Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

A December visit to the local flea market

Rather than my usual early morning start of the day by writing a page or so of urbane trivia I decided this morning to visit the Sunday morning flea market which operates at the end of our street. The place has an addictive effect on bargain hunters like me, and an emptying effect on my wallet. It's not unusual for me to come home without any money. Somehow there always seem to be just one more cheap CD or unusual trinket which catches my eye.

I picked up some one dollar CDs today in mint condition. Quite a few classical ones from the top brand labels, but there were also some girly ones for my daughters. Titles by Britney Spears, Spice Girls, Delta Goodrem, Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson and Madonna. I actually feel a bit embarrassed when I buy these singers in case the sellers think I'm a bit weird. I always want to explain they are for my daughters. I also bought a CD of the soundtrack music form Priscilla - Queen of the Desert for a dollar as well - nothing weird about buying that one.

What else did I find? Well there was a nice bit of pottery - a small bowl - Middle Eastern with a date palm design inside - just the thing for eating a few Middle Eastern dates from. A bargain at a dollar.

From another seller, for two dollars I became the owner of a 448 page National Geographic book titled Discovering Britain and Ireland. My ownership of this will be short term. Son number two and his Irish girlfriend are planning a five week trip to Britain and the Emerald Island next year. Guess what they are getting for Christmas.

My second son has become quite interested in Ireland and may have the opportunity to check out his Irish roots. One of our Kilkenny-born ancestors was exported from Dublin to Fremantle as a sheep stealing convict in 1853. I wrote about the harrowing voyage in an eight part series of essays titled Irish prisoners for Western Australia on Phoebe Dunbar & Robert Small in 1853. The first part appeared in Fremantlebiz on 6 September 2004. I also had a chapter on the same subject published in a 1993 anthology titled Irish Convict Lives, edited by Bob Reece.

I saw a most interesting woman amongst the sellers at the flea market this morning - she had to be a Gypsy. She was elderly and had maybe 50 different gold chains around her neck. All her fingers carried about five or six jewel studded gold rings - like every finger had a half a dozen rings. There was no more room for any more. On each of her wrists she had a collection of gold bracelets as numerous as the chains around her neck. It was far too much of everything and looked a bit spooky. I wondered to myself if she had been a grave robber in the past? I asked her if she took the collection off at night. She said in her thickish eastern European accent that she didn't. I noticed the woman also had a largish bag clutched tightly to her side. I'd bet there was more of the same sort of precious Gypsy bling inside.

This morning there were quite a lot of family-sellers trying to flog off their junk to raise a few extra dollars for Christmas. They'll then spend up on new junk. Anyone can set up a stall and become a Sunday Morning seller for an outlay of about eight dollars. The fee is collected by Rotary for their charitable projects.

© MMVII Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a couple of million words.

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