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Vol. 6
No. 8
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER - LANARK, NORTH LEEDS & GRENVILLE
AUGUST 2019
Iconic flea market still a draw outside of Perth
Photo submitted.
Eva Sullivan keeps an eye on what’s happening at The Perth Flea Market. Photo credit: Sally Smith.
Perth - Sally Smith editorial@pdgmedia.ca Eva Sullivan sits on the pink velvet divan at the open back door of her flea market on the outskirts of Perth. It seems she’s content to watch trucks go by, chat to visitors wandering through, call to her daughter — Kathy Sullivan Stewart — (wo) maning the cash. But watch her blue eyes, see the quirk of her mouth, and it’s clear who’s boss. Sullivan and her husband Russell have raised six kids; she’s lived for the last eight decades in and around McDonald’s Corners (now in Perth), as did her parents before her. She recalled heading down south for a vacation with her husband when the kids were young, but after two days Russell felt inclined to head home…so they did. They’re homebodies. Sitting beside the flea market
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building is The Shabby Shack, a small building that originally was one of the Rideau Ferry cottages but now is a companion building to the 500 square foot flea market. It’s a cute little building, Sullivan says, recalling it took a lot of effort and a lot of cussing to get it there. It’s filled with goods, as is the main flea market. Sullivan still has a say as to what comes in through the front doors; two of her girls — Kathy, and Sue McNamara — help with the acquisitions now, and one son Michael does some of the heavy lifting, but Sullivan keeps her eye on what’s happening. She can tell you, for instance, which is the least expensive ($2), and which is the highest priced article (a butcher block at the front entrance). Sullivan’s been at this spot on the Rideau Ferry Road for about 30 years; she says it’s not
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hard finding wares. “It’s surprising how many people come here with goods. Or someone might come and say I’m moving, downsizing. I’ve got things to get rid of. We go to their home, view their stuff, and take what we want.” At one time she went to auction sales — “I used to be braver then,” she remembers. Sometimes the bidding got loud and raucous and she says she once even bid against Cliff Miller (Rideau Antiques on Rideau Ferry Road)…and won! “Something came up, a piece of majolica, he started bidding and I got it. I overheard him say ‘I’ll be darned if I’m going to bid against that little old lady.’” Sullivan thought that was sweet of him. And while old she might be — 83 — the ‘little’ of Cliff Miller’s description fits, too. Possibly four feet, eleven inches tall (but probably not), Sullivan’s the essence of the expression “dynamite comes in small packages.” As the kids were growing up, she and her husband ran a thriving live bait business. “It was big
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time,” she recalls, large silver vats full of minnows in the garage. Her husband had a 100-foot seine net on his boat and sometimes took in 1000 or so minnows in a night, “or nothing,” she says, shrugging her shoulders at the chance-like nature of fishing. He fished both the Rideau and Otty Lake. As well as minnows, “I picked a lot of worms, sometimes 1500 a night. We kept them in a fridge in the garage, sold them retail. At that time we sold a dozen worms for .25¢. “The business is gone now. There’s no demand, not as many fish in the lakes. It was time.” For a time, as well as running the live bait business, the family ran the flea market as well. “We needed the money.” But as the live bait business was waning, Sullivan’s business was growing. It was originally situated in a commercial building down the road, and eventually she moved it to her present location. What enticed her into this particular business? “We had junk in the garage and the house
which we were happy to get rid of,” she smiles that quirky smile. “It went from there; I liked the business…and it was a break from raising six children (the three others are Patrick, Shane and Sharlene). She remembers it as being “a long session (raising children), but enjoyable,” adding with a quick grin — “they’re all pretty good kids.” Sullivan married at 19 after completing one year of high school in Perth. Her first kiss, she says, thinking hard, was probably at her sister’s house on South Street in Perth after Russell started courting. He first met her delivering groceries, and the rest is history. Besides six children, Sullivan has nine grandchildren, five great grandchildren and one great-great. So today, as she sits on the pink velvet divan, and watches and nods to customers, chatting as they walk by, she keeps her eye on the ebb and flow, calls her daughter if she needs information and feels in charge as the boss woman — something she likes to think about.
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