Vendor Sue Miller bags owl statues for customer Carlos Albaran.
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a g e M t e k r Ma I
If you can’t find it down here, you don’t need it.
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–Sue Miller, vendor 12 | May/June 2013
Thousands search for deals at Dog Day Flea Market
f you have a shopping list that includes a goat, an antique lamp, gently used slippers, a crepe myrtle and a hunting dog, you would expect to have to make a few stops to get it all. But the Dog Day Flea Market in Ardmore is a one-stop shop for all of that, and more. “People sell dogs, rabbits, goats — whatever they can sell,” says vendor Sue Miller. “If you can’t find it down here, you don’t need it.” Miller sells a mix of clothes, household knickknacks and books. Next door to her, a vendor sells sheets, jeans and belts. A few tents down, a man sells guns. Across the yard, another is selling live chickens. “We’ve got everything,” says Alex James, who bought the market and, land it sits on in 2000. James says the market goes back to the 1940s or early 1950s. At the beginning, men would buy, sell and trade hunting
By Andy Johns dogs on Mondays. “The dog traders are the ones that started it,” he says. Hence the name, Dog Day Flea Market. From those first days, it was about 25 years before it turned into a general flea market and women started to attend. And though it’s expanded to Sundays and has many female shoppers and vendors, the clientele still has more masculine tastes. “The guns seem like they sell faster than the glassware,” James explains. “It’s still kind of a men’s market.” It’s also remained true to its roots with animals being a big part. When asked what kinds of animals have come through the market, James rattles off a list that includes rabbits, goats, pigs, kittens, cattle, hogs, ducks, geese, emus, ostriches, donkeys and quail. “I’ve seen every kind of animal,” James says. “Maybe not an elephant or anything, but a lot of animals.” Ardmore Telephone Company