Static’s old Stock Show-loving granny used to say, “When life hands you cow poop, make cow poop-ade.” Why life would be handling cow manure was never clear, but Static vowed to make poop-ade nonetheless. And so has Valerie “Junker Val” Arnett.
When the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo hits town, Arnett and other flea market vendors who regularly sell their wares in Cattle Barn No. 1 have to hit the trail for a couple of months. Since many of them depend on their junk sales to pay their rent and regular bills, they were left scrambling each January. Some set up at other flea markets around town or even traveled all the way to the big mamma-jamma junk paradise in Canton.
Three years ago, however, Arnett decided to turn things around. She herded together many of those same vendors, recruited other high-profile junkers, and created the Annual Antiques & Home Furnishing Show & Sale. Despite the clunky name, the show has become highly anticipated for its assortment of cool crap, free beer, and quality vendors – but without the snoot factor sometimes detected at area antiques shows.
This year’s vendors include Fort Worth’s pre-eminent used book dealer, Brian Perkins of Back Door Books, and Doug Harman, the former president of the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau who is a bonafide freak about collecting historic items from the city’s past. He’ll have some of his cool Fort Worth items for sale. Other vendors will offer antique toys, advertising art, historic maps, books, coins, clocks, jewelry, marbles, massages, happy endings … . Well, OK, there are no massages, but there is a happy ending: A dollar of every $6 admission ticket sold will be donated to the local YWCA. That’s beyond poop-ade. It’s Poop-AID.
The 3rd Annual Antiques & Home Furnishings Show & Sale is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Lockheed Martin Recreation Association, 3400 Bryan Irvin Rd. An early shopping party will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday.
A Nuclear Don Young
The fight to stop the addition of two more units at the Comanche Peak nuclear plant near Glen Rose has been joined by a recently organized group of Cowtown environmentalists who say they are in it for the long haul. Spokesman Don Young (no, not the FWCanDO Don Young), chairman of the Greater Fort Worth Sierra Club, said the new group, called the True Cost of Nuclear, will intervene in the licensing hearings if and when they occur and in the meantime will “spread the word in every forum we can find that nuclear is too costly and too dangerous.” Those wanting to take part should contact Young at 817-437-0175 or State Rep. Lon Burnam at 817-924-1997.
