My family and I spent a long, long time stuck in traffic waiting to reach the McKinney Trade Days last Saturday. But it was well worth the wait.
I've been to the Trade Days several times over the last few years and have always found it a pleasant experience. The three-day open-air "flea market" (would that be the correct term?) literally has something for everyone, and I usually come away with at least two or three really cool items that I can't find anywhere else.
We were amazed by the number of visitors last weekend. We made the mistake of going to lunch downtown and then getting ourselves lodged in westbound 380 traffic. Anyone who has become ensnarled in the line of cars waiting to enter the Trade Days parking lot knows what I'm talking about, but last Saturday was just ridiculous.
It took us 40 minutes to creep down to the Trade Days from Skyline Drive . I don't know exactly how far that is, but it can't be more than a mile and a half! While we enjoyed a good amount of quality time together, by the time we were opposite the Courier-Gazette office, we were antsy and ready to get out of the car.
We finally got our chance. We parked way out in a grassy field and walked about 100 yards to the sales area. There were huge crowds. People seem to really love the Trade Days, and I imagine many people come for all three days and stay until almost closing time.
I enjoy prowling the stalls and stands and tiny shops, looking for bargains, antiques, accessories, sporting goods, whatever. I immediately bought my dad a birthday gift (you think I'd tell you what it is?), and located a vendor who was selling bargain-priced DVDs. (I bought "Kill Bill Vol. 1," and it's a fine film, thank you very much.)
I've always been tempted to buy some of the Western-style art and other Texan artifacts I've seen at the Trade Days. Don't know why, but twilight scenes of cowboys rustling up the herds or huddled around a campfire have strong appeal for me. Maybe some day.
A few sale tables always puzzle me. One vendor sells nothing but faceplates for cellular phones. There are evidently about a thousand different styles of faceplates, but do we really need these things? And another vendor had about a million gloves for sale. That's a lot of gloves.
We are always drawn (especially when our daughter comes with us) to what I call the menagerie, the "street" on which hundreds of dogs, goats, rabbits, ducks, geese, and assorted other animals are sold.
I can hardly take visiting this area. I realize the animals are in no way harmed or damaged, and I'm sure many of them find good homes, but seeing them inside wire cages or other enclosures makes me feel sort of sad. I generally hang back from this scene, but last Saturday, I made the mistake of cozying up to a Golden Retriever puppy.
The little guy was laid out in the bottom of a wire cage. He looked kind of, well, ready to go home with us. Against my better judgment, I petted his nose and he responded quite favorably. Licked my fingers and looked at me. Well, my heart just broke. I immediately named him Bono.
My wife and I started making plans for Bono. We imagined him loping around in our big back yard. We pictured him making friends with our other big yard dog, Sophie. We saw ourselves taking him for walks in the park.
The only thing we could not envision ourselves doing was paying little Bono's asking price. Reality set in pretty fast after that. We need another pet like we need a hole in our roof.
Our daughter, of course, always wants us to buy her a bunny rabbit. Well, that ain't gonna happen. Unless that rabbit comes potty-trained and is capable of feeding and watering itself, our home will remain Bugs-free.
Buying a big-ticket animal would, for us, be the ultimate act of insanity--talk about caving in during a moment of extreme weakness. But we have been guilty of making other large impulse buys at Trade Days; sometimes you can't help it. Just last year, for example, we bought a couch. We were just wandering around, minding our own business, trying not to spend too much money, when, darn it, we ran across this huge couch that was perfect for our living room. Later that evening, it was actually in our living room. And so it goes.