Amish Flea

This morning started bright and early...the last three mornings have started bright and early, but not by choice like this morning did. I actually planned to wake up at 5:15 this morning. The other days, I was woken up at the same time, by a morning dove, who is sitting either in a tree near my bedroom window or on the roof near the gutter by my window. That bird is driving me crazy! I'm not a morning person, and getting up an hour and fifteen minutes early the past few days has not been fun-although-today it was sooooo worth it!!!

I've been wanting to go to Clare to the Yoder's Flea Market and Quilt Auction for a while, but it never worked with my schedule. Today, everything lined up and after a bunch of texts back and forth with my friend Marie (she's been multiple times and she gave me the scoop!), I decided to go! While I was planning it out last night, I saw an ad on TV for the Jackson Fairgrounds Flea, and I was torn...which one should I go to? Both? That's crazy! Yes, I'm crazy like that!

I left home around 6:20 and got to Yoder's about 10 minutes after it opened.  It was a beautiful day for a drive, and so enjoyable to watch the scenery and the sights along the way. Parking was $1 and admission was FREE!! I was liking it already! Parking was in a giant field where only the drive lanes were mowed, the rest (aka where you parked) was almost knee high-what can you expect for $1-right?!?

Since I had never been to Yoder's before, I had no idea where to start, so I just started where I walked in-right in the middle-it turned out. I was on the hunt, mostly for the ever elusive Pyrex pieces on my wish list. I went through pretty quickly because in the back of my mind, I was going to try to get to Jackson too.

It wasn't too crowded when I first got there, but when I left it was getting there. It reminded me a lot of the Florida fleas, a mixture of anything and everything-except I didn't seen any tube socks! It seemed to be a well thought out mixture too. I noticed a few booths with new items, then a few vintage-y type items, then maybe a food stand and then more booths with whatever. It wasn't all the same thing in one area. It seemed like there were a lot more "new" item booths than vintage/antique/junk booths.

I don't even know how many booths there were. I saw an ad that said 500, but I'm not sure. It was out in the middle of a pasture, and when you got to the end of the rows, you got to see horses grazing in the field right next to where we were shopping. It was pretty and peaceful. One thing that brought a big smile to my face and one that I've been wearing on my heart all day is the little  Asian man I saw, sitting in a chair, across from his booth in an empty space with his Bible open on his lap, singing hymns and having his own little worship service right in the middle of the flea! He didn'tcare about who was walking by or watching, he was intent on getting his morning worship on!

There were LOTS of Amish people shopping as well as selling. I am fascinated by their peaceful, simple lifestyle. I was noticing how quiet the women who were shopping were, not trying to draw attention to themselves, unlike some of the non-Amish women I saw. When I first started shopping, I was almost run over by a rather large woman, showing wayyyy too much skin-it was only 48 degrees at the point! She was showing so much skin that I overheard to older men talking about her need for more covering-and they weren't Amish!

One thing about the Amish dress/clothes that I saw while I was there had me puzzled, some of the women wore all black...capes, caps, dresses, aprons, hosiery, shoes. While other women wore white caps with light or dark blue dresses with white aprons. When they were shopping they shopped in groups of 3 or more. One group looked to have about 6 young ladies in it. Could they all be wearing black because they were in mourning?  After some research, I found out that unmarried Amish women wear black capes and black caps, and married women wear white caps. Also, if they are wearing a black cape, they must wear a black cap. I was also surprised to see Amish men and women both wearing stylish-sort of- sunglasses.

I found a booth with all kinds of linens, tupperware and pots and pans. I spent a good amount of time browsing through the linens, and I found a bunch of tablecloths that were in nice shape, with a few easy-to-remove stains on them. The seller was actually embarrassed they had gotten on the tables. She said she won't sell something with holes or stains. She didn't realize they had gotten mixed in with the other things. She sold me five tablecloths for $15.

She said she can't use bleach ( I assumed allergy) and she couldn't get them out with Oxy. I told her about Biz and the great success I have with that...then I got to wondering if she thought I was being snarky...buying them so cheap then telling her how to clean them. I thought I was polite, just offering a tip, that I would be glad to know, had I not already known. She seemed interested and not put out...maybe I'm just over-thinking it. I've had a few people make snarky comments about times I've been trying to be helpful, so I guess it has me a little paranoid and second guessing myself.

I finished in about an hour and a half and decided to head for home and think about whether or not to try to go to Jackson. Once I was on the road and realized Jackson was only about 30 miles from my oldest son's condo, I decided to go for it. Just as I was pulling into the parking lot, he texted me to see if I wanted to meet up for lunch-so I paid my admission-$3 this time (for considerably much less), and made my way through at a good pace. I've been to this flea before and wasn't impressed the other times as well. I guess there is always that "what if" thought that makes me keep trying.

Only one booth caught my eye-she was loaded with vintage Pyrex and had a few linens. The Pyrex that she had was all the same as what I have, so I decided to look at her tablecloths. She had a gorgeous Vera pink and yellow daisy on a white background that I needed to see opened up. The vendor helped me open it up and spread it out. I noticed a big area that looked like it got spattered with bleach, and when I commented to that effect, she said, "well if you were over 40, you'd look a little rough too." I laughed and told her my age, and I thought she was going to fall over! She yelled to her husband and asked him to guess my age. With the deer in the headlights look, he guessed about 14 years below my age. When she told him, they both laughed and thought it was hilarious. She asked me if my mom had aged well...had...like she was long gone. When I told her my mom was aging very well, since she is only 68.

I don't think she was trying to schmooze me into buying the tablecloth, because after my bleach comment, I'm pretty sure she knew I wasn't interested. It was just really odd to me that they thought I looked so young and were so amused by it. I sure haven't been feeling young lately. It was nice to have the compliment though.

I think it only took me about 10 minutes to go through all of the booths before I headed out to lunch with my boy. I picked him up and he directed me to a wonderful Mexican restaurant just a couple of miles from where he lives. Imagine my surprise when our food came out on Fiesta platters!!! One more fun touch on a really fun day!!! I even got to stop at a couple of garage sales and an estate sale on its last day!!

I got home about 8 1/2 hours after I left. I got in about 260 miles of driving and almost 2 hours of walking-all on a beautiful, gorgeous-blue sky kind of day! Not a bad way to spend a day! Tomorrow I might try a few local garage sales-my hometown is having city-wide garage sales this weekend!

Did you get to anys sales today? Did you have any luck with your wish list??

Here are some pics of my day...too bad I can't share the smells of the day too...horses...kettle corn...skunk...kettle corn... :)

These are made out of spoons!!! I have to try this!!

I think there were 5 or 6 new Tupperware booths throughout the flea.

Whimsical yard art bird feeders!

This was an Amish booth-they were making ice cream. Look at the machine by the orange trash can. It was gasoline powered. It almost sounded like a tractor.

Isn't it awesome to see the open land, blue skies and grazing horses?!?!?

This booth got my heart beating faster...for a few seconds, until I saw the prices-mall prices!

What would these be used for? When I snapped the pic, I thought replica swords, but now I see the hook at the end, and I have no idea. What do you think??

Another pic of the ice cream machine

Yes, my car is dirty-the perks of living on a dirt road! Look at the jungle of grass I had to park in!

Buggy parking

Engines getting refueled

Big buggy parking area

Estate sale find-would have been half off

Stopped in Mt Pleasant at a little shop I have visited before

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!

This was the lunch portion of chicken fajitas--on Fiesta!!!

I got this at the estate sale-half off!!!

When I saw this at the Amish flea, I was thrilled with the price and just wanted to look at it because I'd seen a lot of DWD Pyrex there in other booths. The vendor's husband came up and told me it was Pyres (as I was holding it up to the sunlight-looking for scratches). I told him what I was looking for and he told me he never used it...never baked a cake in it...it was in good shape. I offered $2 less and his wife accepted!

Bad lighting-but it's lime

New Tupperware-loving the red lids!

Five new tablecloths---don't judge...I can't leave them behind!

So, if you ever find yourself with the option of going to either Yoder's Flea Market and Quilt Auction or the Jackson County Fairgrounds Flea--choose Yoder's! Even though it's not all vintage it is still a fun adventure and worth the trip and every penny of the admission price!! ;)