Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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  • A street vendor is shown here holding a pair of Husky pups as thousands of people flow into Hillsville for the annual VFW Gun Show and Flea Market. Staff photo by Bill Archer

    Hillsville flea market

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September 6, 2010

Hillsville streets bustle for flea market

By BILL ARCHER Bluefield Daily Telegraph

HILLSVILLE, Va. — They came by the tens of thousands — bargains to the left of them, values to the right — as the 43rd annual Hillsville Gun Show and Flea Market drew huge crowds of people searching for bargains and folks trying to make a buck. The gun show/flea market started Friday and will conclude today

“It’s great, weather-wise, but it ain’t a bit nice to do anything in this economy,” Jim Gineman of Columbus, Ohio said between dealing with customers at his tent located in a field in Hillsville across from the VFW entrance operated by the Hunley family. “I had a good job, but when I got laid off, I couldn’t find anything else. I started coming down here six years ago, but now, it’s all I got.”

A customer bartered with him over an item. “What’s the price marked on it?” he asked. When the shopper responded, he said he would take $10 for it, and made the sale. “You’ve got to do what you can to survive, but it’s not nice.”

Attendance at the gun show/flea market had been down somewhat in recent years from the former high-attendance marks of 400,000 for the four-day Labor Day weekend set back in the early 1990s, but the crowd was packed on the Hillsville sidewalks and in the shopping areas and walking in any direction seemed something akin to salmon swimming up stream to spawn.

“I thought you said: ‘Now I know what a sardine feels like,’” another shopper said. “Same difference.”

Martin Paulson, a Virginia State Police dispatcher based at Division 4 Headquarters in Wytheville, Va., said that traffic moved well on Friday, and state troopers traveling on motorcycles could get to problem areas quickly. However, he acknowledged that the crowd on Saturday was much larger than the crowd on the previous day.

Paulson and local Carroll County, Va., dispatchers, staffed the new Virginia State Police mobile command unit that included a big screen television across the back of the bus broadcasting a real-time image of the crowd in the area around the entrance to the Grover King Post 1115, Veterans of Foreign Wars, with individual screens on each side of the bus broadcasting live images of traffic flows at traditional areas of congestion on different entrances to town.

“We can zoom in on any location to determine what the troopers need to resolve problems,” Paulson said as he demonstrated the capabilities of the system.

“This is where the action is, isn’t it,” Tom Helton, a Graham High School teacher said in passing. The crowd didn’t pause its flow.

VFW Post 1115 established the gun show/flea market to raise funds to help the post replace its roof that collapsed under the weight of an ice storm in 1967. The inside of the post is still prime real estate for people looking for rare and collectible coins as well as just about any type of firearm imaginable. A Chuck Connor Legacy 94 Winchester 30-30, with a loop lever action like the rifle Connor used on “The Rifleman” television series, was selling for $1,289.95. Outside the post, a Mister T collectable action figure from the original “A-Team” series was selling for $65.

“We sold several big things on Friday,” Steve Tibbs of White Elephant Antiques in Bluefield said. Tibbs had a large lot on the VFW side of the flea market. “We’re still having a good day today. There are a lot more people here today.”

Peter and Patricia Taylor, also of Bluefield, said they make some purchases, but they also like to see the artists who come to the show. “We really enjoy seeing an artist from Atlanta, Ga., who is here every year, and does some incredible paintings on the pressed metal ceiling tiles from really old buildings,” Patricia Taylor said.

A hawker near one of the entrances to Hunley’s field vendor area shouted: “Great prices! Great prices here today! I’m going out of business again.”

George and Jenny Lowur of Lima, Ohio have been setting up shop in Hillsville for the past 26 years. “The promoter here, the Hunley family, has been good to us all of these years,” George Lowur said. “They make this show a good experience for everyone.”

Still, a huge part of the show for everyone is the crowd of people who descend on the community of about 2,600 people every year. “Can you imagine looking up into your rear view mirror and seeing all of these people?” one visitor said. The crowd was that big.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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