Author: John Fladd

You have e-bike questions. We have e-answers.

What is an e-bike?

It’s pretty much what it sounds like — a bicycle with a small electric motor to help a rider power through the tough parts of a bike ride in which they otherwise pedal, and wave to friends, and do other bike-ridey things. The website for Trek Bicycle Hooksett says, “Electric bikes (also known as e-bikes and electric assist bikes) amplify your pedaling power thanks to an electric drive system. There are many different kinds of e-bikes, but all of them use an electric motor and battery to help you power your bike.”

“An e-bike is born as a bike,” said Mark Dimenico, owner of Rail Trail eBikes in Derry. “You can pedal it like a regular bike; it lets you do most of the pedaling, but there’s a sensor, and every time you make a momentum of the pedal, a revolution, the sensor kicks the motor on and it holds it on at a steady pace.”

Who rides an e-bike?

E-bikers seem to come in all shapes, sizes and ages. Some have injuries that make it difficult for them to ride a conventional bicycle.

“They come in and they’re looking for a bike,” said Dimenico of Rail Trail eBikes. “They have their bikes, but they can’t ride them anymore or they get a knee operation or a hip operation. Maybe they don’t have the strength [to ride a conventional bicycle].

Amy Faust of Raymond is this type of rider. She had a long-standing back injury that kept her from riding bikes with her friends.

“I used my friend’s e-bike and we went on a great bike ride,” she said. “My husband was like, ‘I can’t even believe you’re doing this; you look so happy.’ So then we ended up just going and looking, and he’s like, ‘Nope, we’re going to buy you one that fits you perfect, because you just, you liked it so much.’”

Others want help easing into riding. David Fritz of Trek Bicycle described some of his customers:

“They come in and just are getting back into [bike riding] or just getting into it,” he said, “and they just, they want to go further. They want a helping hand. You have commuters that may not have access to a shower at work. On a hot summer’s day, you’re getting that helping hand; you don’t show up to work all sweaty.”

E-bikes aren’t just used recreationally. Some municipalities use them for times when it would be awkward to use conventional vehicles. The Derry Fire Department confirmed in a telephone interview that it has deployed e-bikes for the past two marathons in Derry and plans to do so in the future. E-bikes allow medical personnel to weave through a crowd of runners to get to people who need medical care.

The Derry Public Library recently acquired two e-bikes with an eye toward using them to tow a small trailer to book events.

“Our plan is that once we get [our bike program] rolling,” said Jessica Delangie, Head of Technical Services for the Library, “we’ll be able to take the bike out to different events. Obviously we’re right next door to the park, but we could take it to the park for any event there, but then also the splash pad, farmers market, that kind of thing.” Library staff will be able to take books to book clubs, Delangie said, or to off-site story times. Eventually, the Library hopes to use the e-bikes to make home deliveries.

Isn’t riding an e-bike cheating?

According to David Topham, the founder and treasurer of the Bike-Walk Alliance of New Hampshire (2 Whitney Road, Suite 11, Concord, 410-5848, bwanh.org), not unless you’re racing. Otherwise, it’s not like there’s a bike-riding purity test, even when riding in a group.

“You know, you’ve got this little motor helping you out on the hills,” Topham said. “We’ve got to work our tails off going up the hills. Are we cheating? The bottom line — the feeling I got from the bicycling community — is that no, the idea of a club is our camaraderie, people out having some fun, enjoying the fresh air, go out for the ride, go out for … probably a beer and a coffee or a pizza or something after the ride — this person’s got the little probably half-horsepower motor assisting them on a hill but they’re out there enjoying the company of others.”

Are e-bikes all the same?

There are many, many different types of e-bikes, from different manufacturers, at different price points. According to ReallyGoodeBikes.com, an online e-bike retailer, there are currently 250 brands of e-bikes in the U.S. and 500 in Europe.

“There’s road bikes with skinny tires,” Mark Dimenico from Rail Trail eBikes said, “for people who want to just drive on the road and go to work. And then there’s off-road bikes with fatter tires, for going up hills and through streams and over little jumps. They’re pretty much built to encompass all the different kinds of riding. You can ride them on gravel, sand, snow, the street, paved areas and non-paved areas. The bikes are set up so they can pretty much handle all conditions.”

For riders who want extra stability, he said, there are e-tricycles.

David Fritz from Trek Bicycle described something called a comfort hybrid.

“A comfort hybrid puts you in a more upright, more comfortable position,” Fritz said. “You can get it with a regular frame or a step-through frame. There’s a suspension seat post that helps take the sting out of the bumps. They come fully equipped with fenders and racks, with a rack on it. All of them come with a light that comes on. Most of them come with a little bell.”

In addition to all this, however, there is still another distinction to consider when looking at e-bikes: class. There are three classes of e-bikes:

• Class 1 provides an electric assist only while pedaling.

• Class 2 provides electric assist while pedaling and also by throttle control, a button or a twist grip. It can go up to 20 miles an hour.

• Class 3 has motor power. Using motor power only, it still cuts out at 20 mph, but as a pedal assist it can go 28 mph.

David Topham was instrumental in pushing through legislation in New Hampshire to codify these classes into law in 2018. The goal was to legally classify e-bikes as bicycles rather than motor vehicles.

“The way the law is written is that Class 1 and 2 are allowed on rail trails. Class 3, because it has the option of getting assistance for 28 [mph], is technically not allowed on rail trails,” Topham said.

Where can I ride an e-bike?

Because e-bikes are officially classified as bicycles in New Hampshire, they can mostly be ridden anywhere a non-powered bicycle can.

“I travel a lot with friends,” Mark Dimenico said. “We go out for rides in the evening and we go to places and do things and we take the bike paths or we take the back roads. [My friends are] just like, ‘I didn’t know this was out here. I didn’t know this trail was there. I didn’t know this lake was here. I didn’t know this stream was here or this view was there.’ They were so amazed by this little trail and all of a sudden we’re on the side of Lake Massabesic on a beach.”

Owning an e-bike has opened up many new places for Amy Faust.

“I had a group of friends,” Faust said. “Some had e-bikes, some didn’t, and we just started doing some group bike-riding, and I was able to do a 30-mile bike ride because I had my e-bike. And so it’s just been really fun. Most of the time I go on the rail trail and trails like that, but once in a while I’ll do a group ride on the road with friends. We just got a camper and we’re going to bring our bikes to different places all around and travel and part of that will be riding our bikes.”

David Topham sees e-bikes as a force for social change. He said that riding e-bikes “draws people together through a common interest, and collectively we call e-bikes … a great equalizer. I’m highly involved — the co-founder — of the Granite State Wheelers Bicycling Club in Nashua. We’ve been doing road rides primarily now for 53 years. A lot of times, one person in the family might have better strength or skills than the other. But if they still want to go out and have some fun together, one person could be on the conventional pedal variety bike, and the other one might get a little assistance out of an e-bike, and they have a wonderful time because they’re now still together doing a fun thing outdoors.”

Mark Dimenico has been impressed by the way e-bikes allow older riders to stay connected to a community.

“There’s a group in Derry,” Dimenico said, “and they call themselves the Golden Eagles. And they’re all octogenarians — they’re 80 years old plus, and they all ride e-bikes.”

How much does an e-bike cost?

As with most consumer goods, there is a wide range of prices among e-bikes.

“We’ve got bikes that adults or teens can ride that start out at $550,” said Mark Dimenico. “We’ve got one for $699. We’ve got a few of them for $1,200. The average price is $1,600. Our most expensive Class 3 bike is $1,900.”

But, he said, as with everything, there’s always a more expensive version.

“We get bikes from manufacturers and some of these bikes can run $12,000 to $13,000,” Dimenico said.

As an example of the price range of e-bikes, ReallyGoodEbikes.com has a category on its website for “eBikes Under $1,000 with 16 models, mostly starting at $800. At the high end, there are Class 3 mountain bike e-bikes for 10 times that price. As of July 10, one — the Bakcou Storm Jäger — carried a list price of $8,199.

E-bike retailers say a new rider should buy an e-bike from an actual bike shop, rather than from a big-box store or online. It’s likely that an e-bike will eventually need repairs, and there is a much better chance of a shop being able to repair a model that it sells.

“Most places only work on their own bikes that they sell,” said Mark Dimenico. “There are probably 10,000 bikes now that are on the market. New companies are coming out every day. They’re selling bikes and then they’re going out of business. They’re just leaving a trail of bikes behind that are all broken down and with no support, no parts.”

Buying according to the cheapest price tag can be a very short-term bargain, he said: “They [customers] usually end up buying them online and bringing them to us because they need a lot of repairs. [The bikes] come in a box and there’s really nobody to fix it for them. Things break on them and they’re cheaply made and they’re inexpensive and you get what you pay for in this business. We do a lot of repair work for all sorts of different brands that people buy and sometimes they’re brand new and they’re broken down the next day and what do you do?”

What is the future like for e-bikes?

When asked about the future of e-bikes, David Fritz stuck two thumbs up, and gestured to the ceiling.

“It’s going up and up and up,” he said. “I’d say 25 percent of our sales are e-bikes. I don’t know the exact numbers. But yeah, it’s booming.”

David Topham agreed.

“The use and sale of regular road bikes — not talking e-bikes, just the style of skinny-tire road bikes — sales have dropped off approximately 40 percent since Covid,” Topham said. Meanwhile sales of e-bikes are surging. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (energy.gov), sales of ebikes have risen significantly each year since 2019. “In 2018,” it reported on its website, “there were 325,000 e-bike sales.” But “[in] 2022, there were 1.1 million e-bikes sold in the United States.”

E-BIKE DEALERSHIPS
The Bike Barn 720 Union St., Manchester, 668-6555, bikebarnusa.com
Cycles Etc. 450 Second St., Manchester, 669-7993; 288 N. Broadway, Salem, 890-3212; cyclesetc.com
DG Cycle Sports 44 Nashua Road, Londonderry, 216-2022; 75 Railroad Ave, Epping, 734-5788; dgcycles.com
Electric Bikes of New England 27 Buttrick Road, Londonderry, 319-4909, ebikesofne.com
Exeter Cycles 4 Portsmouth Ave., Exeter, 778-2331, exetercycles.com
EZ Electric Bikes & Scooters 61 Epping Road, Exeter, 778-1402, ezbikesandscooters.com
Goodale’s Bike Shop 14B Broad St., Nashua, 882-2111, trekbikes.com
Pedego Electric Bikes 236 N. Broadway, Suite F, Salem, 458-2094, pedegoelectricbikes.com
Rail Trail eBikes 22 E. Broadway, Suite 2, Derry, 216-5034, railtrailebikes.com
S&W Sports 296 S. Main St., Concord, 228-1441, swsports.net
Trek Bicycle 19 Triangle Park Drive, Concord, 225-5111; 1197 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 644-2111; trekbikes.com

E-bike the trails

Charge up those e-bikes and zip down a trail today.

These are rail trail segments in southern New Hampshire. E-bikes that are Class 1 (“pedal-assist” only, max assisted speed 20 mph) or Class 2 (throttle-assisted, max assisted speed 20 mph) are allowed on the trails, according to the New Hampshire Rail Trail Coalition. Rail trail information was compiled from nhrtc.org.

Ashuelot Rail Trail, Keene to Winchester, 21 miles (primarily gravel trail, but paved road in and near Keene)

Brookline Rail Trail, Brookline to Milford, 4.4 miles

Cheshire Rail Trail North, Keene to Walpole, 17.8 miles (primarily gravel trail, but paved road in and near Keene)

Cheshire Rail Trail South. Fitzwilliam to Keene, 18.5 miles

Concord-Lake Sunapee Rail Trail, Concord to Newbury, 35 miles — still in its planning phase but there are completed segments: Stevens Rail Trail, Warner to Hopkinton, 1.3 miles; Tilly-Wheeler Rail Trail and Lower Lake Todd segment, Bradford, 1 mile; Warner Rail Trail, Warner, 1 mile; Fisherville Road to Carter Hill Road, Concord, 2.5 miles

Derry Rail Trail, Derry to Windham, 4 miles (paved road)

Dover Rail Trail, Dover, 3.8 miles (paved road)

Farmington Rail Trail, Farmington, 6 miles

Fort Hill Recreational Rail Trail, Hinsdale, 8 miles

Goffstown Rail Trail, Goffstown to Manchester, 5.5 miles

Granite Town Rail Trail, Milford to Brookline, 3 miles

Harrisville Rail Trail, Harrisville, includes Chesham Depot Rail Trail section, 0.5 mile; Skatutakee Lake Road & trail section, 1.4 miles; East View Trail section, 1.4 miles; Jaquith Rail Trail section, Hancock to Harrisville, 1.5 miles

Heads Pond Rail Trail, Hooksett, 1.7 miles

Hillsborough Rail Trail, Hillsborough, 8 miles

Lilac City Greenway, Rochester, 1.2 miles

Londonderry Rail Trail, Londonderry, 4.5 miles (paved road)

Mascoma River Greenway, Lebanon, 3 miles (paved road)

Mason–Greenville Rail Trail, Mason to Greenville, 9.1 miles

Nashua River Rail Trail, Nashua to Ayer, Mass., 12 miles (paved road)

Nashua Heritage Rail Trail, Nashua, 1.3 miles (paved road)

New Boston Rail Trail, New Boston, 4 miles

Monadnock Rail Trail, Jaffrey to Rindge, 7.5 miles

Peterborough Rail Trail, Peterborough to Hancock, 6 miles

Piscataquog Rail Trail, Manchester to Goffstown, 2 miles (paved road)

Potanipo Rail Trail, Brookline to Hollis, 6.5 miles

Rockingham Rail Trail, Fremont Branch, Windham to Epping, 18 miles

Rockingham Rail Trail, Portsmouth Branch, Manchester to Newfields, 25.3 miles

Salem Bike-Ped Corridor, Salem to Windham, 5.2 miles (2 miles paved road, the rest gravel)

South Manchester Rail Trail, Manchester, 2.4 miles (paved road)

Windham Rail Trail, Windham to Derry, 4.1 miles (paved road)

Featured image: Rail 8 from Trek Bicycle Hooksett. photo by John Fladd.

Where to spot treasures such as antiques, handcrafted creations, nerf guns, t-shirts, lime trees and a bear trap

By John Fladd
[email protected]

Flea markets generally fall into three categories:

Antiques. This doesn’t necessarily mean snooty people arguing over the fine points of Chippendale armoires, although it can. It means that most items on offer are old: boxes of old books, turn-of-the-last-century bottles, antique car parts, used CDs, piles of vintage Barbie dolls, or a stuffed owl or two — cool old stuff waiting for someone with a particular enthusiasm.

Sweat socks. Not just sweat socks, of course, but inexpensive consumer goods like burner phones, cell phone covers, neon-colored tracksuits and lots of shampoo. If you are looking for a velour blanket with a picture of a matador or a howling wolf on it, this is the place to find it. Please don’t think that I am mocking this type of market. It whispers sweet nothings to my heart.

Overgrown garage sale. You’re never sure what you’ll find at this kind of flea market. Yes, there are a few professional dealers specializing in Pokémon cards, or military surplus, but just as many of the vendors are people who have found themselves with too much of something on their hands — some old, some new — that they want to get rid of. For many of them it’s the getting-rid-of that’s the important thing. A sports family might realize they have 20 years’ worth of hockey gear, skis, football helmets and lacrosse sticks, and decide to flea market it.

About three years ago I found my flea market: the late, lamented Hollis Flea Market. It was an antiques market, full of vintage — stuff. There were some stunning antique clocks for customers with much richer blood than mine, but also any number of commemorative plates, piles of old postcards and, once, a giant pile of 3,600 C-clamps.

Unfortunately, this winter, the owners of the Hollis Flea Market announced that they were closing. This has left me searching for a new flea market.

Not counting yard sales and antiques shows, there are four major flea markets in the area:

Londonderry Flea Market

295 Nashua Road, Londonderry
londonderryfleamarket.com
Open Saturdays and Sundays 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. April through October
Admission $1.50 per person; 60+ and kids under 12 get in free.
The basics: The Londonderry Flea Market is an outdoor market on 30 acres, with up to 300 vendors on a given day. Many vendors do not accept credit cards; it’s a good idea to bring cash. There is an ATM on site. According to the Market’s website, there is a “huge assortment of items to find & buy for home, garden, work, pleasure, personal wants & needs. Make a list of things you’d like to buy before you visit the market. Bring the list with you to shop as the sellers here just may have what you’re looking for! f you don’t see it, ask them as it may just be out of sight.”
Food: There is a concession tent in the center of the market selling burgers, hot dogs, snacks and drinks.

The Londonderry Flea Market is very, very large. There are two halves, one on each side of a fire pond. Many of the vendors work under cover, but at the very back of the flea market there are a number of people selling things from tables. I asked one man in the back who was selling old vinyl records and a seriously intriguing pile of 78s how business was. He said he hadn’t made any sales yet, “but it’s about to rain, and I’m located back here in Siberia.”

One of his neighbors in the back section of the flea market was Stephanie St. Pierre, an enthusiastic world traveler and a maker. She was selling a number of trinkets and antiques from Thailand and Myanmar, but her most fascinating items were four handmade cigar-box banjos. They are a reminder of a brief but intense enthusiasm from a few years ago. Some of the banjos have three strings; some have one.

“I like it,” St. Pierre said. “It’s just fun to play with one string. A diddly-bow, I guess is what they call the ones with one string.” At one point, she made electric cigar-box banjos. “The better ones had pick-ups,” she said. “You could plug them into an amp. I’m not musical, but I had fun going to the flea markets to find all the hardware.”

A 3-foot-tall Barbie doll in a crocheted sweater and miniskirt, concrete garden ornaments — I was distracted from these things by a table full of beads. I was struck by a 2-inch bead — a white porcelain cube with a hole through the center, and what appeared to be blue Chinese characters on the sides.

“What’s the story with this?” I asked the lady selling the beads. She examined it closely for several seconds. “I have no idea what that is,” she confessed. I bought it for a dollar, reasoning that I could tie it to my sword scabbard like a samurai, if I ever got really good at using a sword. It pays to be prepared.

Vincent is the Vinnie of Vinnie’s Uniques and Antiques. Unlike most of the vendors’ stalls, his has a sign. He is a regular; he sells at Londonderry every weekend.

“I look for stuff that nobody else has,” he said. “I want something that they [customers] cannot find anywhere else. If it’s something they’re going to have a hard time finding, I want to have that.” On this particular day, his favorite item was a model ship. “I’m going to tell you, I love this boat. This is a beautiful, beautiful boat,” he said. He pulled aside a tarp to reveal a glass case with a model of a four-masted ship inside. “This guy told me that this ship here burned down and they rebuilt it, but it was never the same ship. There isn’t a kit for this ship, so this ship was made by somebody [who knew it well]. I love my ship.”

Coolest item at the flea market that day: It’s a toss-up between a concrete garden statue of a sad dog and a gold-plated reproduction of a crocodile skull.

What I actually bought: The big Chinese bead and a $5 hockey goalie mask to use in my sword class.

Salem Flea Market (Outside)

20 Hampshire Road, Salem
salemfleamarket.com
Open Saturdays and Sundays 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Year-round
Admission $1; a ticket will allow customers to return during the day
The basics: The number of vendors at the outside market can vary on any given day, depending on the weather, but there are usually 50 to 60. Public restrooms are located inside the building. Almost none of the vendors accept credit cards. An ATM is located on the premises.
According to the Salem Flea Market website, “The Salem Flea Market has been open for business for more than 40 years. We have new and used items, including antiques arriving every week.”
Food: There are two or three concession stands at the entrance to the Indoors Market, as well as vendors selling fresh fruit in the Market itself. One review on the Market’s Facebook page reads, “Corn dogs. Corn dogs. Corn dogs. Corn dogs. Corn dogs.”

There are two parts to the Salem Flea Market: an outdoor market and an indoor one. It might be tempting to consider them as a single unit, but they are so vastly different that it makes sense to consider each on its own merits.

The Outside Market butts right up against the parking lot, and there is a lot going on. It is constantly in motion. It comes closest to being another garage sale-type market, but here the focus is on utility. Some of the vendors sell new items, most sell old ones, but virtually everything is practical. If you are looking for a hand-operated winch with 20 feet of chain, or a used large-screen television, this is the place for you.

Lucas sells kitchen appliances. His tables are covered with blenders, food processors, microwave ovens and smaller kitchen tools. He has a small generator on hand, if any customers want to test out one of the appliances. Lucas doesn’t mind telling where he gets his merchandise. He buys the items from thrift stores, most of which he has a relationship with and will sell them to him by the pound. He cleans them up, if necessary, and resells them. I asked him how much he paid for a random blender. It was clean, new-looking, and looked like it would work well in most kitchens.

“I paid maybe 10 dollars,” he said with a shrug. “I can probably sell it here for 20.” What really jumped out at me was a variable-speed, hand-held immersion blender. I asked Lucas how much he wanted for it, and he said he was willing to let it go for $10.

On any given day, the outside market has anywhere up to a dozen cargo trucks. Most are from clean-out businesses or junk removal companies.

On this day, one vendor’s stock was mostly old, hard-worked lawn mowers and piles of air conditioners. His neighbor had three or four tables of used shoes. Another specialized in bicycles and stereo speakers. Because almost everything at the Outside Market is practical, and given the time of the year, several vendors at the front end of the market were selling garden plants. The people who sell at both Salem markets are from all over the world, so many of the vegetable plants for sale weren’t ones you might find at a local garden center — bitter melons, makrut lime trees and some with labels written in Asian characters.

A vendor named Melissa was beginning to think she might have come to the wrong flea market. She was located at the very back of the lot.

“I’ve got some bathrobes, some nightgowns, some [porcelain] figurines, some luggage,” she said, “a little bit of everything. It’s actually all mine. I’ve been a shopper my whole life and collecting things over the years. I usually sell on Facebook Marketplace, but that’s exhausting!” I asked what she thought her hidden gem was. She said that for the right person, the bisque porcelain figurines would be a satisfying find. “What is it they say? ‘One man’s junk is another man’s treasure?’”

Coolest item at the flea market that day: Two KitchenAid stand mixers. The vendor was looking for $80 for the small one, and even missing its bowl he was confident he could get $140 for the six-quart model.

What I actually bought: Plants — two brightly colored lilies and a large pot of Thai chile pepper plants for a total of $12.

Salem Flea Market (Inside)

20 Hampshire Road, Salem
salemfleamarket.com
Open Saturdays and Sundays 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. year-round
Admission: The same $1 ticket.
The basics: Public restrooms are located inside the building. Almost none of the vendors accepts credit cards. An ATM is located on the premises.
Food: There is a small snack bar inside.

The Inside Market in Salem definitely falls into the sweat socks category. As soon as you walk through the door you’re greeted by enthusiastic salsa and mariachi music. Neon-colored T-shirts compete for space with affordably-priced perfumes and colognes. One vendor sells apparently new-looking mattresses still in their plastic.

One stall was filled to the brim with brightly colored Catholic statuary — figures of saints and religious figures of all sizes, religious paintings, and ceramic bowls and flower pots.

The Inside Market has several twisting aisles that branch off unexpectedly. Just when you think you’ve seen most of it, you turn a corner and find a completely new group of stalls. Like almost all the shops, my vote for the coolest one doesn’t have a name above the door. It is about twice the size of other shops, and there are dozens — probably hundreds — of used bicycles hanging from the ceiling. It would be a mistake to think of it as a bike shop, however. The main focus of the business seems to be knives of all kinds and replica swords. Tucked away in a corner are two reproduction helmets, one Spartan and one medieval. Plus the truly impressive number of ceiling bikes.

The chain-link wall of a nearby stall is covered with hundreds of wrestling action figures. A man named Tony runs it with his wife. “I mostly sell Pokémon, wrestling, and action figure toys,” he told me. “That’s all I sell. Well, that and some baseball cards. And football cards — things that people collect.”

Another stall is about half the size of Tony’s and looks for all the world like a storage closet. It is packed full of packages of disposable cups and takeout containers. The owner had stepped out when I visited, so I made small talk with a lady who had come in looking for cups. “This is for a church event tonight,” she told me. “I always come here, and I’ve been coming here since before Covid. I always find what I’m looking for.”

A hand-written sign at another stall nearby read, “Good Quality According to the Price You Pay.”

Coolest item at the flea market that day: A trademark-skirting box of brightly colored toy ponies called Horse Lovely. “THAT BEAUTIFUL HORSE SPREAD YOUR WINGS AND FLY,” the box announced cheerfully.

What I actually bought: Three small resin figurines of babies doing kung fu, for $2 each.

Davisville Flea Market

805 Route 103, Warner
davisvillefleamarket.com
Open Sundays 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. (The website advises visiting between 6 and 11 a.m.) Open May 5 until the last Sunday in October rain or shine.
Admission and parking are free.
The basics: An outdoor market with anywhere from 50 to 150+ vendors. Live music, outdoor toilets.
Food: There is a concession stand that sells cold drinks, coffee, foods and snacks. Frequently there will be food trucks or vendors selling food.

The Davisville Flea Market is an antiques-centered one. A few artists and craftspeople sell their work, but the majority of the vendors sell old items. There are vintage tools, piles of old photographs, and beer steins on offer.

Aiden and Myles are 9 years old. I met them as they stood, spellbound, in front of the Holy Grail for 9-year-old boys: a giant pile of dozens of Nerf guns. Aiden was willing to give me some flea market advice, though he was incredibly distracted. His friend Myles stood next to him, his mouth agape. Aiden picked up a bright orange Nerf machine gun and examined it as he said, “I’m looking for one that has an attachment that can hold a lot of bullets.”

Aiden said that he likes the look of the guns. “If they made these look like camo [camouflage pattern] that would be good, if you’re into that,” he said, “but I like the bright colors. I think they make them this bright, so you buy them more.”

As I walked around to different tables, I was reminded of some lessons about flea market etiquette I’ve learned the hard way. I approached a table under the shade of some trees that was covered with antique tools. The vendor was having a conversation with another man, but in a slow, laconic way, with many pauses. When I was new to flea marketing, I would have used a lull in the conversation as an opportunity to ask a question, but that has rarely worked out well for me. The polite thing to do is wait until the conversation is completely done.

In this case, I waited four or five minutes for the two men to finish their conversation before talking with the vendor.

“How ya doin’ this morning?” he asked. This is a time-tested traditional greeting that indicated that he was willing to talk. I made a friendly but non-committal answer, because being too enthusiastic about anything sets the wrong tone in negotiations like this. I asked him about a hatchet on his ax table. “What’s the story with this?” I asked. (I could have asked him how much he wanted for it, but that could be interpreted as enthusiasm.)

Clearly this was the right thing to ask. He gleefully told me the brand name of the hatchet. Apparently, at least according to him, it was generally used for splitting shakes. At this point a couple of other customers had wandered over, but I was pleased to find that he had made me one half of the old-guy conversation, so he could make the other people wait.

He tried to sell me a bear trap.

I made my way to a tent run by artists Courtney Norton and Matt West. Their business, 7 Glass Studio, specializes in glass work and pyrography — using heat to burn designs into wood or leather. Matt works in low-heat, non-blown glass. Today he was selling extremely life-like glass caterpillars. “The black, yellow and white ones are your traditional monarch colors,” he explained. “The other ones are just fantasy. People like to stick them in their potted plants.”

John Zapollo sells a lot of different things. Today it was mostly books. He was questioning the wisdom of bringing them to the market. “Books have gone way down,” he said with a rueful shake of his head. “Books here at the flea market don’t seem to sell. It seems like more people are looking for tools and stuff to take care of their houses. The antique stuff that I sell doesn’t seem to get a lot of traction.”

The coolest item at the flea market that day: The bear trap.

What I actually bought: Three antique cookbooks from John. The most interesting one was published by the Heinz Corporation in 1939. I paid $1 apiece.