Come With Me If You Want To Love Junk!

Photo by Felipe Belluco on Unsplash

One of the things that gives me a little boost of joy is to wander around a flea market of an antiques mall in a town that is new!  I love the smells, I love the thrill of scanning for a treasure that may be hiding under a box or a shelf!

Maybe I'm just getting older and the things that interest me are changing, I don't know.

I like the flea markets because you never know what you are going to find.

If you go to a big box store, you pretty much know what to expect.

If you go to an antiques mall, you have no clue what you might find or what memories you may discover there.

One time in Sarnia, I planned to have a quick stop at a local store packed with "junk" to look around.  The half hour I thought it would take to walk through ended up being almost two hours!  I was on the hunt for something very specific and I stumbled upon a couple of clues that suggested I should not leave there without a meticulous search.  I opened boxes, moved items around and even asked if I could go behind a display case.  There was just enough room to squeeze in and open a box or two in my quest for this object.  The owner said he did not want to let me back there, but when he was outside, I did it anyway!  I heard him come back in briefly so I froze, hoping he would think I was a mannequin!  Once the coast was clear, I resumed my search!

I did not find the thing I was looking for, but I had a very entertaining time seeing the contents of the "shop" and digging through rooms and rooms of fascinating old curiosities!  I was about to leave and I thought, it would be rude to not buy anything after practically rearranging the store so I grabbed a small action figure of The Terminator that had caught my eye earlier.

The Terminator figure I know own.

I brought it outside to where the owner was arranging a sidewalk display and asked him "How much"?

"Five dollars."

I was a little shocked because I expected a dollar or two would be the going rate for an old action figure that was quite dirty!

I said "Five dollars?"

"Yup, that's what they go for!".

I considered for a moment, and thought about how he knew that grime covered Terminator action figure were going for five bucks a pop.  Where do you get that information?

I was about to question him and try and bargain for the robot assassin from the future, but in the end I decided, it was worth it.

I said "You know what, I had a great time poking around and seeing your stuff, is there more?"

He said " I have another whole sea-crate full, I just don't have room to put it in the store right now.  I'll put it out in the next couple months."

I gave him two toonies and a loonie and said...

"I'll be back."