Antique dealers are rolling into town at 6 a.m., Bromfield alums are texting and tweeting about meet-up times, residents are optimistically loading up their junque in hopes it will turn to treasure, people are happily anticipating seeing friends and acquaintances, and dogs are champing at their leashes: The annual Harvard Flea Market is here. Oct. 6 marks its 47th year. As always, the hours are 9 a.m. (7 a.m. for early birds) to 4 p.m. and admission is $3 for adults including seniors; $5 for early birds; and $1 for children 6-12. Last year student counters tallied 3,000 visitors, and Co-chair Steve Finnegan predicts, “If the weather holds, it’s going to be the best year ever.”
Pam Durrant walks with an armful of stakes to mark booth locations for a previous Harvard Flea Market. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
And the weather always “holds.” Except for 2005, when Columbus Day weekend was literally a washout, flea-market Saturday—or at least Sunday—seems always to be a beautiful fall day, with sometimes a bit of Indian summer, other times a nip in the air. The setting is like an old-fashioned Hallmark card: leaves beginning to turn color and the pond beyond sparkling in the sun. The front of Old Bromfield stands as a sentinel of Harvard’s past, and the crowd greets the day with joyful expectation. Tempting odors waft from the lineup of food trucks, and shoppers look for vendors they have seen in the past, like the jewelry lady with her princess outfit, often complete with tiara, who animatedly pitches her antique and costume jewelry.
Though not always foremost in shoppers’ minds, the truth is that all of this is, in a way, a community service. Proceeds from the gate receipts and booth fees are split between the Harvard Schools Trust and the Harvard League of Women Voters to go toward education and enrichment for the community.
All this good will, great bargains, yummy food, and happy reunions are the result of a large group of people who work hard behind the scenes. Sue Robbins, a longtime Schools Trust member, said she can’t think of another community event that calls on such a “broad group of folks” to pull it off. Most of them have been at their “job” for many years and are endearingly respectful of the people who held the job before them. Some of the jobs have been streamlined or enhanced, but no one deviates far from tradition. Along with Finnegan for the Schools Trust, Jackie Normand is co-chair of the event for the League of Women Voters, the group that began the flea market in 1972.
From soccer player to steward
Finnegan said that he has a very different relationship with the flea market now than he used to have. As a Bromfield senior in 1976, he played soccer, and all the school teams were quite possessive of their one field in front of Old Bromfield. When he saw how the field “took a pounding” from the flea market, he was really angry, wondering who these people thought they were. Once he became a member of the Conservation Trust, which had joined the league as a sponsor in the 1980s, he found himself in a management position. Since the Schools Trust became a sponsor with the league in 2008, he has co-chaired the event. He commented that since his high school soccer days, groups have been doing a good job of keeping the field viable. Finnegan recalled that Dave Maynard used to plug the Harvard Flea Market on his radio show during the years he lived in town. No plugs are needed now as the flea market has a well-established reputation.
Preparation for the current year’s flea market, always the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend, starts in June with the mailing of a flier to all town residents and to all vendors who participated in the previous two years. Heidi Creighton, who has been doing publicity for the flea market since 2010 when she joined the Harvard Schools Trust, said that social media have definitely extended the reach for the flea market. She added, “The hardest part of my job is making sure to cover all the bases, which includes outreach to the schools (principals and staff), the local and neighboring communities, and the news media.” And, of course, social media. Creighton said she really enjoys doing the job, meeting people and seeing the school-community connection.
Keeper of the database
Sue Robbins (a co-owner of the Harvard Press) has been “keeper of the database” that goes back to 1987. Her records show that the number of vendors has fluctuated by no more than 20 over the years, but the revenue has doubled in the past 30 years. Vendor fees have steadily increased, with the cost of a booth always lower for a resident than for an out-of-towner. Over time, the number of higher-paying vendors has outpaced residents and is now triple their number.
More interesting than the numbers are Robbins’ observations as she talks to vendors online or by phone. She said she finds it delightful that the offspring of early vendors are now carrying on the family business. When some of the vendors who participate year after year can’t come the current year, they often explain in lengthy detail the medical condition or family situation that prevents them from attending. “Way, way too much information!” remarked Robbins. But the “excuse” also attests to the reputation of the market, so celebrated that a vendor wouldn’t miss it except under dire circumstances. “Longtime vendors tend to get upset when we don’t assign the same booth they’ve had in the past, even though we tell them in advance that we can’t promise that. One vendor complained bitterly about that, vowing to never return . . . but she was back the following year,” Robbins said.
Barbara Kemp, like so many others, judged her length of service by recalling her predecessor, saying: “I’ve done reservations for so many years that I can’t remember when I started, but it was when Andrea Fincke stopped, because she was moving to Gloucester, or maybe before that.” She agreed with Robbins that “perpetual participants” feel entitled to the same spot year after year, and she said she tries to accommodate them. She finds it interesting that they all have their own idea about what constitutes a “good spot”—shade, sun, flat, corner, close to food, far from food, and so on.
The gatekeepers
Next it’s time to line up the gatekeepers for the day, working in pairs, for two-hour shifts. Over the past six years, Pam Erdos has been perfecting that job, which she said she “inherited from the very talented Chrissy Yoo of the league.” Erdos sends a schedule to the previous year’s volunteers asking them if they will do the same stint they did the past year. Who can say no? It’s so organized, and Pam is an inspiring model of hard work and commitment. Plus, she provides snacks at each admissions table. And she’s been known to bring around hand warmers on a nippy day. She also sends lots of kudos to her team: “What I am fortunate to witness each year is the remarkable commitment, dedication, energy and generosity of the gate staff volunteers, many of whom have been staffing the gates for a decade or more. Two years ago, we introduced student staffers to the gates to help count attendees, and they have been such a welcome addition. It’s invigorating to see two generations of volunteers in Harvard engaging and engaged together in service to the town, affirming Harvard’s community values in all the best ways. They really put Harvard’s best ‘face’ forward!”
Erdos also gave a shout-out to treasurers for the flea market, praising their “wonderful sense of professionalism, responsibility and good cheer,” adding that they are on foot all day, “making sure, in their discreet way, that gatekeepers have adequate resources.” Sue Robbins said she was treasurer a long time ago and she remembers being a bit nervous walking around with a lot of money. Counting it later was fun, though, she said.
Stakes and string
With everything set for the day, it’s time for the Friday night preparation. Rolf vandeVaart’s description captures the tradition: “I am currently the person in charge of field setup. This was handed down to me from Pete Jackson several years ago (somehow, Steve Finnegan convinced me it would be a good job for me). Pete documented the entire procedure (he learned it from Jim Wallace) and I still follow everything that he wrote up. I first retrieve the stakes from Dave Durrant’s barn where he generously lets us store them for the winter. Then a few days before the flea market, I go to the field and mark the starting points for all the rows. Then on the Friday before, I get about six volunteers to join me and we meet at the field at 4 p.m. and start marking and staking every booth. We used to use a string that was marked off every 20 feet but it ended up stretching and getting tangled up, so now I have a 200-foot tape measure to use. The challenge is to finish up before the sun sets on Friday night.”
Worth Robbins (a Harvard Press co-owner) admitted to being one of the “bozos” responsible for tangling the string. He said that imperfect though it was, the string was an improvement on the late Jim Wallace’s early method of simply walking 20 paces to mark a booth site. Sue Robbins added that for many years the setup crew would have to wait until field hockey practice was over, swearing under their breath as the coach always made sure the girls stayed until precisely 4 p.m. She recalled some years in which they had to finish the layout by car headlights. (Perhaps the frustration at a delayed start partially accounts for the joy Robbins said she took in wielding a hammer and pounding stakes.)
‘Like a gold rush’
Very early on the Saturday morning, Finnegan, Sue Robbins, and Kemp are at the field entrances, checking in and directing the vendors. Soon after that the early birds, who have paid $2 extra, queue up. Suzan Osborn, who knows antiques through her job with Skinner Auctions and for a long time was a regular early bird, described that scene: “It was like the gold rush, people hell-bent on a mission. They were mostly dealers, people who know things and can spot a find from afar and want to grab it first. The people waiting in line for regular admission would stare at others coming out already, with an elaborately carved Chippendale chair or a padded-foot Queen Anne tea table. They don’t talk to anyone.” They need to get to their cars and come back for another round.
And then at 9 a.m. starts the steady influx of people, scattering to seek a treasure, have the last hot dog of the season, meet up with friends, or just enjoy browsing the aisles. “I love the fact that some of the Bromfield classes plan their reunions around the event. And some people who’ve moved away and have not been seen in town in years will show up at the flea market,” said Kemp. Later, Stu Sklar will come in with his cleanup crew—lots of kids—and make the field look like nothing happened there.
The people behind the scenes obviously enjoy the camaraderie and traditions of the flea market. Steve Finnegan recently announced he is going off the Schools Trust board, but he will continue as co-chair of the flea market. And Sue Robbins said, “Every year, I think about bowing out, but I love our crew.”
