Hillsville Labor Day Flea Market

Every year on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends the tiny little town of Hillsville, Va., outside of which I have settled, throws an enormous party in the guise of the semi-annual VFW Flea Market and Gun Show. Booths are set up all along the main drag of this town of 2,700 people. Food concessions, carnival rides, pitch men, people selling actual antiques and people selling piles of, well, junk and everything in between start arriving two weeks before opening day in order to assemble their wares.



The event runs from Friday through Monday and during the course of the long weekend upwards of 500,000 people throng the streets. The state police are up on the Interstate dealing with the slowdown of traffic caused by people getting on and off the highway at the Hillsville exit. Many Hillsville natives either leave town or hunker down.

I had to see this thing for myself. All around the town, people were selling spaces in their yards for parking. Most of the businesses were closed and their parking lots were given over to various organizations that used the opportunity to raise funds. I parked in front of an insurance agency and handed my $4 over to the local high school girls’ volleyball team.

I went to gawk, not to shop and gawk I did! It was an amazing spectacle. Hillsville looked like it had been swallowed by a carnival. It looked like the midway from the Texas State Fair had been transported to southwestern Virginia. It was crazy. I just let the crowd take me. We flowed up one side of the street for a couple of miles and then back down the other way.



I saw pitch men hawking the ShamWow chamois, knives, vegetable choppers and various cleaning products. I saw purses and shoes, socks and bird houses, t-shirts and feather boas, confederate flags, cds, leather goods, key chains, wind chimes and decorative license plates. I saw funnel cakes and hot dogs, ice creams and apple cider. I saw Chinese food, Italian food, German and Greek food. There were beautiful antiques including furniture, glassware, crockery, cast iron, stoneware and cutlery. Everything you could imagine was for sale in Hillsville that weekend.

I saw lots of happy faces. In fact, the only unhappy faces I saw were the faces of small children who were tired and ready to go. It was an amazingly good-natured crowd. Lots of people were pulling little wagons and carts and pushing strollers filled with their booty. I did wonder, if you bought a big thing, like a piece of furniture, how you would get it out of there. I never did figure that out. I also saw a lot of guns. This was partially a gun show after all. It was a little disconcerting to see people walking down the street toting rifles. I never did find the actual gun show.

It was a surprisingly fun afternoon and I suspect I’ll be back during Memorial Day weekend. Oh yeah, in spite of all that not shopping, I did manage to find and buy a beautiful quilt.

If you find yourself anywhere near SWVA next Memorial Day, come on by. I don't know where you'll sleep but you've got to see this thing!