Our favorite time to come is the Christmas holiday season. We love the squares bedecked with all their wreaths and bows and the tree presiding magnificently over Forsyth Park.

And we love our trek to Keller’s Flea Market. The holidays are when Keller’s have the most seasonal booths with their intriguing, unusual merchandise and story teller booth people. The weather is brisk and just right for sampling the various hot food stands, and you never know when you’re going to come across the beautiful set of hand painted bird pictures for the newlyweds on your list (our purchase last year) or the latest sequin belt for a niece addicted to low riding jeans (the 05 find).

Destination Shops

Of course, a major reason we go is I have to find a new Rada knife to add to my collection and restock my Avon lotion supply.

The main Avon booth is just across from the second door from the left as you enter from the parking lot. It’s numerous glass cases, and welcoming sales clerks always showcase some new product, as well as the traditional.

“My parents, Charles and Nancy, opened this booth just as this building was built in 1987,” says a friendly Brian Capp. “That’s how we got this spot. We could tell Keller’s was going to do well, and we liked the opportunity to sell Avon at discounted prices to everybody.

“We’ve done so well,” Brian adds, “That I added the specialty perfume lines in the next booth. Now we even have a couple of Avon competitors in other booths here, but they don’t affect our business, because we have so many customers who come here just for our lines.”

My next quest is the Rada knife. As I peer through the huge kitchen supply booth buried deep in a back corner of the market, I can’t find the owner to talk with about how long they’ve been there, but I’ve known the store since the 90's. It too always seems to be thriving, but it must have to work harder keeping customers coming back, because it’s in such a back corner location, it’s always a challenge to locate.

Finally I find the citrus zester I need for adding orange tang to my fresh cooked cranberry sauce, and my husband and I both enjoy browsing the unending gadgets that can make any cook’s day easier.

Bling-Bling and Goodies

Great prices on the latest in gorgeous belts, pocketbooks, and jewelry is not the only thing to tempt shoppers. My husband spends most of his time in the tools shops. This year there are many more fresh farm produce stands and this was the first time I saw a Stokes Produce stand, complete with a boiled peanuts cauldron and jars of Stokes family honey. Preston Stokes and Brenda Fields Reynolds were the main people behind founding Keller’s in 1985.

One of the most interesting new stands is selling handsome fireplace mantels for as little as $250. The very low keyed owner said he’s just set up seasonally, so don’t expect to find him there after Christmas.

The portrait stand is another one-of-a-kind. The owner says that the fall through Christmas is the best time of year for the stand, and this time of year most afternoons from one-to-three families are lined up getting their annual picture.

“I’m here year-around, but in the spring I don’t get out here as much because I’m doing weddings on weekends, and in the summer it gets too hot for the machines and people don’t like having their picture taken when they’re hot and sweaty.”

Keller’s has grown from the two main rows of buildings to more than 500 stands, and these days the rows of covered booths stretching from the parking lot back out to the Happy Cow front gate on Ogeechee Road have been joined by a new peninsula of stands off to one side. You can spend hours wandering from one section to another, and we did. In between shopping, we stopped to admire the antique cars and farm machinery and old time signs posted on many exterior walls.

All in all, it’s a great way to enjoy a Savannah pre-Christmas day, and if it’s your first visit, tell them you found out about the fun at SavannahBest.com!

Tips for going:

Keller’s is on the left just south of the Abercorn Extension flyover. Actual address is 5901 Ogeechee Rd. Coming south on Ogeechee, it’s somewhat hard to see the sign, and there is no offramp system, so you need to go a little further south on Ogeechee, to the left turn hook around, then get in the right hand lane and pull into their road beside the big Happy Cow, and drive on the right hand side back to the big parking lot.

They’re open Sat & Sun from 8 am til 6 pm. During the holidays, many stands are also open on Fridays, and all Fridays feature the antique stands. Keller’s is physically challenged friendly, and full of families with small children, but they can’t allow pets, even on tight leashes.

Questions? Comments? Editor@SavannahBest.com
Copyright Shari Steiner, November, 2005