The flea market is here to stay
Despite rumors to the contrary, Midgley’s Flea Market is here for the long run

Midgley’s Flea Market, Sebastopol’s own beloved Sunday bazaar located at 2200 Gravenstein Hwy S., was started almost 50 years ago by husband-and-wife team Calvert and Rose Midgely and has remained in the family ever since. Today it is owned and run by sister-and-brother team Yvonne Beardsley and Clifford “Cliff” Madariaga.
“Midgley was our mother. She married Midgley,” Yvonne said on a recent Sunday, from the shade of the “pre-paid” kiosk at the flea market’s vendor’s entrance.
“Cal Midgley owned a little piece of property and built a little house over there, which is still standing.” She pointed towards a dilapidated building at the back of the market’s parking lot.
In 1974 Cal and Rose married and began running a roadside snack bar.
“One of the servers wanted to take a weekend off to sell at a garage sale,” Cliff said. Instead of agreeing to that request, Cal pulled two picnic tables in front of the snack bar, and the employee set their wares on them. “What better exposure do you have than 116?” Cliff asked. “Two tables went to 650.”

Soon Cal opened up the flea market proper on weekends and began fitting it with wooden benches.
“He just kept building, and every time a piece of property came up for sale he just bought it,” Yvonne said.
Ultimately the property came to encompass five lots, including a railroad parcel. In the late ’70s, much of the land was paved and remains so to this day.
The flea market proved very popular, attracting vendors and shoppers from all across the Bay Area and coastal Northern California. At its peak, in 1989, it boasted 650 stalls every Saturday and Sunday. Cal died that year, but Rose kept both the snack bar and the flea market open until she passed at age 85.
Both businesses surfed the waves of change over the decades. Attendance slowed with the advent of the internet and Craigslist, and in 2009, after the financial crash, overworked weekend vendors began foregoing Saturdays. That trend snowballed, until in 2011 only eight Saturday vendors remained. At that point it was decided to close shop on Saturdays, and soon after that the snack bar also shuttered.
Over time the demographics changed, too. In the 1970s and ’80s, a diverse crowd attended the market, selling and buying vintage items and antiques. Today 90% of the flea market vendors and shoppers are Hispanics who buy and sell consumables such as clothes, tools, vegetables and food.
“They want to wear it and use it,” Cliff said.
Cliff began helping with the business in 2003; Yvonne in 2009. He commutes from Sacramento every Sunday morning, she from El Dorado Hills. Their sister worked the flea market for 35 years before moving out of state last year.
These days Yvonne runs the tiny front office with assistance from an employee named Alfonso, while Cliff sits a few feet away under the canopy to assist pre-paid vendors. A fourth employee, Wayne, works as a security guard and a maintenance man.
Several popular Mexican food vendors, including Jalapeños taco truck, set up shop at the market every Sunday. Booth rates are relatively inexpensive, at $25 for a 4’x8’ and $30 for a 4’x10’. Customers can choose to prepay in advance and avoid the line that sometimes develops at the office kiosk.
“I think we’re stable now with what we have,” Cliff said.

Two shoppers, Cheryl and Peter Burtner, of Santa Rosa, come to Midgely’s every Sunday to eat breakfast or lunch, as well as browse the deals. They met at Midgley’s Flea Market 24 years ago.
What keeps them coming back? Looking around, Peter said, “This is church.”
He added, “We have furnished our house numerous times. And friend’s houses.”
“And now we buy stuff for people,” Cheryl said. “We have too much.”
Their favorite thing about the flea market?
“Looking for something that [we] didn’t expect. We get surprised,” Peter said.
Responding to local rumors that they plan to sell the land the flea market sits on, sibling owners Yvonne and Cliff say they have no such plans.
“You’re going to hear all kinds of rumors,” Cliff said. “It starts and gets infectious.”
Last fall the buzz was that mini storage was going to be built on-site and that Midgley’s would close. Later the rumor changed; the flea market would stay open, but downsize.
“I heard it was going to be for the homeless,” Yvonne said.
“Another one was cannabis,” said Cliff. He paused, then added, “We’re here to stay.”
Midgely’s Flea Market, 2200 Gravenstein Hwy S, Sebastopol. Sundays Only: 6:30 a.m to 5 p.m. Office closes at 3 p.m.; Gates close at 5 p.m. (707) 823-7874. www.fleamarketsebastopol.com