Brimfield Flea Market

Sunday we went to a flea market the size of a few blocks. broken wind-up wristwatches, giant heavy tables made out of found wood and factory parts, jewelry, door knobs, plates, dresses, a giant antique yellow sofa (the kind with the arms splayed out), bells, cameras, Buddhas, all things rust (like old-fashioned apple peelers), vases, glass figurines, posters, step stools, postcards (with and without writing, I got one sent in 1908), scales, glass bottles, suitcases and storage trunks, wooden cases with tons of tiny little drawers, cameo and other pins, and 'open' sign with an arrow (like those seen in movies about old Vegas or old NYC), lamps from many different eras, cigarette lighters with wicks, baskets, furniture keys, chairs, books, Life magazine and Playboy, spools of thread, type keys and other stamps, more tables, rugs, satchels, large coral, shoes, photo enlarger that just needed a light bulb, machine oil, school lockers, mirrors, and so many things that I didn't even know what they were. I  don't know if I saw things just once and they impressed me, or multiple times. If I saw them multiple times in different places, or just past the same place more than once. Like the city of Zirma, a blind black man shouting in the crowd, a lunatic teetering on a skyscraper's cornice, a girl walking with a puma on a leash.

We got Polish food from a man who moved here 25 years ago but still wears Polish crest necklace, and got lemonade somewhere else. I sent the postcard from 1908 to Hannah, the vendor told me all he knew about Marshall McLuhan, which was a lot; About how he predicted that it was information that was valuable, not computers, and that he coined the terms "global village" and "the medium is the message". We also talked about how they no longer are teaching cursive in schools, which I read about as well, and how because of that one of the guys who came by looking to buy (and sell) autographs was freaking out because what happens to autographs when penmanship dies. How writing by hand will be an upper class thing again. "Wait one second, I have to finish" he said "this is one of my favorite topics". Though, in spite all this, Sima came from school today and told me that they are going to start teaching them cursive in third grade, same as they did with me. The vendor was so caught up in his own speech that he gave me an extra dollar back in change.

Some boy tried to get my attention (which caught me off guard more than usual) and Mama said "I know! you can't meet boys at bars. They are too standard and basic for you. You need to meet boys at places like antique fairs, where they are strange and inadequate"