The Barrie Flea Market continues to be a shadow of its former self. It continues to offer fewer vendors, with much less to find in the line of plates and automobilia. I don't even bother going to the spring edition anymore. Last fall, I said I’d probably stop writing about Barrie here, because I don’t really want to write more bitter stories about finding nothing. I did make a few finds, but none of them were essential to my collection. So I’m going to take the easy route: A photo essay of the various things I spotted over Saturday morning, plus a quick summary of my finds.
1970 Olds Cutlass. The blue plate looks cool with the blue paint job, but I’m not used to seeing old cars wearing the ill-fated “A Place To Grow” base.
1941 Chevy pickup. I love a nice, stock look with a same-year plate. The plate’s not of the correct commercial variety, but that doesn’t irk me particularly.
A little plate signpost in the field. Of course, I checked out the vendor… But there was nothing much there for me. Just US stuff.
Most Ontario plates that I find in Barrie are of this era. The 1970 pair has a winning number, but that’s the only example of numerical magic that I saw in the field.
Dave Steckley took a picture of these ‘37s when he saw them. A day later, Eric did the same. And a day after that, I completed the trifecta. The Imperial test car topper is pretty neat, but this vendor is expensive and petroliana toppers don’t really float my boat.
One of the few vendors with older plates. I pawed through them looking for off-types, but didn’t find any that I needed.
The oldest plate I found this time around. Sad shape, though.
“Birthday” plates. All singles, all $15. Thirty years ago, I would have been all over these. Ten years ago, I would sell these on Kijiji by the armload for maybe $3 per plate, if I was lucky.
Not for sale. OK, fine. But how much of a problem did this guy have with people touching his truck? Is his truck better off having signs taped to it?
1966 Thunderbird, with California plates that show a 1966 sticker, but were first issued in 1964. I’m happy to see the effort, regardless.
One of my Ontplates.com clients with a 1932 pair that I restored.
A couple of “USA” vanity plates… the closest that Ontario plates ever got to having a passenger U-series in the renewable era.
‘72 Skylark with short-numbered 1972 plates. I’d seen this one before, but it had been several years.
View of Kinmount from the B&B where I stayed on Saturday after visiting Barrie. My son and I did a bunch of fishing there.
Sign assembly at the bridge in Kinmount, which sits on the borders of three different “counties” for lack of a better collective term. Haliburton County is ahead, beyond the trees. The extreme northwest corner of Peterborough County is off-picture to the right, and the picture was taken in the northeast corner of the “City of Kawartha Lakes,” which used to be Victoria County. That's my son on the bridge in the background.
My modest haul. Just one restorable YOM pair. The SEPT-06 truck pair will go into my collection with (I think) a downgrader coming out. The 1960 vehicle permit is interesting, featuring the 1959 plate number on it as well. The big Indiana plate is nothing I've ever seen before. I want to figure out what it is. The rest are just for flipsies.