If you have never attended the spring Round Top Antiques Week, you have short changed yourself. Especially this spring, with the early warm weather, the beautiful bluebonnets are in full bloom. I heard they ran out of parking on the first day of Marburger.
With all of the talk of “Go Green,” all of us antique lovers know that the antiques business was the original “green” industry. We have been recycling old things for generations. You will also see things at Round Top that have been repurposed into something else. For any of you that watched “Picker Sisters“, they often repurposed things. Tanya McQueen of that show oftens shops at Round Top but she is in southern France on vacation. This spring you can enjoy all of the natural greens of spring, see the beautiful bluebonnets and experience some of the finest antiques shopping in the country. Once you experience this you will know why Texans are proud to claim the bluebonnet as the state flower.
Being a proud native Texan, I so miss not being able to be with all of my friends and enjoy everything that is Round Top week. It’s the food and drink, nature’s beauty, and of course the antiques. But most of all I miss the friends. For many of the dealers, this twice a year event, gives us a chance to spend a week with our friends, much like a family reunion. We would work hard for a couple of days packing everything up to get ready to go and then spend two to three days to set everything up. Then we would enjoy the show for a week. Then after the show closes in the evenings we would enjoy the great food that is in and around this tiny town of Round Top, population ninety. For many, it would not be Round Top without a visit to Royer’s Café. Then there is the Thursday Prom Night at Junk Gypsy.
For the shoppers, many of whom have standing reservations at a nearby motel or bed and breakfast, it is a time to be with a group of friends, and spend several days shopping and partying with the group. Some even carry 2-way radios to alert others where they need to shop next. Then in the evenings, they do a “show and tell” to see who had the best buy of the day. But in the end, it doesn’t really matter, because what could be better than getting away with friends and spending a few days to a week antique shopping. Of course there are many other things to spend money on here besides antiques. There are clothes, bedding, crafts, and many more things competing for your dollars.
You might even run into a celebrity since may of them love to come here and shop. Just heard that one of our friends sold some things to Matthew McConaughey at Marburger. Everyone has their own favorite places to shop. It is nearly impossible to see them all. I mean there are literally miles of shopping here. It is not only Round Top, there are several small surrounding towns that get in on the action. In fact, the week before the big shows start, many people come to shop the fields to try to find the real bargains. Some dealers from the big shows come early to shop and some also set up here before they move to the paid shows. The two biggest of the paid shows are Marburger Farm and the Big Red Barn, officially named Round Top Antiques Fair. We had the pleasure of setting up at Marburger for over ten years, so we are very prejudiced about our favorite, although we have friends at the Big Red Barn also.
If you have never had the pleasure of experiencing the week of Round Top, especially if you love antiques, add that to your bucket list. If you are going to experience as much as you can, be sure and dress for roughing it. The weather is unpredictable and much of it is outdoors. For some people, once is enough. But for many others it is a twice a year right of passage. I love the spring time at Round Top. Do your part of going green and enjoy the drive and see all of the bluebonnets. But if you can’t wait a year, they will do it all again in October. Just Google “Round Top” or Marburger” and you will find the exact dates. Be sure and book your accommodations early, remember these are small towns and there are never enough rooms. Once you visit Round Top, I hope you too become one of the regulars.
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