Sisters Antique Faire draws treasure hunters

Intrepid antique hunters braved hot weather and heavy traffic last weekend... all in hopes of finding a treasure.

Such treasure hunters have been drawn to Sisters from far and wide for years, enticed by the Sisters Antique Faire. They come to find furniture, glassware, art, bits and spurs, guns, old books and magazines.

The show is sponsored by the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce and, judging from the size of the crowds at the Village Green venue, the show was a success.

“They get a good crowd out here every year, which is all you can ask a promoter to do,” said Vicki Olson of Humbolt Bay Trading Company, Richfield, Idaho. “(They) get a lot of people in front of your stuff. Then it’s up to you.”

Olson, who specializes in Western Americana, hunting and fishing and military antiques (“guy stuff”), said she was having a good show. The hot items seemed to be decoys and flasks.

Olson and her husband Terry have been in the antique business for 20 years, living a peripatetic lifestyle as they travel to shows across the United States, from Washington to Florida. They average about 70 shows a year.

“We’re gypsies,” Vicki said. “We’re not homeless, but we don’t spend a lot of time at home. Our children keep asking us when we’re going to get real jobs but we’ve told them there’s probably no chance of that.”

The Olsons fell into this lifestyle the way many antique vendors do.

“You ask 98 percent of the dealers and they’ll tell you they collected themselves into the business,” Vicky said.

In her case, there came a time when she told Terry: “Honey, if you’re going to keep collecting, you’ll have to sell something.”

She said that “after he got over the initial heart attack,” Terry discovered he had a taste for the business and they’ve been at it ever since.

They’ve been coming to Sisters for 10 years.

Vicky said they enjoy the lifestyle and “being your own boss.”

“You can work as hard as you want to — or don’t want to,” she said. “In our case, we work pretty hard.”

The other dealers at the Sisters Antique Faire seemed to be working pretty hard, too, describing their items to customers, explaining their provenance and occasionally dickering.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, the gypsies folded up their tents and the caravan moved on.