It used to be that the word "modern" was determined by the style of a certain decade, however today it often means a marriage between yesterday’s "modern" and the individual styles of a diverse generation. Tired of having the same look and feel of the neighbor next door, people are increasingly visiting thrift shops, antique stores and flea markets to find that unique piece that brings back a special memory and personalizes a home. As a result, many have discovered an antique treasure in the Rose Bowl Flea Market.

The largest of its kind on the West Coast, the Rose Bowl Flea Market is home to more than 2,500 vendors of antiques, vintage clothing, arts & crafts, and new & unusual products every second Sunday of the month. PBS’ Antiques Road Show, as well as respected authorities on antiques, Ralph and Terry Kovel, have made frequent trips to the Flea Market to peruse the latest finds that have turned up in California. Interior designers and various antique collectors are expected fixtures at the Rose Bowl, but lately the crowd of habitual attendees includes the faces of a much younger and diverse group of people. Young adults with a fixed budget are frequenting the Rose Bowl looking to blend store-bought furniture with family heirloom pieces and a bit of their nostalgic childhood to create an eclectic mix of styles that reflect who they are now, as well as where they came from.

"In the past year alone we’ve seen a new generation interested in antiques who frequently come in to get a verbal appraisal of family heirlooms brought from home or childhood items like vintage toys recently bought here at the Flea Market," said Peggy Caffey, Rose Bowl Flea Market head appraiser who has been evaluating antiques for ten years and is also a collector herself for more than forty years. "One of the reasons for the revived interest in antiques is that people are beginning to inherit items from their parents and grandparents. Finding that there is limited information on items passed onto them, they come here for the history of a family piece as a way of holding onto the past."

The interest in a particular item often marks the beginnings of an early collector and the Rose Bowl Flea Market is a great place for new and young collectors to start, as it assembles thousands of antique specialists in one place. Due to their many years of collecting, many vendors at the Flea Market are experts in their field of antiques and can often provide a new collector with historical significance of where a particular item was purchased, what it was used for and who it might have belonged to.

With more parents actively visiting the Flea Market to furnish their homes, kids have also been bitten by the vintage bug. More and more, Caffey and her team of Rose Bowl appraisers are visited by families with collectors as young as ten-years-old seeking out anything from coins to letters from soldiers dating back to World War I. It’s not unusual to find children eyeing a vintage Holly Hobby doll or a 1950s Tonka Fire Truck while mom and dad shop for home decor pieces. Appraisers are usually giving out information on an item’s history but from time to time, they can also be heard giving tips to new and young collectors on how to store, handle and preserve their latest finds.

Expert advice and appraisals from Rose Bowl Flea Market appraisers have been available every second Sunday of the month for the past four years. The service continues to get a steady stream of regular and new collectors, as well as those just curious about their recent purchase. Free to only Flea Market shoppers, customers can get a verbal appraisal of an item brought from home or purchased at the Rose Bowl. Those seeking to get formal written appraisals –usually taking four to six weeks for market and auction comparisons –are directed to a number of references including additional appraisers and auction houses.

Thousands of items at the Flea Market are collectibles and Rose Bowl vendors are veterans with more than twenty years under their bargaining belt. They’ve seen and sold everything: antique phonographs –sold by a relative of Thomas Edison –that play original spindles of music dating back to the late 1800s; a collection of nostalgic lunch boxes from the 1930’s to today; pillows and shams made from European antique textiles and vintage children’s cloth books; movie posters and glamour shots of Hollywood stars in the heyday of the studio system. Knick- knacks, various odds and ends, plus new and hard-to-find products can also be bought to fix existing items or simply to beautify or accent the house.

Items that are frequently bought and appraised at the Rose Bowl include: Kitchenalia; books; records; milk glass and carnival glass; comic books; pottery; automotive accessories; lighting; jewelry; dining ware; furniture; quilts and toys to name a few. Every once in a while Rose Bowl customers will discover the "jackpot" of Flea Market finds and unknowingly purchase an item for a few dollars, only to find it’s worth thousands more at the appraisal tent before they head home.

Hollywood stars have also taken advantage of the once-a-month antique bizarre and have made the Rose Bowl Flea Market the ultimate place to watch celebrities do their antiquing. Among the Flea Market’s V.I.P. list are: Academy Award winners Clint Eastwood and Whoopi Goldberg; music icons Madonna and Cher; funny men Rob Schneider and George Hamilton; First Lady of California, Maria Shriver and fashionistas Gwen Stefani and Ashley Olsen.

Whether you’re decorating your first home, adding a piece of nostalgia to an otherwise "modern" room or a novice collector learning the ins-and-outs of the antique world, the Rose Bowl Flea Market is the only place to go antiquing and be entertained at a bargain price…if it’s not here, it probably doesn’t exist!