For vendors and customers alike, the return of the Chilmark Flea Market this summer has helped bring back a vital component of their summer social life.
Each Wednesday and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Chilmark Flea Market fans follow the pointer finger on the yellow signs scattered around the Island.
The Chilmark Flea Market began in 1967 with five card tables at the Chilmark Community Church. Fifty years later and a lot larger, its still going strong.
Antique sellers, artists, glassblowers and jewelers basked in the morning light of the first Chilmark Flea Market last Wednesday, waiting on their folding chairs and backs of trucks for customers and fellow vendors to approach their tables of goodies.
A market where you can buy or barter for secondhand goods is called a swap meet in some places, trash and treasure market in others, and flea market on Martha’s Vineyard. The Chilmark Flea Market holds unlimited potential; anyone can rent a stall to set out anything — well, nearly anything — they want to sell.
