Long Beach

Went to the Long Beach flea market today after having not gone for a few years. I've only gone once before and remember being pretty disappointed as most of the vendors had been Shabby Chic fanatics and every booth seemed to be selling battered china and whitewashed furniture for way too much.

This time wasn't a whole lot better. There was nothing that made me grabby-squealy and the few things that drew my interest were overpriced. Everything was pretty run of the mill, what you'd find in an antique mall, kind of stuff. I think I got desperate because I ended up buying a bag of Barbie knockoff boots, a Barbie cloak, a sling and a plastic windup key that went to nothing.

I did see a black Kewpie/Campbell's kid that a vendor wanted $4 for. By the time I had walked to the next row over, the vendor almost directly behind her had bought it and was reselling it in her own booth for $12. I also saw all manner of things: stuffed elephant feet but only two of them, my own reflection in broad daylight which gave me a fright, a modern penny farthing bicycle, a guy with such high and slicked back hair that it looked like he was wearing a plastic molded wig, a Silverlake hipster wearing a jaunty ladies' Sunday hat complete with feather, and a hand-hewn sculpture of a Hot Dog on a Stick employee.

Of all these wonders, that was the only picture that came out:

I was tempted. Sorely tempted.