Discoveries in Paris
08/31/11...Most Saturdays I get up a bit late and eat a leisurely breakfast while listening to Jazz and Beyond. Then I prepare for roller skating. This Saturday was a bit different. I got up earlier than usual. My back was out of whack for lack of good judgment Friday at the gym. But that was not why I was up early.
There is a new "Paris of the South Flea Market" in Asheville, North Carolina, and it's just the sort of thing I've been wanting for a couple of decades: a flea market that sells fleas. By "fleas" I mean old stuff, not the latest fad in Chinese lead-based toys. I determined that my back was good enough to go and besides, walking seems to help back problems most of the time. If the walk turned out to be comfortable, then I could go ahead and skate too.
I arrived at the flea market around ten o'clock. Hurricane Irene even though far, far away delivered some pleasant tropical breezes (felt like a nice day on the beach) with occasional tent slapping waffling "gusties." The previous three weeks had been sweltering. It was a great day to begin a flea market stroll.
The place was clean and neat and smaller than I expected. Maybe there were thirty vendors and about five food trucks. It looked like a ten-minute visit and "I'm outta here."
The market was laid
out on an unusual terrain that was a patchwork of concrete patterns
both in terms of texture and heights. "What was this place before?" I asked a
vendor. He indicated that long, long ago it was a factory of some sort and that after
the main structure collapsed it was turned into a junk yard. And now it is ready
for another chapter.
I took a left down the first row. The vendors all had older and/or funky stuff. I'm happy. It truly looked like a flea market of long ago. Nice. Very nice. All the vendors were friendly too. Prices were up and down and all around. I didn't think I would pay sixty bucks for a set of Ford truck wheel covers. I was side-tracked for a bit admiring Milton Cable's well-made, artistic cigar box guitars and traditional hand-made banjos.
I rounded the corner. There was only one corner to round. At the first table were numerous things that looked just way too much like my attic. And then...yes?...and then...yes? along came...no, not Jones, but a promo. A promo!
I picked it up and the booth vendor said, "That's a dollar. It's a promo model car that car dealers used to give away." Hmm, no hood, one tire missing, driver's seat missing. But, the body is pretty nice. In my office I have one of these and there's something wrong with it. I can't remember what. Maybe this one has the parts I need. "Sure, I'll take it," I replied.
"Well," he said, "Reach that dollar over here to me. I'm not getting up for a dollar." We both laughed.
I moved on. The next booth didn't have anything that really grabbed me.
The one after that did. It's hard for me to resist old automotive ephemera. I bought items for a 1951 Oldsmobile, a 1958 Airstream trailer, a 1959 Allis-Chalmers tractor and then an uneventful black and white page advertisement for the 1958 Thunderbird, which happened to have the Young Ford of Charlotte logo on it. Had to have it at 50 cents.
The vendor was friendly and helped me see every automotive piece on his tables. I made the final inspection and saw some license plates. "Oh," I said in an excited voice, "I know you!" The vendor looked around searching for someone besides himself and no one else was anywhere close. "You are Number 88," I continued. He looked around again as if to say, "Who are you talking to?" And, then he chuckled, "Oh, yeah, Number 88 down at the auction."
"Yes, you are the guy that always buys everything that I want," I complained in jest. "You always outbid me. We always want the same stuff. The last thing you won was that run of license plates from the fifties and sixties. No problem, you are willing to pay more than I am. I think I have only beat you out one time. That's the way it works."
We exchanged information and are likely to become friends.
My back problem had evaporated. That's what a good flea market will do for you.
Later in the day after skating I went by my office. I compared the promo there and the promo I had just purchased that morning. The one and only part missing on the office car was still present on the dollar bargain car. Suddenly I had one complete car. Just like the old days. Buy several to make one.
Life is good. (More 2011 Stories)
