them. This would occur usually twice a year, in the spring and again in late summer.
This was how they got rid of their seasonal merchandise to make room for new. I was at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant a few weeks ago and while waiting for a table caught myself browsing in the gift shop side. They had a lot of Halloween merchandise on display which I thought was a bit premature because it wasn't even July 4th. My wife, in all of her infinite shopping wisdom, informed me that this was a common practice and that I would begin seeing Christmas displays in some stores around Labor Day.
Street vendors are something else that has been a rarity in our area. Back in the forties and early fifties, a gentleman named Fosco operated a hot tamale stand downtown and his brother sold popcorn. He had a popcorn machine that operated on "white" gas and had a robotic monkey that turned a crank inside. The crank stirred up the popcorn oil. Kids and adults alike delighted in seeing such a machine. Mr. Fosco was a popular figure and pretty popular in town in his day.
I remember graduating high school, briefly attending college and then doing what most young men of draft age did back then, heading for prosperity in the North and making all the money you could before getting your draft notice. Like so many other "Mulebergers," I ended up in Hammond, Indiana, and it's industrial steel mills and auto factories. This is where I saw my first street vendor (and there were lots of them).
I don't know why but a common Hot Dog seemed twice as big and twice as "tasty" as it's indoor served cousin. Most of these were simple mobile steam tables with an umbrella over them (more for shade than rain). The vendors treated them with pride and most of them were "hospital clean." I met several people standing around one of them munchin' on a beef dog, also called a "Chicago Dawg." On a trip to Washington D. C. a few years ago, I spotted Sen. Strom Thurmond eating at one of these near the Washington Mall.
We have one of the largest "regional" flea markets in the state in Greenville. It's called Luke's Flea Market and there are always about 250 vendors out there selling everything from fresh produce to baby goats. Need some new reading glasses...go out to the flea market. You can get them there for about $2.00 a pair. How about a Gucci handbag (most likely a fake but looks real to me). They're about $150 in stores but you can pick one up for about twenty bucks out there. How about a pony?...they start at fifty dollars. I'd venture to say that about 4,000-5,000 people a week shop at Luke's each Tuesday. Some of the vendors get there Monday afternoon and open early. The selection is best about
6 A.M. Tuesday morning. Plan on staying at least three hours.
I saw the other day where residents (and businesses) along U. S. 127 hold a one week yard sale in August. This route stretches for hundreds of miles from end to end (Northern Indiana to Southern Alabama) and there are literally thousands of individual or group yard sales. Can you imagine? I have several friends who take their entire vacation traveling this route and they literally fill up a pickup bed or van with stuff.
In my wildest dreams, I cannot imagine trading a week at a beach, Mai-tai in hand watching the sun set over the ocean for this. Go figure.
My wife used to have an annual yard sale in early summer. She did this for about ten years. She would gather up about six or eight folding tables and spend a week organizing and placing price tags on her merchandise. She would then drag it out in the driveway of our home about 5 AM and stay open until about 2 PM. She had about 25% sellable merchandise and 75% junk. Each year she would sell the good stuff, put the junk back in the garage after the sale closed (in boxes and on shelves), spend the year accumulating more good stuff and repeat the process over again. Since I'm the appointed chairman of the "drag the tables out in the driveway" and "drag them back that afternoon" committee, I decided one year to break this cycle. I had an auction not too far from our house that didn't have very much personal property in it so I brought about three truckloads of my wife's junk to the auction and sold it....Cheap! She wouldn't speak to me for about a week but it was worth it because it put an end to the yard sales at our house.
I can't begin to tell you how many times I've nearly "rear-ended" a gawking yard sale shopper looking for a parking place along a busy highway.
On Saturday afternoons, you can drive around our town and tell where the yard sales were that morning just by looking for black streaks on the pavement. Occasionally you'll find some broken glass and dented chrome in the street. You can bet there was a yard sale there earlier in the day.
My wife still likes to visit a yard sale occasionally. Me? I've got better things to do with my time. I just found a great set of barbeque tools in a carrying case on ebay! I didn't get "rear-ended" looking for them either.
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