First Monday at Ripley Mississippi

Believe it or not, Ripley Mississippi is full of thriving industries. Its streets are clean. His people smile. Someday soon we need to send a team of great social scientists there to explore how Ripley has achieved such great success so that our entire nation can benefit.

One attraction that obviously makes Ripley more successful is an event called FIRST MONDAY. It was launched in the latter part of the 19th century in an effort to help farmers market their products directly to consumers. Even after a hundred years of experimentation, many products are still sold on First Monday.

For many consumers, the main reason to come to First Monday is to stock up on fresh fruits, melons, potatoes, trees to plant, geese, ducks, chickens, pigeons, goats, donkeys, dogs, and probably also cats, as well as rare birds. , iguanas, parakeets, snakes, etc. But many more sellers are now focusing on flea market merchandise for most of the profit. Keys, garden tools, gloves, printed t-shirts, work shirts, work pants, hats, flags, bumper stickers, pharmaceuticals, boxed and canned groceries, rifles, pistols, ammunition, bows, knives, toys of all descriptions and, of course, cooked delicacies.

The first Monday begins on the first Saturday of each month prior to the Monday of that month. Accordingly, the first Monday will occasionally take place on a weekend for the second Monday of the month.

The nationality of the vendors varies from Good Old Boys to Yankee, from Red Neck to Viet Namese. The client’s nationality is even broader. I saw a family from Guatemala visiting and two university students from Peru were selling flutes and South American flute music. Illegal aliens ran around 10% of the crowd and were shopping for groceries like they were going out of style.

There is a lot of ground to cover here. The first Monday is such a big event that you will need at least five hours to see it all. If the place was empty, you could walk faster, but generally the place is full of people. Golf carts are rented for the weak and tired. Due to the crowds, a golf cart won’t make your visit any faster, just more comfortable. The road is always crowded and the speed limit is always “slow”. There are four entrance gates to the main road and there is usually a line at four. Admission is $ 2 and there is no assistance in your quest to find a parking space once you are inside.

Suppliers can install any type of booth they want, anywhere they can find it. However, hunting dogs and hunting weapons dealers tend to congregate on the bridge in a more distant part of the event. Farm and garden equipment also dominate the bridge.

A great restaurant is located somewhere near the center of the meeting place. The last time I was able to wait in line long enough to get a table and sample the food, it was delicious. Nine or ten “stalls” also compete to fill your hungry soul, but provisions for sitting are in short supply in most of them. The only notable exception to this was a tent provided by a local church. The benches are hard but oh, the relief of getting up is tremendous. I’ve never actually seen a service held in the tent, but I would have gladly donated to the plate just for the privilege of sitting for those ten minutes.

Most fruit trees are about six feet tall and come in five in a package for $ 25. Individual tractor-sized heavy-duty brand-type plugs sell for $ 5 and up. Complete sets of half-inch drive plugs cost between $ 20 and $ 40, depending on the number of plugs in the set. HUGE luggage bags are only $ 40 and pure leather wallets are only $ 5.

There was a pellet gun that I wanted for a long time. I never bought it, I chased it because of the $ 119.95 price tag on view. In one of the booths here I saw it again, still in the box, big, long, powerful and true. The price tag on the box read “DOLLARS, ONLY TWENTY.” Now I’m not suggesting that all items are priced like this, but I do know that almost everything was a real bargain.

Ripley is where Roads 4 and 15 intersect. First Monday he’s on Highway 15 on the south side of town. If you stop by Ripley, you will see numerous opportunities to purchase other flea market type items. You will also get a closer look at a wonderful town that should be studied by a team of great social scientists to see how they accomplish so much.