Next Up: Elkhorn Flea Market

I have written before about the event/cult following of the Elkhorn Flea Market at the Walworth County Fairgrounds in southern Wisconsin.  This year, it is May 15--always a Sunday--from 7am-3pm.  It is well worth your time for a visit.

Some of you may remember the glory days of the Sandwich Antiques Market in Sandwich Illinois at the fairgrounds there.   This is the closest we have come to that kind of experience.  You are not gong to find tube socks and jujubes in big plastic tubs at Elkhorn.  But you might find some fresh asparagus and even a few morel mushrooms (check $25 a pound and they go fast) as well.  Two vendors have large displays of annuals and one vendor has great perennials at easy on the pocketbook prices.  But that is all just gilding on the antiques lily.

I am not sure how many dealers they expect--hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.  This is vintage and antiques and vintage junk too.  This will not be Betty Making Do-Dads from Widgets.  This is where YOU buy the widget and you can take it home and make the do-dad.  This is not a craft show.

The market has inside dealers in many buildings and outside dealers.  Several times we have done the show in the past and there have been driving rain showers.  We have been very happy to be inside.  This year--you will find us in the very nice North Hall.  Outside dealers have more room to spread out--and you will find a wide range of goods--including the "just pulled it out of a shed" kind of things.  Don't assume that the only bargains are from the outside dealers.  We have found our greatest treasures hiding inside a building.

I like the fact there are paved paths throughout the fairgrounds.  This allows for easy patron walking, People can bring physically challenged guests, and you do not get that  "I found a treasure but I have mud up to my knees" experience that I think is overrated.  Very overrated.

It is the experience as a dealer that I enjoy.  Fresh air.  New antique hunting season is open.  It is the potstickers and egg rolls at Moy's Chinese restaurant in Elkhorn the night before that Dear Husbola likes best I think.

It's been a very long grueling winter.  A long day of sifting through a crisp fairgrounds, finding a widget for your home or garden, eating a Future Farmer's of America hamburger--ahhhhhhhhh It's time for antiquing, Wisconsin style!!!

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