This coming Saturday Denise Brown will be celebrating the fourth anniversary of the antique mall and trading post she operates, and she takes pride in the community that has come together around the rural location on Highway 9 three miles east of Seminole. She explains that, in addition to her own display, fourteen vendors rent small booths of various sizes by the month. Denise handles all sales, and once a vendor’s booth sells enough merchandise to cover the rent, the rest is all profit for that vendor.

Denise is quick to point out that almost all the vendors have been with her since they opened four years ago. “These vendors all know each other and often drop in to check up on things and just hang out. In addition, many of the people that live on the dirt roads in the area have become friends with the vendors and will often stop in just to visit with vendors and their neighbors,” she said. Denise added that she enjoys having the store serve as an unofficial community center.

Every Saturday, weather allowing, the large lot next to the store is turned into a flea market with even more vendors setting up shop outdoors, and Denise believes a larger than normal crowd of vendors will be joining the four-year celebration. Like the vendors inside, many have been returning almost every week since the flea market began. Some live nearby while others come from outside the county to participate, and many have formed a tight bond with each other and the regular customers that enjoy visiting as much as bargain hunting. Occasionally, a food truck will join the other vendors.

Denise is thankful for all her regular customers, and she also proudly welcomes people that simply drop in when they see the store as they’re passing by. Denise keeps a guest book for such visitors, and they include people from Morocco, Africa, Holland, Germany, England, Scotland, Canada, and all across the United States.

Denise states that she often hears customers talk about how a specific item brings back certain memories, and she believes that experience is one of the main reasons they stop by in the first place. It is something she never tires of hearing, because that is what she believes an antique store is supposed to do.