Living It Up at the Pickens Flea Market

It seems like our numbers at the Pickens Flea Market Musician’s Circle have been getting smaller and smaller. We’ve lost some of our players to old age and illness. I looked back at some of the photos I’ve taken over the years and lost count of the number of players that are no longer with us.

The latest was Lonnie Skelton who passed away last week. He had been in declining health and hadn’t been at the flea market in over a year. Lonnie had even played on the Ryman Auditorium at the Grand Ol’ Opry.

Sometimes it’s just Ralph, Ivan, and me playing. I haven’t had a chance to find many bargains at the flea market because I kind of feel obligated to hang around and help keep things going.

Today it was almost like old times with a full audience and new people taking part. It was also one of those days when I wish I’d brought along my audio recorder. There were quite a few stories told that deserved documentation.

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to play today. I’d had a cancerous spot removed from my hand, so my ability to hand a banjo was iffy, at best.

The Pickens Flea Market has always been a place where folks feel free to express their religion. Most often it’s an odd off-shoot of Christianity. Here are some of the more…interesting photos I’ve taken on my visits.

I will always try document these interesting encounters. So today I got to the market early and decided to explore just a bit. Mixed in with all of the tools, antiques, and salvage groceries I find another unusual character and stopped to chat. What drew me to him was an ancient RV covered with hand painting and the letters “Honk if U ❤️ Jesus” on the back.

Paul Wislotski wasn’t selling anything. Instead, he had an old bed sheet spread out on a table. He was encouraging people to trace their hands on the sheet then decorated them with oil pastels. This was his “ministry” and the idea was that he would send these bed sheets to “deployed military to let them know we’re praying for them.”

OK. Let’s say I’m some lowly Army enlisted man in Iraq and I get a package with this bed sheet with hand prints. Not sure how I would react. Regardless, Paul said that this would be a great opportunity for Vacation Bible Schools and other church activities. He had sheets printed up with instructions. Since he had given me so much time I obliged by tracing my wounded hand and drawing it complete with stitches.

Paul let me take photos of his RV and his pet pigeon, whose name I forgot.

I made my way back to the musician’s shed where Ivan and Ralph were getting set. There were already lots of our normal (and not-so-normal) friends hanging out. We started in with our usual repertoire of old folk songs, gospel songs, country, and bluegrass songs. So far my hand was doing OK.

Our core group of me, Ivan, Ralph, Buddy, and Jack were on hand to keep the songs going, but we had a great turnout for our audience. Ivan keeps a stash of inexpensive harmonicas which he gives out to children that pass by. He invites them to join our band, gives them a quick lesson on how to play, then we do a couple of songs. The kids get to keep the harmonica. We had a good turnout of kids today. I didn’t get a photo, but here’s one of Ivan with the kids from a couple of weeks ago.

The biggest surprise was Betty.

She came over and asked if she could sing a song that she does in church. She started with “Over in the Gloryland”, then launched into a rousing rendition of “You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man.” Betty sang lots of songs with us, doing duets with me, then with Buddy. After singing she stepped off to the side and lit up an unfiltered Camel cigarette. Betty was amazing. She was visiting her sister in town and not from the area, but said she would love to come back sometime.

We had a couple of other guest singers and one fellow who asked if this was an open jam session where anyone could join. We told that her would certainly be welcome and I offered him my guitar. He declined by said he would return.

Apart from Betty’s Tammy Wynette interpretation, most of the music was gospel or church related. When we did Amazing Grace and I’ll Fly Away a couple of the audience started waving their hands. I kind of felt like I was back at a Pentecostal camp meeting.

Even so, it was a great day at the Pickens Flea Market. My hand didn’t hold up so well, so I had to take long pauses and switched over to playing melodica frequently. I had thought about playing at a new Celtic session this evening, but I still need to give my hand time to heal.