What Happened to the Seven Mile Fair?
I have fond memories of the Seven Mile Fair, Racine County’s indoor/outdoor flea market. In the 1980s Seven Mile Fair was a treasure trove of typical flea market fare: overpriced antiques, handicrafts, Avon, knock-offs of popular toys, and good ol’ fashioned junk. One of my favorite childhood memories involved saving my pennies so that I could buy a copy of Mario Brothers for the Atari 2600 from the Atari game seller at Seven Mile Fair. Back in those days, a brand new video game cost less than $20.00.
In an effort to relive a small piece of my youth, I visited Seven Mile Fair over the weekend.
Oh, how things have changed. I’ve never been to Tijuana, but Seven Mile Fair is exactly what I imagine a Tijuana marketplace would look like.
Spanish is by far the dominant spoken language at Seven Mile Fair now. Dozens of booths featured Spanish music and movies, Quinceañera dresses, Mexican food, Western Wear, and similarly themed goods. Booths sported blinged-out jeans and hoodies, and women’s clothing that I can only describe as “hoochie-riffic” and gold-painted jewelry at ridiculously high prices.
The only thing there that was reminiscent of my childhood days at Seven Mile Fair were those awful booths selling cramped cages of stressed out puppies and birds - those were the memories of that place I wish I could have forgotten.
The best that Seven Mile Fair had to offer was long gone. I counted one booth that could appropriately be considered flea market fare - an older woman was selling some old glassware and hand-knitted barbie dresses.
Granted, the Seven Mile Fair experience during the summertime is certainly different. During the warm weather months some vendors set up outside and sell their goods under the hot sun. However, if the outside of Seven Mile Fair has changed as much as the inside did, I suspect that if I go there this summer I won’t find lemonade stands and antiques outside either. I wouldn’t be surprised if I could buy myself a burro though…
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Author’s Note, appropos of nothing at all: I saw National Treasure, Book of Secrets last week and enjoyed it immensely.
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