Jeff Barganier's A Day at Scott Antique Markets

Travel Experiences with Jeff Barganier A Day at Scott Antique Markets

Ancient Bread Boards and Olive Jars African Cat Statues Lady Selling Bags Over iPhone

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. 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 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.

Lots of folks here! Everyone is smiling … and buying! About half the customers aren’t wearing masks. Maybe life’s

We stroll over to The Wild Goose and chat with Sis. “I’ve been coming here for eighteen years. These people are like family. A lady came by yesterday and bought $11,000 worth of bags,” she says. I watch as a lady frantically snatches a travel bag from Sis’s display and holds it in front of her iPhone. “Sold!” the lady declares, and throws the bag on a cart with a pile of others—she’s doing a live “virtual show” for clients and/or friends tuning in from probably all over the country. Wow, how times have changed! Before departing Sis’s booth, designer Ashley Dillon of Montgomery happens by. We pause and chat with her. I snap a picture of her modeling one of Sis’s bags for the BOOM! folks back home. Cindy later explains that he’s a regular at Scott’s and sells unique tribal “African mud cloths” that designers often use as wall hangings.

Shuffling along, we stop to study some vintage posters at the booth Old Town Vintage Posters. Cindy begins to sort through them until owner Tom Lewis this find. She wants to keep Barnyard a secret. But I hate media bias—just read Lawson’s Bluff. My journalistic duty demands full disclosure. I’m in trouble. So be it.

Scott Antique Markets makes a great day trip from the River Region. You will not be disappointed. Take cash for food vendors. And be prepared to find something you can’t leave without!

Tribal Mud Cloth Vendor

It’s noon. I head back to Smokey’s Barbeque for a sandwich and the biggest piece of pecan pie four dollars can buy. Cindy’s at the Mexican café. I join her there and we enjoy our respective dishes and watch deals being made all around us.

Antique Poster

Afterward, Cindy visits Industrial Chic-Loft and purchases four bar stools while I scout for a special art piece for wall space over our new studio sofa. I can’t find what I’m looking for but, in the process, I get a cool photo of this African dude who poses for the shot. explains the first rule of dealing with vintage posters is, “Don’t touch them.” We look up to see Tom standing other side the large table with rubber gloves on his hands. “Over time, they soil if touched repeatedly,” he adds. She jerks her hands back. Tom has the original “Lu Lu Biscuit” poster dating back to—I’m not sure—1897 or 1930s. Tom tells us French company Lu Lu Biscuit is still in business.

Before departing, we swing by Barnyard Antiques (at Scott’s) and discover lots of artifacts our great grandparents would be familiar with: old rakes, pitch forks, bread boards, wooden tubs, ladders, and the like. Cindy asks me not to reveal More Info:

www.thewildgoose.net www.mapantique.net www.thewoodennickel.net www.scottantiquemarket.com

Marriage license dated 1890

Jeff S. Barganier is a novelist, travel writer and manager of Cindy Barganier Interiors LLC in Pike Road, Alabama. (www.cindybarganier.com) He travels far and wide upon the slightest excuse for something interesting to write about. Contact him at Jeffbarganier@knology.net. Follow him on Instagram @jeffbarganier. Visit www.jeffbarganier.com