Junk in the Trunk brings antiquers to Nashua

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

If you look and listen, you’ll hear plenty and see a lot at antique shows.

A fair, a show, flea market or bazaar — whatever the name or whatever the season — there was something for everyone at the Big 4 Junk in the Trunk Antique Fair in Nashua this weekend.

A hot pink Elvis throw blanket with the Cadillac to boot?

Check.

A vintage sleigh for your reindeer to pull you home on snowy winter’s evening?

You betcha.

Beer cans, sports cards, crafts, collectibles, decor and yard art were just a sampling of items that vendors had on display for sale just down from the picturesque Cedar Lake on the Big 4 Fairgrounds.

“You can buy anything at a flea market,” said Kreg Smith, who lives 10 miles southeast of Nashua in the unincorporated community of Horton.

Smith had many Breyer horses — small collectible models that are very popular among equine enthusiasts. A lunch box of the 1970s television show, “Apple’s Way,” also had a price tag on it at Smith’s table that resided in a barn stall on the fairgrounds.

Smith said the show reminded him a little bit of the “Waltons.”

A couple of stalls down you’d find Dave Donaldson from Postville, who had a serious collection of sports cards for sale, not to mention athletic jerseys for young or old.

Whether you were looking for a Brett Favre football card in a Packers or Vikings uniform, he probably had it. Sadly, no card of Favre sporting the hunter green helmet of the New York Jets was visibly on display.

Donaldson says he goes to about 10 flea markets a year and also enjoys the one over on the Mississippi River near Marquette. He said he is 39 cards short of completing his 1966 Topps Baseball card set, which he said is in excellent condition.

“I would say the last two years we have seen an increase in card sales,” said Donaldson.

Don Forney, owner of Antiques and Whatever out of Oelwein, said he used to go to antique shows every weekend for about four or five years straight. The items he sells, which ranged from Three Stooges dolls to a small bronze statue of a newspaper carrier, are hard to miss. In fact, they seem to have an eye out for him. His stuff just finds its way into his shop.

“It follows me home,” said Forney, wearing a black hat that had plenty of character to it.

His items are unique and he doesn’t mind handing out some cold, hard cash to get his hands on a latest find.

“At the end of the month people that are hard up for money — they think I’m a pawn shop — they come in and try to sell the strangest stuff,” said Forney.

If searching for the perfect treasure is high atop the list of many antiquers, Bill Neal just might have that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that you’re looking for.

Bill and Becky Neal have helped organize and coordinate the Farm Toy Show at the Iowa Events Center in Mason City for quite some time. On display are all kinds of toy tractors and some dolls, Becky said.

“We do crafts. Everybody is wondering what we’re going to come up with next,” said Becky.

Bill is also planning on a craft show Nov. 10 at the Charles City High School.

Bill said this year’s antique show in Nashua brought out a lot more vendors than last year. This is the second year the Junk in the Trunk Antique Show has been held at the fairgrounds. There is also one in the spring.

Bill’s favorite part of the show outside of the camaraderie and being able to sell his wood crafts?

“We’re five miles from home,” he laughed.

Doreen Davis from Waterloo and Suzy Manross from Waverly teamed together to come up with Suzy Q’s Creations. It’s a little bit of everything, like Davis’ pour art that features vinyl records. She pours the paint, then airbrushes them to come up with neat and interesting wall pieces.

Sometimes it’s not even about all the items up for sale that the pair gets a kick out of, according to Davis.

“The planning and the thinking it all out and the discussion is the most fun, too. We love that,” said Davis.

Manross said she enjoys when she sees customers pick up a game and revert to their childhood, like with one of her antique pinball games.

“They’ll sit there playing with them and it brings back memories. ‘Oh, I had one of these when I was a kid,’” said Manross, with a grin.