First ever Fall Carlisle Mid-West Collector Car Flea Market and Corral
September 4-7,  1997 Bloomington Normal, Illinois

by Dave Reynolds
Pegasus porcelain sign

Several from my area went to Bloomington for the first and hopefully annual Midwest Carlisle. I went up on Thursday and spent the night so we could get an early start Friday morning. The ads said they would open at 6:00 a.m. We arrived a few minutes before 7 and the gates were open but the exposition area was still dark. A few vendors were open but about 80 % were not open until 8:30 and some not until 9. There were 3600 vendors registered. The facilities were good with plenty of food choices, bathrooms, and the weather was great. If it had rained the place would have been a muddy field so we lucked out. They did spray the walkways with water to keep the dust down and the trash was picked up regularly.

The usual assortment of new parts dealers were there along with a good selection of signs, parts, misc, and junk. I picked a service station attendant hat for $18.00, a nice 50's stoplight with shielded lights and a mounting bracket for $60.00 and a few parts for my 56 truck and the Mustang.

I saw a pretty nice Mobil 4 foot shield, double sided for $200 which seemed like a good price. There were about 200 cars in the sale area on Friday.

Crowds were modest and most vendors were complaining that sales were slow. A different and hopefully larger crowd was expected on Saturday. The entrance fee was $8.00 but worth the money I believe.

My only complaint was the late start. Had I known they were not going to open early, I could have saved the motel bill and drove up Friday morning.

For more info: Carlisle Event Hotline at 717-243-7855, Carlisle Web site
For current general petro event info: Primarily Petroliana Events



Thanks to Dave Reynolds for this review
Visit Dave's Home Page

Image at the top of this page from the archives of Jim Potts,
not taken at the reviewed event


Primarily link to home Petroliana

The gas station collectible supersite



Copyright © 1997
The Pegasus horse is a trademark of the Mobil Corporation

Online September 10, 1997 by Jim Potts