As I walked around the 41st Barrie Automotive Flea Market on Thursday, I was overwhelmed by the variety of things for sale. At a car flea market, one would expect cars, car parts, car accessories, but there was so much more. There was clothing-all ages and not just car t-shirts, sun glasses, antiques, china, crafts, tupperware, art, furniture, candy, toys, books and more spread out over 4 fields of vendors with carnival food (deep-fried Mars bars, cotton candy, peameal bacon on a bun, fish and chips, french fries, ice cream) and beer gardens as sustenance. I noticed a lot more golf carts, scooters and gators in the walkways this year. While easy on the feet, it’s harder to find the hidden gems when cruising by a vendor’s site on a golf cart.
As we sat down, snacked on french fries and let our feet rest, I read the message from the organizer on the map brochure provided at the gate. He wrote about numbers being down, the car crowd getting older and the price of living going up as reasons for a declining attendance. His solution – get more of the young generation involved in the hot rodding and restoration of cars and trucks.
I disagree with his conclusion. As I walked around looking for a sun visor, mufflers and wheel trim for a 1984 Chev truck (which we found at less than $40 a piece), I was thinking about how much easier on the legs this would be if it were all indexed and searchable as it is on kijiji.com. That I think is the downfall of automotive flea markets – the same things can be found on sites like kijiji.com without having to take a day off, walk miles, and lug all the stuff back to the vehicle that you drove to Barrie, ON in. But easier isn’t always better. While sitting at home, typing “mufflers” into my laptop is easy, it doesn’t beat the fun of accidental discovery that is a flea market, or the random conversations struck up with vendors, most of whom are car guys who threw all their extra parts in a trailer and came up to camp, party and maybe sell a few things for a weekend. They are usually a great resource of information. While the internet sites are great for browsing in the winter, the flea markets are the places to be for deals, advice, good fun and excellent junk food.
I think kijiji.com and flea markets like Barrie’s are both important and viable. And thankfully, we can have our computer and eat our cotton candy all in the pursuit of cool cars and good deals.
