Happy's Flea Market Is Back (Under New Management)

Half of the back lot is now filled with people selling their goods, including melons.

Happy's Flea Market, which for a number of years occupied a large retail spot at a former super market on Williamson Road was closed ignominiously a few years ago. Owners didn't keep up the property; it was basically condemned and finally sold.

The new owner has created a small miracle in taking what looked like an unsalvagable shell of a building and turning it into 10 retail spaces and a whole load of storage "bins," which you can drive to. Each bin in the large building is accessible by car or truck.

The most astonishing accomplishment, however--to this old flea market guy--is bringing back one of the iconic flea markets in western Virginia, even if it is no longer called "Happy's." To us oldtimers, it will always be Happy's. It is but a shell of what it was at its best, but word is getting around and a couple of vendors who have been selling goods for the past few weeks say traffic and sellers have grown quickly as word spreads.

The interim flea market next door was never much to write home about and still isn't. I pretty much abandoned that one when I encountered a raft of Trump memorabilia, cigarette smoke and guns. That's not for me. The new "Not Happy's" is.

Here's some of what it looked like Saturday morning.