Travel Experiences with Jeff Barganier
A Day at Scott Antique Markets
Ancient Bread Boards and Olive Jars
The Spring air is cool and breezy beneath brilliant blue sky. We pay ten bucks for two adults at the gate. The fee covers entrance to both buildings and free shuttle service between them. We park and walk toward the entrance to the South Building. Hartsfield International Airport isn’t far. Big jets glide overhead so low I can read the names of carriers on their underbellies. Founder Don Scott travelled to shows far and wide, buying and selling antiques for twenty years before opening this show. It was successful from the git-go. Thirty years later, according to Scott’s Web site, this event has expanded into the World’s Largest Monthly Indoor Antique Show, dubbed “America’s Favorite Treasure Hunt!” The event only last two days. See the schedule at: www.scottantiquemarket. com/schedule. Lots of folks here! Everyone is smiling … and buying! About half the customers aren’t wearing masks. Maybe life’s
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African Cat Statues
getting back to normal? The show is so massive and diverse in both people and things that one immediately senses its international flavor. Cindy and I have attended for years and made friends from all over the planet, including some “locals” like Jerry Howard of The Wooden Nickel. The Arab, Alabama company specializes in unique furniture made from kiln dried wood. Each piece has a buffalo nickel embedded somewhere in it. He explains how the business got started: “About twelve years ago, I was thinking about retiring. And I got real interested in watching a sawmill run. So, I bought into a sawmill. A few months later I woke up and I had a barn full of wood. I had to do something. The biggest thing I had to learn was how to dry. Drying was too fast, too hot, too, you know, and it kept warping and cracking. And so, it took me several years to learn to dry. So, we saw, we dry, we kiln dry, and then we make the furniture. Then I
Lady Selling Bags Over iPhone
couldn’t find anybody to make bases, so I had to learn to weld. So, we make our bases to fit the slab (table top),” he says. I admire his work, including a unique horseshoe shaped bar. The heavy metal bases give his creations an indestructible industrial look. I stroll along inside this sprawling edifice looking for Cindy. Aisles are identified by one number and one alphabet and stretch in grid fashion as far as I can see. I catch up with her at M.A.P. Antiques & Decoration where she’s already made a purchase—four antique dining chairs for a client. Proprietors Marc and Yves Laval have been vendors at Scott’s for years. They travel throughout their home country of France searching out beautiful armoires, tables, buffets, seating, chests, mirrors and lighting. I linger here, listening to Marc’s radio program broadcasting songs all the way from Paris, while Cindy transacts her business.
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