It was Monday Memorial Day. We were headed back to Oregon, coming from Butte, Montana. My partner Cindy and I had been visiting my Grandparents and family for the holiday weekend. We had a long drive ahead of us, but planned on stopping at St. Regis Gift Shop, for some delicious Huckleberry Syrup. This was the only place we could buy this Syrup. We are not aware of anyplace in Oregon that sells it. We could probably get it on line, but the gift shop is something to see on its own. Inside the gift shop they have huge aquariums, with rainbow trout and other native fish in them. They are pretty cool and always a favorite of mine to see. When we pulled off the exit, a huge Flea Market sign caught our eye.We drove around until we found the entrance. We did not have much time. We had only planned a 10 minute stop, and this was going to take 30 minutes or a little more. It is well worth it, to have this experience with Cindy. As you have read in other post, Thrift shopping is a treasured past time of ours. With not a lot of money, we had to be very particular what we bought. We strolled a bit briskly around the market. The first 2 rows were a lot of sterling silver jewelry. I get a lot of my silver at goodwill, so no need to really look at any of it. There was a few booths with wood carvings, and taxidermy animals and fur. Nothing to our liking. We came to the third row, and this was a lot more of the kind of things we liked. One of the first things I spotted, that i liked was a Damascus Hunting Knife. If I had a Hundred on me, I would have bought it. He said he usually sells them for three hundred and fifty dollars. It was his last day, so he was making deals.
We moved on to the next booth. This guy had some locks, which Cindy is a huge collector of. They seemed to be pretty overpriced. He also had some tins, hat pins, medals, knives and other stuff we were collectors of. The problem was, he was outrageously priced. The only thing I was able to afford, were some very very old and authentic skeleton keys. Which I love to collect keys. I bought four for five dollars. I believe one is a prisoner key. It looks like inmate numbers engraved in it. The picture shows pretty good detail of this. I came across a quart mason jar of marbles, that had a twenty dollar price on them. I kinda choked. I could not believe how crazy things were priced. We went down 4 more aisle, not really seeing much we wanted or could afford.
It was time to get going, so we had decided to make aisle five our last, then back on the road we go. We came to a booth, with some pretty col vintage and antique items. I instantly spotted a black Handy-Andy Black Lunch Box. It seemed to be from late 1940s to early 1950s. I asked the lady how much; she told me make her an offer, it is the last day and she just wanted rid of everything. I told dickered with her a little. Then Cindy gave me the bad news, she did not have what I needed to buy it. I thanked the lady, and we headed to the truck. When we got in, I asked if Cindy had anymore cash in the truck, i had a few dollars, and just need two more to bu my treasure. She gave me what she had, and I hurried back. I was so dis-heartened when I arrived back. asked the gentleman who was in the booth now, where the lady had disappeared to.
He explained his wife had went on break, and would be back later on. I told him about the deal she was going to make me on the lunch box. He told me there was no way he was letting it go for that. I explained to him again, She made me a deal. He asked where my booth was; I told him I was not a vendor, but on my way home back to Oregon. He reluctantly sold it to me, for what his better half had said. He gruff-ed under his breath, that his wife was to easy, and I got a real good deal. I gave him his money, and grabbed my treasure by both hands. It even had the thermos in it. On my way out, three vendors asked me where i got it, and if they could buy it off me. I hurried past them saying thanks but no thanks. I knew what I scored, and it was going home with me. All the way back to Oregon, I beamed in pride at the deal I made, and what treasure I had found.#MemorialDay #FleaMarket #LunchBox #ButteMontana #Montana #SkeletonKeys #antique #vintage #yardsale #garagesale #estatesale #prisoner #keys #skeletons #treasures
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