Farm to Market Rd 4 - Antique Alley

  Ten years ago or so I drove to Tennessee to follow the 127 Garage Sale. I'd seen it on television on a show that featured great places to go Antiquing and looking for junk(which is more what I do).  So I planned and saved money and took my vacation to drive there and go down this highway that runs from Alabama to Indiana and all along during this one week are thousands of booths, makeshift stores, and garage sales. It is one of the most amazing things that I've ever done, besides wandering through booths and tables upon tables of items for sale all day long, I took my camping equipment and camped out in State Parks at night. I keep saying one day I'll go back and I'll do that again, and I may travel the 127 again one day. Although this weekend I found a new highway and and a new venue for getting the same experience of the 127 without having to drive a 1000 miles to get there. It's a small trek along F.M. 4 from Cleburne, Tx. to Grandview. This experience is less than 60 miles from where I live and I decided today to go check it out.

Marker at Parson's Station

I grabbed my camera and stopped Whataburger and grabbed a Jalapeno Chedder Bacon, Egg bisquit and cup of coffee and headed towards Weatherford. As I am breezing down the highway soon I see a historical marker....I have to stop. The marker says it was Parson's Station. Evidently in the 1850's and later it was a stop on the railway for the Train that traveled from Weatherford to Cleburne. Mainly for the Cattle ranchers in the area but evidently small settlement arose around it including a school and a store. Nothing left there now but the historical marker, it's a shame we didn't do more to save something from the place. Now all we have is the story and the marker.

Cresson, Tx

 Cresson is a strange little town between Fort Worth and Granbury, actually the way I was going it was a small town between Weatherford and Cleburne. Cresson has always intrugued me a bit, it has some really old buildings right on the corner of 171 and 377, that makes one think that at one time, it may have been a booming little place. As you drive on through and look at some of the buildings down the town roads it shows there may have been some wealth here at one time. Now though it's nothing more than a pit stop couple of convenience stores a couple of liquor stores and always some sort of Antique store in the old structures of the town.

One of the many treasures

Of course I breeze past Cresson pretty fast and soon I'm flying down the road and it wasn't long before I was turning onto the main drag in Cleburne. I didn't go more than 3 blocks before F.M. 4 merged with my road. I immediately started seeing garage sales in yards and booths in parking lots. It was already starting to remind me of the 127. Soon F.M. 4 turned back into a residential areal as I followed it there were more and more sales going on in yards and vacant lots..I almost stopped in town but I decided to go on outside of town first and see what kind of sale this was really going to be. As I went on out of town on F.M. 4 the traffic got heavy, and we were driving slower as every few feet there would be some gatherings of booths and people in the fields. This was exactly like the 127. I drove on past some that I knew I could walk back to and found a highway turnoff where I could park fairly close and walked back to F.M. 4 and started my first exploration of the sale. 

FM 4

I walked first on the side of the highway I was parked on and passed by several BarBQue cooks that were selling their wars...and it smelled good, but I waited and continued to browse. This was like the show American Pickers, only everything you were looking at was stuff they would have already have picked....so it was kinda like browsing their stash. There are always interesting booths, and interesting people at these type of sales. I crossed the highway and it was like I was at the Texas State Fair of garage sales. I was almost overwhelmed with the quantity and the really cool stuff for sale.

One of the many booths

 I just went to Canton a couple of months ago and this was so much better than that, hardly any booths with the new crap that comes from China. Mostly good old american junk. The kind you have to back your truck up to the booth to load.  I finally get to the end of this group of vendors and I feel a raindrop or two, I'm not far from where I parked the truck so I head back and as I get in...it starts pouring down raining. 

Ell's Place

I pull back out on F.M. 4 and drive in the rain, slowly following the line in front of me. It only rains a minute or two and then the sun's back out. I pull over and get out to investigate some other vendors. I find one really unusual booth with really odd and eclectic items and start talking to the people running and and find out they go to the 127 every year. Not hard to believe once you've seen their items. I hurriedly browse the other booths and go back to my truck, it's 1:00 and I have not eaten since breakfast so I head on into Sand Flat, because I heard there's a hamburger place there that you got to go to. Ell's Place. So I get into Sand Flat and there are vendors and booths everywhere, I am surprised to find a parking place right in front of Ell's Place. I pull in and go in..and there is a line of about 10 people waiting to be seated....I scan the place and see there are no tables. Luckily before I went in that door I noticed one at the rear of the building that said take out orders...so I enter there and after standing in line with people paying their bill I got to order. In reality they were pretty fast they were checking people out at the register constantly while I waited, never did the line get less than 5 people, all the time people were filing in the front door. There is no telling how much money this place makes during this sale. I get my hamburger and head to my truck and sit there and eat it while watching all the people.

Along the highway

Grandview

After my lunch I just exited the truck and walked right next door to the restaurant and again there were hundreds of vendors to browse. I returned to the truck and drove on into Grandview which was about 2 miles.



Downtown Grandview was a sale upon itself. Booths lined the street. I parked and walked up and down it, browsed an actual Antique store on the corner and thoroughly enjoyed the whole interaction in that town. I returned to my truck and drove back down F.M. 4 towards Cleburne and I stopped a couple of times on my side of the highway for places that had looked interesting on the way back up. As I made it into Cleburne I was already reflecting on my day and I daydreamed all the way back home about just travelling in a motor home with a trailer and doing this for a living when I retire. No worries, new scenery all the time and interesting places and people to see at each stop. Then I think...those guys might daydream that they had what I had, a job they can count on and a salary that they can depend on. I guess it's about your outlook.