A Story and a Complaint...

I know I should probably start with a more light-hearted first "real" post but something happened this past week that really bothered me. I went on a trip to Renningers in Kutztown, PA, looking forward to the experience as I was told this is a large 3-day show running Thursday through Saturday and the weather was going to be good. We got a late start, and this is an over 200 mile ride one-way, but we'd get there sometime around 2 PM. We arrived at 2:15 PM, and asked at the gate how may dealers were in attendance before paying our $15 per head entrance fee. We were told that there were 650 dealers in attendance that day. Not bad for $15, so we paid, parked the car and walked to field.

If you've been to Renningers you know that the Pavillions block the view of the field beyond, so you can't really see how many dealers there are set up, most keep to the front anyway. Also there is a permanent indoor flea market with dealers and food booths off to one side which promised to be interesting (the person I was with had been before and told me about it). As I walked around I was thinking the count of 650 dealers was a bit low even if it included the permanent indoor dealers, but heck the gate person probably was just guessing.

Now here is what bothered me, this was 2:20 PM on opening day (Thursday) of a 3-day show, that closes at 5 PM and dealers were packing up and leaving. It was clear that many dealers had already packed and left as we saw evidence of booths that had been vacated (trash, trampled grass, and stake holes). I paid $15 to shop what was essentially a closing store. I think even if you're not staying all three days, you could at least stay a full first day, you paid for the space.

The permanent indoor flea, which closes at 5 PM also, was not much better, most of the booths were closed (secured with plastic and clothespin doors/curtains), the food vendors were cleaning and closing up, this is at around 3:30 PM! There were a couple vendors open, a penny candy booth, a meat market, and a few other trinket vendors.

There was one very nice vendor, a lady who sells homemade candies by the pound, whom I bought a bag of nonparreils from, who offered my travelling companion and I a free peanutbutter cup sample. Thank you!

One of the most perplexing things I saw at the show was in the meat market. Does anyone know what you do with smoked pig traechea?