Brimfield - The End

So to conclude the Brimfield saga: I returned home with my bag of goodies (I bought a bunch of little glass birds for my window sill), and I proceed to open the bag to show Beeps my finds, when I feel something strange wrapped in newspaper inside the bag. I pick it up and it doesn't feel like glass. It's much lighter and a strange shape. I open the paper and to my surprise...

Move over GW, there's a new Fug in town!

Behold, The Bard:



Apparently my Dad had seen this and could not resist its purchase. I think he heckled the guy from $5 down to $3. What a steal! I was not expecting to be fugged since I knew that Smoochies still had GW.

All I can say is look out world, there are now two fugs, and you may one day be on the receiving end.

Brimfield - Part 2 (Mystic really)

Time for part 2 Townies. This leg of the trip had no where near the amount of weird objects, but it did make for a pretty interesting day. After our stint in Brimfield, M&D decided to drive down to Mystic Seaport to spend the day touring ships and eating lobster. I love lobster, so if I had to do some learning about the workings of an 18th century shipyard, so be it.

We pull into Mystic and the first thing we see is of course this:


All the gift shops sold the movie. I really don't remember seeing it but I'm pretty sure I did. Something about Julia Roberts and some other ladies and a pizza shop. Who knows.

The seaport was really lovely tho. It was a beautiful day so we walked around and looked at the old buildings, took a 1/2 hour sailing trip around the river (best $5 we ever spent), toured the whaling and other sailing ships, and had a beer at the tavern.


I found the mastheads to be creepy as well as interesting and beautiful. This was a room filled with a variety of different versions. From Native Americans to Turks, to ornate ladies. Click on the pic to take it all in.


But this leg of the trip was becoming far too serious and it was only a matter of time before it got silly. In the kids' workshop they had some pretty cool activities. Kids could play on a boat, or dress up like pirates, or draw pictures. Of course we stepped inside to see what it was all about. We were immediately drawn to the crazy camera machine in the corner. It had a miniature ocean scene inside this box with a velvet beanbag for water. To the side was a wall of miniature boats, people, and sea life. You could make a miniature oceanic moment and then capture it on the TV that hung above it with the camera mounted on the front of the box. Needless to say that Dad and I spent quite a long time on that machine as seen by the pics below:


You have to blow up the pic to get a good look, but in addition to the giant whale, causing the capsizing wave, there are a variety of poor suckers trapped in the surf.

Luckily the hand of God was there to help out. OH NO! SHARK!


Then it just got silly...
After the seaport we headed to Abbotts to chow down on some delish lobster and mussels. Just like promised. I kept up my end of the bargain.

So that was the end of day two. We stayed the night in Mystic and left early the next morning for home. Little did I know that a surprise await me at home...

Brimfield MA - Part 1

Hi Townies, As I mentioned last week, I headed out of town for a mini vacation with my parents. Beeps did not go and stayed home to hold down the fort. My parents are big antique fans as seen in this post, and so it was appropriate that I tag along on their annual trip to Brimfield Massachusetts for their massive antiques show. If you haven't heard of Brimfield, it's this small town that has this crazy antiques show a couple times a year. The spring show is apparently the best one with dealers coming from all over the world to buy and sell their crap goods. M&D told me a lot about this trip, they have been going for like 10 years now, and I was intrigued. I was promised to see taxidermy animals, mummies, weapons and just a mess of crazy hard-to-find items. I was excited to go. M&D picked me up Thursday afternoon and we made the 4+ hour trip up to Brimfield. We arrived a bit too late to see vendors the first day, but we spent the night at a local motel and woke up at 5am to be one of the first in line on the second day.

I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but knew that the event would prove to be a treasure trove of blog images if nothing else. So in the first installment of our trip, I bring you some of the more memorable items. Be sure to click on them to see the blown up pictures. That way you get all the details. Enjoy:

Your eyes do not deceive you. These are indeed stuffed, real chickens. I'm not sure what the purpose is or why someone would buy one. But the market must exist or else this guy wouldn't come back year after year. As I was taking pictures, I overheard the owner talking to another man about the nuances of his stuffed pheasant that was a "champion". I'm wondering at what point in his reign they decided to tell the bird that his life would have to end so that his title would remain forever immortalized.

If you click on the picture. You will see that the bird in the front is being sold for $90! Dear God.

I love this image of the birds in the back of this guy's car. As if they are patiently waiting to go somewhere. And this guy seems to be a Phillies Phan. Oh, the humanity...


I don't really know what this is. I just liked that this mannequin was sitting in what appears to be some type of glass-doored cabinet or phone booth, which were both on the back of a truck. He at first caught my eye as a real person which freaked me out a little. It's still kinda creepy.

Here's my pa being very silly.
This is a giant metal, painted chicken. Why?

This is some type of tin man/ robot thingy. He's holding a basket as if to say that he was somehow connected to Dorthy or the Wizard or something. Believe it or not, he was not there at the end of the day.

If you look in the background you'll see a giant picture of Captain Kangaroo. I forgot how amazing that guy's haircut was.

And I've saved the best for last. I saw this little fella and simply had to take a picture to remind myself that seeing him was not a dream. If you look close, it's a black-face baby with a lamp coming out of his ass. I was blown away. I had to ask the seller where she got it. Her reply "It's been in my family for years. I just think he's so cute." WOW! I'm not sure what's more shocking: that she thinks it's cute or that someone in her family, at one point, actually spent money to buy that.


So that's the summary of day one. Stay tuned for Brimfield Part 2.

Now that's a Big A$$ Pool!

This is unbelievable. The largest pool in the world. The South American resort of San Alfonso del Mar in Chile has an artificial lagoon and swimming pool that is eight hectares in size and contains an incredible 250,000 cubic meters of water. Since I'm American, and don't understand the metric system, I'll just have to pretend that I can comprehend its enormity.

I must go here. Now.