Shipoke sells its yuppie junk
That's a variation on an actual headline that ran in Harrisburg magazine years ago, when it was still run by the unceremoniously booted former Patriot-News editor Ron Minard. Minard, now in the Great Beyond, loved headlines like that.
The Shipoke flea market is held every summer on the Saturday after July 4. I'm always amazed how early people start showing up. Most residents set their tables up around 5:30-6 a.m., and customers begin arriving in droves shortly thereafter. There probably is a slightly higher class of items offered for sale here than in some neighborhood flea markets--we're a literature loving bunch, and books are plentiful. Walking past the booths spread out in Riverfront Park along Front Street, I also noticed many movies on videotape for sale, including a bunch from us. I think people are finally abandoning the VCR , and that's why so many tapes are on the tables. Kind of like when vinyl LPs began showing up at yard sales after the advent of the CD.
The event ends with a neighborhood picnic in the Shipoke playground that is the "social event of the summer" here, more or less. There are more than a few psychic wounds among neighborhood residents from the June 27-29 flood scare, but nothing a little wine and fellowship won't heal.
Comments
I bumped into your blog and commentary on Shipoke while looking for something else.
You are obviously there now, lucky you. The first home I bought with my xhubby was in Shipoke, when they went up for public auction in the early '70s - $600 down. No, I'm not that old, early 50's. When we lived there, all of us were young professionals who got good deals at auction. We were just out of school, some of us had our first kids who are now in their mid to late 30's (and still friends by the way). We had our flea market over Flag Day in June, we drank champange with our Red Cross sandwiches when were were flooded by Agnes, we watch the armed National Guard patrol our streets when TMI almost blew, we chased junkies out of the vacant houses on Conway, we swam naked and stoned in the pool up at the motel. My name was Gohl then. Bob and Eileen Young, Paul Mason, Terry and Carolyn Summers were my contemporaries. Cool place, and I remember it as one of the best times of my "grown up" life. Enjoy it while you have it. I lived in a little house in the 1st block of Front Street, where the row facing the river ends. Forget the number. The only folks that I used to know who are still there is a family named Pollard. Anyway, wanted to share. So many good and crazy memories!
Posted by: Diane Walker | October 8, 2008 03:34 PM