Tales of the Bazaar
Looking for a vintage linen tablecloth? A Roy Rogers lunch box? A tear gas canister? If you can’t find it at one of Texas‘ trade days markets, it probably doesn‘t exist.
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First Saturday Computer Carnival and Wholesale Electronics First Saturday, Dallas It’s six on a Saturday morning in a parking lot in downtown Dallas. The early-morning calm is disturbed by the chugging of dozens of portable generators and the chattering of crowds milling around tables and tailgates loaded down with objects unidentifiable to mere mortals. The ratio of men to women is about six thousand to one, but this is a singularly geeky race of men—doughy, unkempt, with sparse, unruly facial hair. Despite the rising sun, some of them—who’ve probably been here since the market opened at midnight—are wearing a miner’s lamp strapped to their forehead. About a fourth of them sport Dilbert T-shirts, and the rest wear Converse hightops. They may not be pretty but, boy, are they focused on the computer guts piled up around them.
Ham radio operators, who began gathering under the nearby Central Expressway overpass forty years ago on the first Saturday of the month to trade transistor tubes, are to blame for this wacky convocation. More recently, cyberswappers have taken over, and the two-pronged event has moved into the Wholesale Electronic Supply parking lot, on the north side of Ross Avenue, and the First Saturday parking lots, on both sides of Ross. Some merchandise is still shrink-wrapped in the box, some is gently worn, and some looks like Godzilla’s teething toys. If I’d known what the hell to do with them, I could have bought network cards for $3 each, the world’s smallest digital camera (new) for $189, 32 megabytes of memory for $24.50, or a plodding Hayes 14.4-baud portable modem for $15. There were naughty compact discs, tons of DOS software, and computer instruction books mixed with errant boomboxes, wiper blades, sunglasses, and tear-gas canisters. According to Dennis Redman, a Wholesale Electronic Supply employee who has overseen its sale for the past ten years, “Things used to be a little weirder.” But I have a hard time imagining that.
Held on the first Saturday of every month on seven acres of asphalt along Ross Avenue just west of the Central Expressway. First Saturday (214-720-9054), Wholesale Electronics (800-880-9400). Vendors begin setting up in the middle of the night. Die-hard bargain hunters show up in the wee hours, but there is still plenty of action at the more sensible hour of 6 a.m.; by noon the lots are empty. Admission and parking free for both.
Old Mill Trade Days, Post Unlike North and East Texas, where you can’t swing a Beanie Baby without hitting some sort of weekend bazaar, West Texas has fewer trade days than it does trees. But who needs more than one such market if it’s as well stocked as the one in the rambling buildings at the 1912 Postex Cotton Mill?
Sure, some crafts booths were tarted up with enough froufrou and pastels to make the Easter Bunny gag. There were handmade candles and homemade dog food, chili-flavored pecans, and performing rodeo clowns. But there was also Joni Sanders and Brad Thornhill’s Finderskeepers nook, filled with vintage hats in pristine condition for around $15 each. I was smitten with a confectionery number, a bonbon of swirled lavender netting. At Vintage Accents I joined in the feeding frenzy, elbowing weaker shoppers out of the way for an armload of small, tarnished silver-plated goblets for $3 each. It was a good thing I had flown into Lubbock; otherwise I’d have bought an $895 primitive pine cupboard from Rea’s Relics and Creations that wouldn’t fit in my house.
Held in Post (45 miles southeast of Lubbock on Texas Highway 207, just off U.S. 84) on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after the first Monday of every month from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; look for the big smokestack west of downtown (806-495-3529). Admission $1; parking free.
First Saturday Market Day, Wimberley Corn-dog stands are blessedly absent on these market grounds because the Lions Club has a monopoly on food concessions. (They serve—surprise—barbecue.) There’s some good stuff at this tidy, shady event, but to ferret it out you have to trek past an army of tall, thin rabbits—each fashioned from a single plank of weathered barn wood, of course—and a scattering of $29.95 stepping stones embellished with mosaic collegiate logos. (If you’re going to walk on it, do you buy the logo of your alma mater or its rival?)
Deeper in the labyrinth of booths, some 450 in all, I discovered Kitty Kat’s Kollectables, a trove of old linens and antique kitchenware, where I found the forties white-cotton tablecloth with delicate eyelet embroidery ($4.50) I’d been hunting for months. One regular vendor, Jeff Lehman, is determined to make a dent in the mountains of used tires in the world by transforming them into his nifty pony-shaped Giddy-Up Swings ($35). And I don’t think Bob Carlon lets one scrap of hardwood sneak past him; they’re all laminated together in a huge selection of tough, handsome cutting boards ($8—$100).
Held on the first Saturday of every month April through December from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Lions Field, a quarter mile from Ranch Road 12, on Ranch Road 2325 (512-847-2201). Admission free; parking $2.
Shopping List
FROM ABILENE TO WINNIE, IT SEEMS every community is hosting a trade days weekend. Most of them run from nine to five, more or less, and charge no admission. Don’t limit yourself to the following markets; check with your favorite town’s chamber of commerce to see if it, too, has enlisted in the merchant marines.
Castroville Market Trail Days, held on the second Saturday of every month except January and February on the square in front of the landmark St. Louis Catholic Church (830-931-2331). As few as 30 or as many as 180 vendors—mostly selling arts and crafts, plants, and vegetables—can show up at this market.
Georgetown Market Days, held on the second Saturday of every month except January and February on the courthouse square (512-930-5302). As trade days go, this one is tiny, but the square is too handsome to miss. Plus, you can have your caricature sketched for $10 and pick up a flat pyrite “sun” at Fly’s Rocks and Minerals booth.
Goliad Market Days, held on the second Saturday of every month except January and February (512-645-3563). More than a hundred vendors set up under the oak trees around the courthouse, selling plants, vegetables, animals, and arts and crafts. One even grinds corn into fresh cornmeal.
McKinney Third Monday Trade Days, held on the Saturday and Sunday before the third Monday of every month on U.S. 380 two miles west of U.S. 75 and about two miles from downtown (972-562-5466). More than seven hundred vendors sell everything from ducks and water lilies to eight-millimeter movie projectors. The junker’s dream booth could be found here in July: A mother and daughter had cleaned out a relative’s attic and set up shop for just one day, selling dusty player-piano rolls, a fabulous old schoolhouse thermometer, and 1941 issues of Mechanix Illustrated, and and 1890’s peanut-roasting cart.
Nacogdoches Trade Days, held every third weekend on West Loop (U.S. 59), a quarter mile north of Texas Highway 21 (409-564-2150). Forty acres of vendors sell Confederate flags and camouflage gear, pulleys and chains, chickens and kitchenware, and birdhouses made of corncobs. If you really want to hunt for treasure, look for Walter and Ruth Bruce’s booth, where they sell metal detectors; also, check out the display of coins, jewelry, and Civil War medals they’ve found at abandoned pioneer settlements.
Navasota Trade Days, held on the Saturday and Sunday before the third Monday of every month, one and a half miles north of downtown on Texas Business Highway 6 (409-825-8490). In fair weather, as many as three hundred vendors gather in a pasture to sell antiques, crafts, jewelry, and leather goods.
Tyler Trade Days, held every third weekend on U.S. 69 just south of Interstate 20 (903-595-2223). Up to three hundred vendors sell ceramic tchotchkes, used blue jeans, and huge steel tornado shelters that look like barbecue smokers on steroids. Play your cards right and maybe Richard Hill will be there selling his sturdy handmade wooden carts and wagons or Cliff Taylor will have a new bunch of airbrushed-gourd birdhouses blowing in the wind.
Whitewright Trade Days, held on the Saturday and Sunday before the fourth Monday of every month at the American Legion grounds on Sears Street (903-364-2994). If it hadn’t been 110 degrees, chances are, more than just a cranky writer and a couple of earnest young bottle collectors would have shown up. Actually, quite a few vendors—although not the usual 250—endured the summer furnace to offer real bargains to folks who like to sift through trash looking for treasures like rusty lanterns and salvaged hotel china.
Winnie Old Time Trade Days, held on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday following the first Monday of every month on FM 1663, just north of I-10 (409-892-4000). Hundreds of vendors (when the weather cooperates) selling antiques, arts, crafts, and collectibles.
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