mow oy nirosni i aKagi
From bayonets to skulls to... dust
Flea market offers larqe assortment
By JOCK HATFIELD
Of the Emerald
Deer skulls, German bayon
ets, radios, empty bottles of
Crown Royal, people and
elephant-tusk lamps mix up on
sporadic Sundays to form the
Picadilly Flea Market at the Lane
County Fair.
Lines of customers move up
and down the aisles and tables of
assorted and varied dust covered
stuff. “What's this?" a customer
asks one of the booth owners,
indicating a rusty metal thing
which looks like the offspring of an
ice-cream machine and a
thumbscrew.
"A lard press," the owner ans
wers. “They used to put the lard in
here." she points to nowhere in
particular, "and it would come out
this hole.”
Further down the row lay piles
of “Scooby Doo' comic books, flat
irons without the handles and a
brass bird cage.
"It’s great,” commented one
University student, a frequenter of
the Picadilly market. "A lot of the
stuff is over-priced, but there are
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good buys, too. I bought a leather
saddlebag worth over $50 for $12.
The people are great to talk with,
too.”
On the other side of the tables,
barricaded from the customers by
their merchandise, stand the en
trepeneurs. One couple, a tall
friendly man wearing a hat and
checkered shirt, and his short,
smiling wife, stood behind 1920
waffle irons, toasters and lamps.
“Just call us Earl and Twiggy,”
says Earl. 'That’s what everyone
calls us."
Earl and Twiggy have been sel
ling at the market periodically for
four years, ever since Earl retired.
“I couldn’t quit working," said Earl.
“I went hunting, fishing — all of it;
but I got bored, so we had to get
back out and do something.”
Earl pointed to a large archaic
radio, marked $10.50. "That’s an
old timer, from the 30s," he says.
“We picked it up along with that
toaster in Eureka."
Earl and Twiggy move around
the West Coast collecting and sel
ling items in flea markets along the
way. “My wife and I have a house
trailer, and we just travel wherever
we want," he said with a laugh.
“We do run into some trouble
though, storing all the stuff in our
trailer.”
Earl displays a picture of his
most valuable items, which he
traded for in Roseburg. They start
at the bottom with wooden bases
carved in the shaped of tiger
paws, move up to a combination
of an elephant's tusk and spear
body, and finish with a rhinoceros
belly lampshade and a lightbulb.
‘‘They are elephant tusk
lamps,’ says earl. “They were
made in Africa, near the diamond
mines in 1904." The lamps are
now on lease to Wildlife Safari,
according to Earl. “No, we don't
make much money at these mar
kets," he said, “but we enjoy it.”
In back of a table filled with left
over pieces of war; bayonets, of
ficers’ daggers, various rifles and
a red and black Nazi flag, sat
another seller, Leon Blum. “I've
been fascinated with this sort of
thing ever since I was growing
Live entertainment every Sunday night
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up,” says Blum, who has sold at
the market three times. “I’m in
terested in history, and these
things communicate it.”
Judy Brown of Eugene sells
baskets made out of bread at a
cost of about $6 each. Dough is
rolled, shaped in a criss-cross pat
tern, baked and varnished. “We
can make about two in an hour,”
says Brown, sitting behind a
dozen of the baskets.
Behind a “Savage 91” hunting
rifle, and several dozen clamp-on
Mason jars, sits Alan Hertzog and
his family. “We found most of the
jars in an old hay toft,” volunteers
Hertzog, who, with a large flowing
beard and a small smiling face,
has a rather religious appearance.
"We climbed up in this old bam,
and found the whole place full of
them."
Several women paw through a
box of black spidery-looking metal
things. “They’re harness buck
les,” explains George Richard
son, who discovered the buckles
in Junction City. “They were in
the old harness shop — you
know, for horses.” Richardson
says customers can do anything
they want with the buckles.
A.B. Wagoner of Eugene sits
behind a jungle of house plants
which merge together and frame
him in a large wreath. “I grow the
plants myself out in the back
yard," says Wagoner. The prices
of the plants range up to $2, but
Wagoner says in his three years at
the market, he has not been out to
make money. “I’m retired, and I
guess you could say it’s a hobby.”
Others are more interested in
the financial aspects of the mar
ket. “Do you think I’m going to talk
to you when I’ve got customers
walking by?” says one man stand
ing behind, among other things, a
boot-shaped cigarette lighter and
an American flag labeled “comfor
ter.”
The Picadilly Flea market is one
of two operating out of the Lane
County Fairgrounds.
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