Dallas, episode 2. In which money talks.

Have I mentioned my Peanuts collection?  If you are keeping track of the multitudes, then, yes, you might recall a photo of a 3-D Snoopy happy dance pin picked at the Randolph Street Market in Chicago (Chicago-Indiana-Michigan, episode 9).  This metal sign is not quite as vintage as that picked pin, but it won my heart after meeting my collector's gaze that cool Canton-First-Monday Thursday and is now packed away with the (too many) Christmas decorations awaiting another post-Thanksgiving rescue from long-term storage.

It was also the first item I picked up and consequently purchased (for six dollars) that crisp day.

When you are planning on spending a day fleamarketing, one of the things you must consider is how you pay for purchases.

Whether Mari and I are hosting a garage sale or enjoying a Saturday morning in search of that perfect garage sale (still searching), there are two essentials on our list.  If it is hot (and it usually is--thank you, 101-degree-still-February-record-breaker this past week!) then bottled water is third.

First is cash.  More and more vendors at large fleamarkets are accepting credit cards thanks to the ease (perhaps a little too easy) with which such transactions are handled via smartphone apps,
e-mail receipts included.

Credit card payment apps come in especially handy whether you are buying vintage silver Southwest jewelry in Long Beach, for example, or even Lea Stein celluloid cat pins at Les Puces de Saint-Ouen in Paris or on Portobello Road in London (working up to that blog series, I promise!).

Most fleamarket and garage sale transactions, of course, are easily and best handled with cash.  Cash helps you control your spending, but you need to be prepared with small change.  A quick visit inside your bank (remember tellers or live-action-non-automated ATMs?) the day prior to sale day will net you the small change necessary to swiftly score the best deals.

You can't exactly bargain your way down to $6 (from $8) for Peanuts metal decor then pull out a pile of Harriet Tubmans (just trying it out) for payment.  I wouldn't go so far as to call it unethical, but it's just not the right thing to do.

Having been on the receiving end of such transactions, I know how defeatedly depleted (crappy) I felt transferring ownership of once beloved collectibles to bargain hunters pulling wads of twenties from their pockets.

Keep small bills and maybe a twenty in one pocket and the rest of your cash stash stashed.  Never insult a hard-working dealer.

Back to my list of two essentials.

Two is pretty much common sense, but sometimes that's easier said than done, especially if you haven't had your morning coffee yet.  Take a strong bag along to collect your loot.  Dealers often have reused shopping bags available for your purchases, but you can't always count on that. Besides, walking around with those plastic bag handles digging into your hands is not the best thing for you or your rescued collectibles.  Get a strong-handled tote bag or backpack and have it readily available in case there is an impromptu fleamarketing trip on your weekend horizon.

Mari and I keep a storage bin in the garage with leftover shopping bags and paper that formerly wrapped breakables brought home from shopping trips.  Instead of tossing these or recycling them in a traditional sense, we give them a new purpose as they transport secondhand goods away from our own garage sales to new homes near and far.

In case you're wondering, that's one or more of my fingers hovering over the photo of my wife and the next photo of Mari with her sister. Not a UFO (not really).  Still trying to get used to wrapping my clumsy hands around my new phone.

By the way, isn't a one-dollar-table one of the greatest fleamarket sights ever?!  That next table loaded with vintage kitchen storage containers is another welcome sight for this collector.

As I wrap up this quick revisit to an old fleamarket favorite, I wanted to share a final photo, which is actually the first photo I took that Thursday morning.  It's your first view of the Trade Days grounds as you cross the short covered entrance bridge.


It's also a picaresque parting shot of a memorable winter day (winter by Texas standards anyway) spent with family, friends, and favorite fleamarketed finds.

We stick around the Dallas and Fort Worth area for a few new old adventures next time.

Dallas, episode 1. In which we go for a short Texas drive.

When I first met Mari for that soon-forgotten-then-magically-remembered Wheel of Fortune "date" (Chicago-Indiana-Michigan, episode 1) I was an accounting major.  I also had this distant vision that I would be living in a small town in Maine after graduation, too, even though I had never (at the time) stepped foot in the Pine Tree State.  It may have been the influence of one of my favorite writers and the setting of some of his early novels (and possibly my frequent lobster cravings), but I envisioned a peaceful life in which I was reviewing ledgers by day, writing the next great American novel at night, and sitting on the cool craggy beaches and getting inspired on the weekends.  No hidden alien transports, horrific souvenir shops, or post-apocalyptic gunslinging missions for me and my bucolic imagination, thank you, although I loved and still love experiencing all of Stephen King's vivid drama, albeit vicariously.  We'll get back to how I ended up more than 2,000 miles away from that early vision (and how I wound up changing my major to English when I was a college senior) another blog time.

At this point, I've been a Texan longer than I ever was a New Yorker (but as my Northeastern brethren know all too well, the New Yorker never leaves you).  One of the first things you learn about living (and driving) in Texas is that Texas is big.

Texas is big.

From McAllen, you need drive nearly 500 miles before entering another (US) state, so let that be your guide.  Mari and I don't think much of driving a couple hundred miles each way for an overnight trip and, of course, we drive long distances to spend time with family any time.  A recent holiday trip to Dallas happily coincided with a very special monthly fleamarket which we had not visited in about 15 years and which we were thrilled to revisit once again with fleamarket-loving family in tow.

That's Mari with her dad at the end of the day with everybody's haul.

Canton's First Monday Trade Days marketplace has a very long history and a very big following (and, like Texas, covers a very large area).  Regularly scheduled on the weekend before the first Monday of every month, the outdoor marketplace covers a colorfully pastoral fairground about 60 miles east of Dallas.  For helpful planning details, including a full history and some great old photos, visit the informatively Texas-friendly site.

firstmondaycanton.com

Wanting to share the experience of our picturesque winter day, I traipsed the trails with camera at the ready, bringing up the rear (as always), while Mari and her sister and family, as well as my wonderfully adventurous fleamarket-loving in-laws explored away.  Below, I'm sharing some of the best views from that day (it really was a full and exhaustingly wonderful day) although, believe me, I've held back some.

Notice the unusual fleamarket stand in the middle of the bottom row?  Here's a closeup. 

Could not help but smile (and snap a photo) upon seeing this cleverly recycled vehicle for secondhand goods.

I have lots more photos to share (and perhaps a story or two).

Next time.

California, here we come, episode 10. In which we surrender to Pink's.

Mari says I have an incredibly acute memory for minutiae (actually, it was more like an incredible memory for stupid details) and I'll be the first to admit that I tend to remember seemingly unimportant details like the cost of parking or what I paid for some relic on laundry Saturday thirty years ago or even that it was Wheel of Fortune I was watching when Mari first entered my life (Chicago-Indiana-Michigan, episode 1), but what is important to me is another man's junk, to paraphrase popular fleamarketing philosophy.  Unfortunately, we were only able to visit one flea during my five-day-birthday-weekend (I promise, that's the last time I'll hyphenate that), but it was indeed a great one.  I look forward to a revisit to the Long Beach Antique Market as well as a revisit to California some day.  San Francisco is on a list somewhere in the depths of my travel journal as is the second-Sunday Rose Bowl fleamarket.  Imagine a second-Sunday Rose Bowl flea, followed by a few days in San Francisco, then back to Long Beach for the third-Sunday?!

(Flea) Heaven.

Back to the current journey, though, because it's still the final day, the 2 Broke Girls are still broke, and (sound stage sandwich notwithstanding) Mari and I still haven't had lunch.  Or dinner.  That was all about to change with the final item to be crossed off my itinerary.

Now, I really don't eat hot dogs every day, of course.  Or meatloaf. I have been trying to eat healthier now that I'm 50, but traveling whets the appetite for new foodie experiences and what better way to experience a culture than to immerse oneself completely?

Here I am about to immerse myself in a chili dog at Pink's.

After leaving Warner Brothers we headed to the original Pink's Hot Dogs on LaBrea.  Pink's became an LA institution shortly after opening over 75 years ago and the original location near the intersection of North LaBrea and Melrose has become legendary for celebrity sightings.  Celebrities get cravings, too, and the open-early-open-late hours are perfect for busy A-listers and fleamarketer-tourists alike.  Pink's made our own LA A-list long ago after (you guessed it) seeing it featured on several Food Network programs.  An early sighting back in 2007 on an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay earned it a place on my "some day when we make it to LA" list.  A late-night lunch/dinner hot dog (or two) has now earned it a spot on the "next time we're in LA" list.

Pink's was still very active for a Tuesday night at 10:00 PM, but there was no line when we walked up to order.  Mari and I were fairly overwhelmed by the more than 30 temptalicious (take it for a spin before you pass grammatical judgment) hot dog combinations as well as a standard sampling of burgers and other tasty treats.  I stuck with what I consider the classics:  a basic Chili Cheese (lunch) and a Kraut Mustard (dinner). Part of Pink's legendary status has to do with their chili, which both Mari and I found to be fairly irresistible. Another aspect of the Pink's legend has to do with the hot dog's "snap" which is something I had never experienced in a hot dog and which I found quite enjoyable.  Along with Mari's own Chili Cheese (no raw onion sprinkles or we would probably not have been able to board our flight the next day), there was also the exotic temptation of the Guadalajara Dog (add relish, grilled onions, tomatoes, bacon, and sour cream to that snappy dog).

Having never been to Guadalajara, we were happy to see

such an "authentic" interpretation of Mexican cuisine on the menu.

Our long-delayed lunch and dinner at Pink's that last evening in LA were so good and savorily satisfying at the time--although not exactly the best time for a 50-year-old to have "dinner."  There are some celebrity-named hot dogs as well as lots of photos (presumably taken during the satisfaction of hot dog cravings) covering the walls inside although I really doubt Nicole Kidman has eaten an entire hot dog in her life and I was unfortunately forced to look at "celebrity" Kim Kardashian aiming a hot dog at her mouth the entire time. Hmmm.

Check out the detailed and colorful menu online for the full story.

pinkshollywood.com

I didn't want to leave LA without a final look back and without thanking my awesome wife for taking the time to indulge me as I marked a happily memorable occasion with happy memories once again.  She'll be the first to tell you that she didn't do anything, that she's just along for the ride, but her support and love and trust mean so much more than words and pictures (and the occasional piece of fleamarketed jewelry) can ever express.

Not even a fully-loaded Guadalajara Dog can convey my profound and sincere gratitude.

A recent revisit to a "local" favorite next time.

California, here we come, episode 9. In which we go for Broke.

Since the summer of 1990 I have fantasized about living in Cicely, Alaska, a community which only exists in my mind and in the creative genius of one of my all-time favorite series, Northern Exposure. Unlike Dr. Joel Fleischman, this New Yorker would not have constantly balked at living in the (very) remote town and amongst its affectionately quirky townspeople.  It was with intense excitement that I planned a short (150 extra miles) detour during our first trip to Seattle back in 2009 to visit the town of Roslyn, Washington, home of the series' fictitious Alaska locale.

If I ever had an out of body (mind?) experience it was when we arrived in Cicely, I mean Roslyn (no, I really mean Cicely!) and we parked across the street from Joel's office and walked down to the end of the street for this photograph.  It still amazes me that 15 years after the series ended, the fictitious main drag afforded fanatical fans the chance to have their moment.
(We had another moment while enjoying burgers at The Brick although Ed Chigliak's favorite mooseburgers were absent from the menu that day.)


Before I return from my reverie entirely, here's a favorite travel photo of mine.  The bag contains a souvenir T-shirt from a local shop still busily supplying television tourists with NoEx merchandise.

Chris-in-the-Morning

was not spinning records

nor philosophy that day.

Getting back to LA and an entirely different realm of fandom, I must admit that I also have an affection (affliction?) for the wickedly comedic and sometimes dark (naughty?) side.  Let's just call it a guilty pleasure, but I've been a fan of 2 Broke Girls since Whitney Cummings' series first debuted in 2011, only a few days before her own self-titled and short-lived sitcom. The reason for Broke Girls' success is chemistry and comedy.  I'll be the first to admit that the comedy is for adults only and for certain adults only.  You've got to be flirting with Santa's naughty list to fully appreciate (and understand) the risque quality of the chemistry and comedy at Han Lee's Williamsburg (Brooklyn) diner. You've also got to be pretty hungry (and desperate) to order off that menu.

As I was filling in the remainder of my five-day-birthday-weekend itinerary, I checked the ticketing site through which I had secured tickets to The Price is Right taping to see if any other favorite shows were taping during our visit.  The Big Bang Theory and 2 Broke Girls were both taping on Tuesday, September 20th.  Score!  Two of my regular favorites!  Needless to say, tickets to one of the most popular network television programs were difficult to acquire.  Remember when Sheldon and the boys tried (fruitlessly) to secure ComiCon tickets?  It's the episode with James Earl Jones and (I miss you dearly!) Carrie Fisher.

Season 7, Episode 14

I've already admitted I watch too much TV, okay?

My similarly long and busy browser battle of "refresh, refresh, refresh" finally ended with a message that "tickets to my requested show were no longer available."  If you want tickets to a taping when you are visiting Los Angeles, check the site in advance and plan your strategy.  It also helps to have a back-up plan. You should know me well enough by now to know that there is always a back-up plan (or two).  In this case, 2BG was my back-up plan and, fortunately for fans looking for a Tuesday taping, the series is not quite as popular as the top-rated show on CBS.

tvtickets.com

For television viewers (fans and fanatics alike), attending a live taping is a great item for that (bucket) list of life experiences.

It is a behind-the-scenes experience that you really cannot otherwise imagine.

I know, no photos while driving,
but my trusty co-pilot
snapped this as we approached
the Warner Brothers Studio.

Mari and I arrived at Lot Number 8 at the Warner Brothers Studios at 4:00 PM, two hours prior to the start of taping as had been suggested on the website. (Remember, we had just come from The Griffith Observatory and before that the beach and before that our only meal so far that day!)  At that point, however, we were already #150 and #151, so I recommend arriving even earlier (and not driving in circles for 20 minutes looking for the right studio lot).

After registering and submitting our ticket vouchers (procured online after my fruitless attempt at Big Bang tickets), we waited on the lower level of the no-frills (no gift shop, no souvenir photo, no snack bar) parking garage until escorted past several sound stage warehouses and eventually arrived at the Williamsburg Diner.

Mari and I ended up with great seats near the middle of the back row where the diner set was front and center.  What you will see when you are (finally!) seated are a row of sets in front of you from left to right.
The "stadium seating" allows everyone to see as much as possible of all the sets (four in this case) being used for the current episode.  Large monitors hang along the bulkhead wall above the sets so you can still view what you can't see in person.  

I think we were there on a great night because not only did we have all of the 2BG "regulars" in attendance, but two guests as well:  Max's on-again off-again boyfriend, Randy, and special guest Telma Hopkins (fans of Family Matters and Bosom Buddies rejoice!).  Longtime fans of Jennifer Coolidge, Mari and I were thrilled to see Sofie Kachinsky featured in several scenes including a scene that was restarted over and over again because the cool Miss Coolidge kept stumbling over a frustratingly alliterative line and laughing (and swearing) harder each time.  Live freakin' bloopers are always the best!

You need to remember two things when attending a show that is "taped before a live studio audience." First, it is taped, which means that it's not going to be perfect the first (or second or third) time.  Which is why a 22-minute sitcom takes more than three and a half hours to record.  That includes plenty of time for dangerously loud stomach rumbles that were thankfully appeased by cartons of sandwiches that were passed around during a long break in which a mob of writers descended on the set for a not-so-quick dialogue rewrite.  Second, Mari and I were the "live" part of the studio audience!  We were encouraged to react and laugh out loud all over the place, so LOL we did.


I wish I could share my photo threesome with Sofie and Max (the vivaciously and voluptuously funny Kat Dennings), but that only exists in my creative imagination since photos were not allowed and there were no celebrity photo ops.

Their loss.

I do have this closeup of our souvenir T-shirt as well as the empty container that once cradled one of Max's velvety homemade cupcakes.  Yum.  

Between scenes, the live studio audience (hey, that's us!) was kept entertained by an erstwhile standup comedian who was indeed very entertaining and selected us to chat up when Mari told him it was my birthday.  I was gifted the T-shirt and a specially packaged cupcake from Caroline & Max's new dessert bar. Like TPIR on the previous day, there was also invigorating club music and lots of dancing during breaks.

Attending a live taping of a favorite show is an other-worldly experience.  It takes you off the couch and away from your television and plants you right in the middle (well, almost) of the action.  In this case, it was like having a seat at Han's diner and ordering one of Oleg's soup "specials."  Unfortunately for the "rumbly in my tumbly" (thanks for a great euphemism, Pooh!), Mari and I were nowhere near Williamsburg, but we were relatively close to a final LA landmark, the iconic Pink's Hot Dogs.

We'll spice things up in our final LA episode next time.