Some of today's flea market finds

I had a pretty good day at the monthly Civitan flea market in Arlington today. This time I didn't find any chairs, but I did find a couple more items for the screened tiki porch, a couple of radios, and one or two other goodies.  I won't bore ya with everything I picked up (I need some fodder for future posts!), but here's some of what came home in the Volvo:

Since I usually get there early, when some vendors are still unloading, I thought I'd give you a little taste of what I enjoy so much about an early start - peeking into the car- and truck-loads and trying to be the first to spot something too good not to wait for.  So, here's a shot of my car - see anything in there besides my drycleaning?

How about this:

Maybe this is a little easier:

Any guesses?  It's pretty easy to see that I fed my wrought iron fix a bit more today.

I've seen these planter stands before and always liked them, but this was the first one that wasn't over priced or in rotten shape ($10).

And this is another record storage stand ($15).  I like the details on this.

One of the legs is bent a little so it wobbles, but I think I can fix that, and then I'll give it some paint to freshen it up.

 Too bad it's just a little too tall and not quite wide enough or sturdy enough for our record player.

So, what else was in the back of the wagon?

Well, there was this very cool spherical, space-age Weltron AM/FM 8-track player, and it works! At least, the AM/FM works, and the seller said the 8-track player works, I just haven't tested it yet.

It's dusty, it has a few scuffs and one missing slider knob, but the radio really cranks the tunes, and it looks awesome.  Not a bad buy for $10.

That's only one of two radios I picked up.  This other one was a must have when I spotted it.

It was right on the edge of being too expensive, but for $25, I figured it was still a good buy, especially in this great color.

So, what was lurking in those bags?

Well, the canvas bag was holding about 20 of these U.S. Camera magazines from the early 1950s.  For $10, I got the whole lot, and no extra charge for the musty old magazine smell!  Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca would call this a spectacular deal.

And here's a first - who ever heard of a photography magazine with fiction stories inside?  This one seems to be about a photographer's adventure.

Now if you're mid century eyesight is good, you probably spotted a lamp fixture in that one plastic bag.  You did, right?

Yep, you sure did.  Pretty cool, huh?  Oh, you'd like to see the front too?  OK.

With this purchase, I know that I am on the verge - or precipice - of becoming a TV lamp collector.  I simply could not pass up this zebra for $20.  She Who Must Be Obeyed was not as thrilled as I was with this, so I will have to keep it somewhere eight feet below the first floor of this house.

But wait, there was something black in that plastic bag.  Indeed there was.

Any guesses?

If you said a vintage plastic kid's Zorro hat for $7, you nailed it!

Just one small crease in this, and that's not bad for something I'm guessing is about 50 years old.  I'm not sure, but I may have had one of these as a youngster.  Before I became a Batman fan and then an aspiring Secret Agent, I was a western adventure fan, and the top dude when I was 4 or 5 was Zorro!  

Swish swish swish!!! If you were a bad guy, you knew you were darn lucky to have a Z carved into your shirt but not your chest.

OK, so I mentioned a couple of pickups for the tiki-themed screen porch...

Last year I picked up a small toucan that looks great inside our cat birdcage, and today I picked up his mama.  So far she's pretty ambivalent about her boy's predicament.

I actually got this birdie on my second trip to the flea later in the morning.  I was at home here working on a brick paver project (nope, still no gas tank for the Comet project - darn you ebay seller!) and I needed a break from the heat.  I thought why not go back and see if I missed anything.  And what do you know, I did miss some stuff, including the toucan. I guess it was fate that led me back.

Another second trip pickup was this native mask.  Got a bit of a snarl, doesn't he?

Overall, it was a pretty good day.  Anyone else pick up anything good?

Hershey Pa. antique car road trip

Apologies for the long drought between posts again.  Work has had me on the road a lot this year.  So what do I do when I get a day off work?  Hit the road!

A friend and I spent the day Friday at the annual Antique Automobile Club of America annual fall meet and flea market at Hershey Park.  The weather was beautiful, and there were acres and acres of parts, automobilia, old bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, minibikes, and plenty of miscellaneous too.

You can find a lot of stuff that's not car parts, and if you like to people watch or want to get ideas for dialog for your next feature film or novel, go there!

Here are a few shots I took.

Mercury made this unusual "glass-topped" Sun Valley model in 1954 and 1955.

You see people carrying the wildest things.

All kinds of wheeled vehicles show up for sale, including this fire truck.

My big expenditure was a trickle battery charger to use on two of my old cars to keep the batteries from dying from lack of use.  There's some twisted logic in spending $100 to keep car batteries from going south before their time, but I get tired of having batteries die on me.  With this thing, I can maintain a very low charge to the batteries between starts.

We looked at cars for sale in the "car corral" and there were some real beauties.  My favorites are the 1957 Ford Thunderbirds - the last of the two-seater variety, and only that year had tail fins. (I just realized I didn't shoot any 57s, but here's a nice 56 in the corral).

I have a couple shots of the headlights and taillights on an early 60s Chrysler Imperial, which was immaculate. I love the beautiful details on these old cars, and the Imperial was among the most outstanding for detail inside and out.

Notice how these Imperial headlamps are not molded into the front tend but appear to float?  Very cool and unusual.  Sorry I didn't get more photos, but the owner wasn't there and it was too early in the morning to get decent images.

My best find of the day?  Tough call.

This autographed Miss Teen Detroit photo is cool (check that dress!)

 From what I know, the winner of Miss Teen America in 1967 was given a new Mercury Cougar.

These Esso Tiger bumper stickers must date from either 1968 or 1972 as they look like they were distributed around the time of a presidential election.  I love old decals, and I'll probably use one of these on my 1967 Cougar.

Another Cougar item was this unused contest flier - pretty cool unusual item.

Somewhere around here I have one of the plastic give-away cars shown here.

My other great find was this 1964 Mercury towing specifications brochure - it will be helpful when I finally have my 64 Park Lane convertible back on the road, because I want to use that car to tow the Shasta camper.

Here's a selection of photos from the day:

I didn't find it among this collection of auto emblem...

but I did find the Mercury script I was missing for the hood of my 63 Comet wagon with another vendor.

Somebody had welded this Mustang fastback's doors and front end into a single piece and made a funny car out of it.  Very unusual, because funny cars used a lightweight fiberglass version of the body.

A Datsun 260-Z

A very cool van owned by one of the vendors

This old van was huge, driven from Quebec!

I love the old Caddy's with chrome Dagmar bumpers

And since it was Hershey, there was the Kissmobile

If you made it this far, the Uncle(?)  sends a kiss your way...

Today's Flea Finds

Didn't find any incredible deals today, but here's what I got:

Black wrought iron stand, needs de-rusting and fresh paint, but it was only $5.

Channel Master AM radio, battery powered only, no cord.  Guy said it works, for $5 I grabbed it.  He started to polish the top, it needs more wet sanding and finishing, but for now it looks great on the shelf!

Big bunch of vintage Ford keys.  I hope one might fit a lock I have without a key.  $10 for all, so no great loss if they don't work.

Love the chair on this Perry Como album, $1.

Anybody out there have any good finds recently?