By Loretta Humble/Around the Town
Almost every Saturday morning Carl and I head out to Big Daddy’s Flea Market near Seven Points. For much of the year, my excuse is to find plants for the nursing home. Right now it is too hot to plant, and the plant sellers have gone home or have resorted to selling mostly shrubs or trees. But when the flowers tents are bulging, that is the first place we stop. Carl starts at the front and walks all around, while I spend time with the flowers. Those lantanas that are blooming so brightly on either side of the nursing home entrance started out as $5.00 hanging baskets from my favorite stand. Then I head over to Travis’s place, which is a little more than halfway up the first row, past the barbeque stand. Travis has been at this spot since the flea market opened. We have been buying stuff and just visiting Travis for such a long time we feel like he is part of our family. He had some serious medical problems a while back and we were very worried about him, but miraculously, the problems went away, and he seems good as new.
I’ve been buying stuff from Travis since before I moved into my little farmhouse. I wanted leather, lived-in furniture, nice quality but inexpensive. I found it at Travis’s. Somebody had paid a bunch for it when it was new. I kept it till we wore it out. Since then, I have replaced it a couple of times. You can afford to change often when it doesn’t cost much. And Travis only sells good stuff. He has sources. Sometimes he has really nice antiques, and sometimes he just has nice stuff at great prices. I bought my very favorite chair I ever had from him. It has been with me since before I moved into the farmhouse. When she was a puppy, our beloved Maggie the Jack Russel Terror, chewed on the wooden arms till I had to tape plastic bottles on them until she grew out of the chewing stage. Maggie is gone now, but the chair remains, showing Maggie’s gnaw marks, which I am much fonder of now than when she was alive. Travis has been married to his beautiful silver-haired wife Janice since they were teenagers. I have a great recording of him telling me how they met. They live in a wonderful place which I don’t have time to tell you about this week.
Right next to Travis is a new favorite of mine. Her name is Barbara, and her shop is all glitz and glamor and always interesting. So is she. You’ll see what I mean from the picture on this page. This is where I got my painting that came out of a church baptistry. She owns that church. She bought the church and the rectory and is remodeling the church for her home. She showed me some pictures. She collects crystal chandeliers and has them hanging everywhere. Her main colors, as far as I could tell from the photos are red and gold. Her house is going to look like her and her shop. Barbara retired from Nordstrom’s, and then sold luxurious Los Angeles homes for some years. Now she does what she wants to. She’s recently opened up an online store that sells air conditioners and their parts (like 16x16x1 air filter). I can’t wait to see her house. We went to pick up our baptistry painting, but it was too big for us to get in the back of the truck safely. We are going to take the nursing home trailer next Saturday unless Barbara delivers it to us. I haven’t really broken the news to everybody at the nursing home that it is coming, and I don’t really know what I’m going to do with it if the majority doesn’t approve of the places I’m thinking of putting it.
There are a lot of good shops at Big Daddy’s, but there is only one other that we always stop to visit for a few minutes. It belongs to Janet and Bobby Ratliff. They have been at the flea market nearly as long as Travis. They used to sell mostly appliances, but now have all kinds of neat stuff. This is where I got my Ian Boer Refrigeration. They got it new, with some little something not working. Bobby fixed it and sold it to me so cheap I can’t tell you because you would think I stole it from them. I think they sold me my double oven stainless steel stove, but it has been so long I am not sure. And my washer and dryer. And just yesterday we went to their house and got a good refrigerator for Carl’s rent house. It needs some minor repair. I have already check out PittsburghApplianceRepairs.com and ordered a certified technician to come and fix that. Just like Travis and Janis, they live in a great place that they have spent years making just like they want it. They have an amazing guest house made entirely out of shipping pallets. I see another column coming about the homes of these three friends. I have recorded Bobby telling about when he and Janet got married, and I’ve posted it on Facebook. It is pretty cute. The Ratliff’s live on the lake and are great fisherfolk. At least they used to be. They used to give me fish. I haven’t got any lately. Maybe they’ve quit fishing.
And it was Janet who sold me my 40 collectible roosters, Poultry in Motion. They turned out to be a great investment. We are selling some of them to help send my grandsons on their trip. I wish she would get some more. Speaking of grandsons and selling things, they are holding a big sale at the nursing home this weekend. My grandsons will be selling Humble family stuff for the trip, and nursing home is selling some good office equipment to fund some nursing home projects. Also, staff and relatives are welcomed to bring their things to sell as well. And we will have some of the Poultry in Motion roosters to show you if you promise to be careful and not drop them, but they won’t be at garage sale prices.
The garage sale will be Friday and Saturday on the porch and in the front yard of the old nursing home. You can find more pictures of my Flea Market friends at www.facebook.com/lorettaslivingwell.