Tag: shop

Brimfield Antique Fair – Brimfield MA

Brimfield MA is known throughout New England as hosting the largest antique fair in the area and they do it three times a year – once in spring, once during the summer, and once during autumn, each time lasting about a week. And these fairs are serious – they are HUGE. Basically a good chunk of main street (all lined with antique shops) turns the entire area into one giant open-air market with literally hundreds of vendors. Every conceivable space that’s not being used for selling is turned into a giant Byzantine parking lot and even so… it’s hard to find parking when it’s busy.

I’ve been to Brimfield before and knew it was something you take a whole day to do. I have been wanting to go back for years now but have never managed to get someone to go with me and it’s one of those things I’d rather share than go alone to because it is such an experience. So I was happy when a few weeks ago my companion brought it up. This year I wouldn’t forget and I wouldn’t go in summer (in the miserable heat!)

We woke up late that day and honestly I was expecting to spend the day looking for a dentist so I didn’t really try to wake up early but instead of this my companion really wanted to go somewhere so I laid out two options – Brimfield which was two hours away or an abandoned fort that was 15 minutes away. The fair closes at 5 and with two hours of driving that was only two hours to spend there. I once again said it was a HUGE event and said maybe we’d better go the next day but no, he was all charged to go on Tuesday. So off we went.

The weather was PERFECT and I was very excited to finally be going. I wanted to see if I could find any terrifying medical antiques (not that I can afford them) and just have a generally good day. It’d been so long since I had been there that I had forgotten about the parking situation. By the time I drove up we were already running out of time and I passed all the parking lots (as many had “full” and “closed” signs out and the ones that didn’t also didn’t look promising.) I drove one mile an hour through the whole fair in a row of traffic as people who were completely unafraid of cars just walked in front of them whenever! I had to turn around and seek parking somewhat outside of the festivities for a cheaper $10. The lots more centrally located were $20. The sight of all the people and everything going on immediately sent my companion into a downward spiral of overwhelm. It wasn’t a great start.

However, we were successful at finding parking (there were TWO spaces left) and we went on our merry way. The one great thing about the Brimfield antique fair that has nothing to do with antiques is all the food trucks. They’re everywhere and make spending the day there a lot more pleasant. I could smell fried dough (which I really wanted – but couldn’t figure out who had it) and I found the lemonade stand that uses real lemons that is SO GOOD in summer heat. We started to wanter into the back end of the antique fair and look around and without even going far we found this fabulous orange couch I totally fell in love with and the usual parade of probably haunted dolls – two of them were even anatomically correct baby dolls. (Just why??) There were also marbles up the wazoo!

Sadly, nothing I picked up was marked with a price. Not the marbles, not the cool rock skulls I thought would make a nice fish tank decoration, not the partially hidden Tupperware tub FULL of racist bullshit, not the odd rusted out farming implements, not the possessed dolls… and I know if something isn’t marked it’s too expensive for me. Some of the vendors were also missing in action which didn’t really help matters. By now my companion had gone from overwhelm to shutdown as his toothache became too much to bear. I rescued him from an old hippie vendor who was trying to talk to him as I chatted happily with other vendors. And it’s weird. I used to come to these things HATING the social aspect of it but today I was really enjoying the chit chat.

We wandered back and forth with no sense of direction for only an hour or so before heading back to the car, having seen only the tiniest bit of the fair. We had stayed only long enough to see some truly bizarre art, some odd ideas of lawn ornamentation, and the closest thing to a medical antique I could ask for – a poster of the spine for chiropractic usage. I never did get my fried dough but it’s probably for the better. By the time I got done driving 2 hours home a migraine had set in and I was exhausted – but still happy I went! And as usual I can’t wait to go again.

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Fairfield Antique Mall – Fairfield Maine

We were on our way back home when I decided on a whim to take the exit to Fairfield and check out what was advertised to be the largest antique mall in Maine. When I drove in I immediately recognized the place but it took until we got inside for my companion to do so as well. In a previous trip up to these parts we had managed to stop by a mere half an hour before closing so only got to scratch the surface of this delightful iceberg. But today we had a few hours to spare!

And so we walked into what was indeed a huge antique mall filled with vendors of every kind. It was so big in fact that we quickly lost track of each other as I lagged behind mucking about with some wax cylinders. There was a whole swarm of them and I was intrigued. But he was ahead of me and ventured into the basement before I knew where he was headed and I ended up going upstairs. We’d eventually meet up again but it was amusing to see what different things we saw and what caught both of our attention.

Before we separated we found an “apple doll” which is I guess a doll whose head is a whole dried apple? Only thing was this apple was from 1960 and had LONG since gone off. The little rotted core was all that was left and the doll’s dress I am sure wasn’t covered in blood stains but boy did it look like it was! We both declared this terrifying item cursed and refused to touch it. And that wasn’t the only terrifying doll. This place was loaded! In fact I found a basket labelled, “Basket of creepy dolls $30” in the basement and almost fell for it. I took a photo of the most cracked little baby face and wandered off to think about whether or not I wanted to take it, the torched corpse of another baby doll, and the various other parts in that basket home. What stopped me? Probably the fact the basket MOVED in the 15 minutes I wandered off. Was in a totally different spot in the booth! Uhmmmm…. OK, so I love creepy dolls but I draw a line with the ones that move on their own.

The rest of the shop had all kinds of fun finds – chickens galore! And rusty signs, and odd artifacts, probably haunted paintings and prints, weird books, clowns on parade, and old food cannisters from god knows when. Oh, and possibly the most offensive minstrel poster we’ve ever found. I think that one won the category for Most Racist Shit We’ve Ever Found [black] To Date. On my own I also found The Most Racist Shit We’ve Ever Found [Indigenous American.] It was a painting of a Native American, clad only in loin cloth, warming himself next to a fire, a pompously dressed Englishman behind him looking down like “this poor dumb savage” with the caption “Doh Wah Jack Heap Warm.” Shame I don’t get any prizes for this HORRIBLE game we play. I am happy to note the amount of racist bullshit here was actually pretty light, it was just what was here was pretty intense.

The rest of the shop had something for everyone. There were a few victrolas, some retro tourist things, lots of chickens, some rusty signs, a great deal of well-done taxidermy, a taxidermied bobcat that looked… not like a bobcat. That’s not to mention the pottery, weird books, beautiful glass, and Victrola and vinyl records everywhere! I would have brought home a sealed Badfinger album but I didn’t have $40 on me. I guess it would have been worth flipping… maybe next time! My companion did come home with a fidget. He says it’s a zippo but it’s grainy in texture and impossible not to play with sooo…. one man’s zippo is another man’s fidget.

Anyway, this was a lot of fun, took us quite a while to work through, and I would definitely go again.

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Taunton Antique Center – Taunton MA

The Taunton Antique Center was another one of those crazy surprising stores that just kept going and going and going. Initially we thought it was just a modestly sized furniture based antique store off a main street because when you enter that’s all you see and it looks like that’s all there is. But once you start moving further in you realize the beautiful furniture is just one room and there’s a back room full of little things behind glass and then another room off to the side that leads into an absolute labyrinth. There were hallways and nooks, a whole section dedicated to thrift store type things and a basement that just didn’t quit. Really something for everyone!!

It was like the character of the store itself kept warping and moving as we travelled deeper into it. This place was very charismatic and absolutely INFESTED with terrifying antique horses of all shapes, sizes, and fur lengths! Some were small, some were chubby, some were big enough for a small child to ride, some had red eyes, some had soulless black holes were the eyes were supposed to go. All of them looked not quite right. And beside many there were more creepy Victorian paintings and prints – always a joy to see.

There was also a lot of chickens which made me doubly happy and even some paintings that looked medieval or at least older than the US. It was A LOT to take in. This was another one of those antique stores that could easily take up a whole afternoon and not need anything else.

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New Bedford Antiques at the Cove – New Bedford MA

So, I may have been a little burned out towards the end of 2022 and I may have decided to take the month of December off as far as writing blog entries. This however does not mean I didn’t go to a bunch of antique stores and now I am left with figuring out which I went to, what was in them, and which photos go where… In case you find yourself in a similar dilemma DON’T DO THIS. And if you do make sure to at least take a photo of each’s store’s sign so you can remember. Otherwise… well… good luck.

I do however remember the New Bedford Antiques Cove. New Bedford is the former whaling capitol of the US so this huge antique store in a sprawling old mill building is chock FULL of scrimshaw. None of which I took photos of! I really don’t know why. In addition to scrimshaw there was also plenty of whale art and harpoons aplenty! In addition to this they also had a vast array of completely unrelated and probably haunted dolls and creepy paintings. Just a big old cache. This was also the first time we had come across an old wax cylinder recorder. Very neat! Probably should have been in a museum.

All and all this was another all-day adventure because of the enormity of the place. Definitely worth a little road trip to see such an assortment of different venders. Something for everyone! And if you’re into the whole whaling aspect there is a Whaling Museum in New Bedford as well.

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Antiques on the Farmington – Canton CT

Antiques on the Farmington was located in an old mill – which adds so much to its charm. It was another sprawling place just oozing character. The first thing I noticed was a large amount of little wrought iron piggy banks with moving features. There was the usual clown eating coins and a poodle jumping through a hoop but my favorite was just downright bizarre. It was a small child sitting across from a dentist with a tooth in his hand and you basically fed the small child coins and it’d make it look like the dentist was pulling the tooth out of the poor dear’s mouth! Just WHY would anyone make one of these?? If I realized how cheap it was (a mere $25 – I guess no one wants a piggy bank of dental horror) I may have brought it home. Someday when I have a home of my own… well, there’s going to be a lot of conversation starters just lying about. That’s all I’m saying.

In fact everything I looked at here was super decently priced. There was a sharp scythe that was $25 and even a cricket bat for $35. I’d been looking for one of those… not because I want to play cricket but because I had a morbid curiosity having never seen one but knowing they make great rug beaters… And should I have owned a big oriental rug in need of a violent dusting it would have also come home with me. Did you know they’re rounded on one side? I did not. See, we’re learning things! And hey, if you like British antiques there was an actual pith helmet nearby. Sadly, there weren’t any tiger bite marks in it but that doesn’t mean much. Poor beastie could have slinked away from those big game hunters, you don’t know.

This place also had a lot of… creations. Folk art if you will. I LOVED the mannikin Christmas tree, all the angry chickens, the Victorian nightgown labelled “wedding dress” that looked perfect to haunt people in, the weird asparagus knickknack, and an old black and white photo of a foofy little dog labelled on the back, “Cuddles, our first dog.” HEART MELTING. That was only $2. I seriously contemplated buying it but thought it was a little weird to buy a photo of what is now a very very dead dog for whom I never met. Was super cute though.

And the best and most serendipitous part of the trip? There was a little free library right across the way. I left one of my signed books. It was meant to be.

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Collinsville Antiques- New Hartford CT

Twas another rainy day when we struck out to find an antique store worth travelling to having exhausted most options in Rhode Island. To Connecticut! And maybe if it stops raining we could find a nice hike. Spoiler alert, it didn’t, and I was still having flashbacks of the flash flooding from a week previous which nearly drowned the Prius as I hydroplaned from pothole to pothole. Got to my destination by the skin of my teeth AGAIN.

BUT ANYWAY. Collinsville Antiques was chosen partially at random but really because Google searches made it look big. And worth driving the two hours there (and the two hours back… did I mention we’d run dry of local options? Thank God I have a Prius.)

It was indeed a large place – sort of bargain basement of antiques LOADED with creepy dolls including a life-sized Jester hovering over our heads ready to pounce on anyone going by – probably waiting to suck someone’s soul out or some such. He was accompanied by a six-foot Gumby doll which… in retrospect made it even more odd. But what can you expect from a place that had a life size gypsy fortune teller doll? But the weirdest doll had to be a male mammie doll. Well, technically it was a couple mammie dolls all snuggled together but one of the two was definitely a dude and I have to say I’ve never seen that before! Not that it makes it any less racist. And I have to give credit where credit is due. This was the first antique store I’ve been to where the only representations of Asians were realistic and beautiful and not squinty and offensive. Also, unlike the last place we went there was a distinct lack of Nazi propaganda. Hurrah!

But aside from the cursed dolls I also loved this place for its large assortment of antique Halloween decorations and masks. There were several booths dedicated to just this and it was kind of amazing. I love retro Halloween stuff. It’s absolutely darling. And creepy! Tis the season after all.

Other happy finds were a mold for Jell-o beans (yes, beans, I do not know why,) a user’s manual for a VW bus, and a VERY badly taxidermied iguana. From here we’d decide we hadn’t had our fill yet and we’d move on to Antiques on the Farmington not too far away.

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Re-Unique Antique – Old Saybrook CT

First of all I must say this place was WAY too chic for my limited budget but WOW am I happy we ended up here! When we drove in I was already in love with the place because there were gargoyles and eccentric garden statuary in the parking lot. Inside it was swaaaaaannnnkkk. A full body of armour greeted us as did the delightful sound of old French music as Edith Piaf sang in the background. My little international heart may have skipped a few beats (I’ve never heard Edith Piaf played in a store??)

ANYWAY. This place was of moderate size but wow did it have some crazy beautiful things, all with such class. Ornate gothic furniture, a carousel horse, grandiose mirrors, folk art paintings on one wall, and not a speck of dust to be seen anywhere. Although it wasn’t without a sense of humor as someone did leave a fake spilled coffee out to incite a few gasps.

LOVED this place. Would totally go here for furniture if I were loaded. Maybe someday… Did I mention it had a guest book? An antique store… with a guest book. So cute. ANYWAY.

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Clinton Antique Center – Clinton CT

Last week it was raining so our adventures ended up being indoors at a few antique places. This first one in Clinton CT was another one of those TARDIS experiences – it looked bigger on this inside. In fact this place was HUGE with antiques shoved in every nook and corner and even hanging from the ceilings. And right away it showed its unique character as being absolutely stuffed to the gills with knives. And swords. And even firearms. Just a whole arsenal really – including a CANE SWORD. In case you want to be a Victorian James Bond.

I was not disappointed with the selection of creepy dolls but they were out staged by a large assortment of eccentric (and often woefully tacky) clocks. Wall clocks. Cuckoo clocks. Grandfather clocks. Watches. A Nixen dressed as Superman clock. Anything at all with which to tell the time which is ironic since the other thing we found there, scattered in a few random pieces throughout the store, was World War II artifacts including but not limited to a Nazi helmet and several things emblazoned in full swastikas.

“I didn’t know it was legal to sell that…”

“Legal? I don’t think it’s illegal… just not something most antique stores want to be associated with…”

And it’s true a lot of these places have these artifacts in the backroom only to be seen when specifically asked about or they refuse to carry them at all. Bad karma. It was a little emotionally distressing to see but I guess there’s a collector for everything and I am aware of at least a few Jewish collectors who go for these items (God knows why…) Let’s hope they were the buyers keeping them in business and not the skinheads we have all become way too accustomed to.

There was also a really well taxidermied blood hound just randomly mixed in with everything else. I ended up buying some marbles which were obviously created by some amateur with a homemade forge. They were “irregular” to say the least – an assortment of sizes, and none of them perfectly round. It was a bottle of wonky marbles. How could I leave them there?

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Rusty Rabbit Antiques – Charlestown RI

It was just one of those days that neither one of us really wanted to go home so instead we found the nearest oddly named antique store to where we were and decided to have at it. I mean at that rate why not?

And Rusty Rabbit Antiques is indeed adorably named and has a series of bunnies (including Bugs) decorating the sign at the entrance. It was right off the highway in an odd little nook intersection. I thought I’d passed it as there’s a boutique right on the off ramp a few feet up the road and all I saw was the ‘tique part of their sign. No matter I figured it out!

It was a small place and excessively cramped. We walked in and there really wasn’t enough room for the four people in the building including the clerk and three customers. There were only several rooms here, again very tight. The antiques were in good condition and displayed well despite being cramped but they seemed to be mostly standard faire. Hummel figurines, old postcards, salt and pepper shakers, and knickknacks galore. It was kind of like visiting a hoarder-y grandmother’s house.

The most unique items we found was a Wizard of Oz bulletin board art piece that some local highschooler probably made for a school project (let’s hope!) and a furry troll doll. Neither one of us could figure out why he was fluffy like a teddy bear. Is he perhaps of Mediterranean descent? Nobody knows… Oh! And a postcard of the devastation wrought by the hurricane of 1938 which just showed a massive pile of wreckage that was once someone’s home. I found that an odd subject for a postcard which are usually pleasant photos of vacation spots with the message “wish you were here” not a cry for help when your home gets demolished.

Anyway, this was a fun but quick distraction. I wouldn’t say you should go out of your way to see it but if you happen to be in the area anyway it’s not a bad place to poke around for a few minutes.

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The Umbrella Factory – Charlestown RI

This week’s adventure brought us to Umbrella Factory which FaceBook has been suggesting for a few weeks before it was again suggested by my hiking buddy that explored the Freetown State Forest with me. I admit I didn’t know what it was… but just the fact it came so highly recommended was all I needed.

My travel companion was even more confused. He thought we were going to an actual factory that makes umbrellas. Not quite. It was another one of those quirky little places nestled in what seems to be a residential neighborhood. There were No Parking signs half a mile up the road so this place must get craaaaazy busy.

To be honest I didn’t know what to expect either as I was just given the vaguest idea of what I was going to. And when I drove in and saw a sign reading “general store” I was like oh boy, here we go again. The general store was more of a gift store. It was small, in what looked to be a repurposed house, but boy did it have the best selection of random funny things I have seen in a long while, if ever. Far from the usual Live, Laugh, Love signs this place had everything from jokey bumper stickers, to ironically named soap, to classic rock inspired Tarot cards, and the perfect assortment of gag gifts for anyone with an off sense of humor. There was even a series of angry candles with scents that included Fuck Around & Find Out and Fuck Your Abortion Law. When the candles start getting pissed maybe it’s a sign old white men should stop legislating uteruses. Just a thought.

Upstairs seemed like a totally different adventure. Here there was a whole floor dedicated to simple musical instruments like thumb pianos and thunder tubes. Beyond them was a room full of various African art. LOVED the rooster by the way. And my companion? Well, he blew through the duck caller and when it quacked he jumped so that was funny all around. And I got to play with a wooden xylophone which always makes me stupidly happy (even though I have exactly no musical talent.)

After this we went outside and out back there was a little courtyard type thing with a flower garden, a booth for a silhouette artist, a little cafe, and some free-range chickens. Oh, and a paddock of emus. Which were thumping away. I love the weird drumming noise the females make. It’s something else. Really rubs in how much of a dinosaur those birds are.

“Where are their arms?”

“…They’re birds they don’t have arms… you mean wings? They have vestigial wings. They’re only like half a foot long though.”

I forgot how much I enjoyed free range chickens. Their behavior is so different from penned ones. So much more relaxed and happy.

Out here there was also a bamboo forest. Now I have fought bamboo my entire life. Once that shit starts growing it’s nearly goddamn impossible to kill it and it spreads and uuuuugggggghhhhh. However, I’d never let my patches of bamboo grow into a forest, nor even seen a bamboo forest before. It was… really weird. Almost like climbing through grass if I were an ant. There was a little maze out here in the bamboo with a rudimentary shelter of sorts made of stacks of the stuff. I must say it was a unique experience.

Also within this veritable little village of weird house shops there were a few hippie boutiques as well as a shop for indigenous art that seemed to be run by the local tribe. That was cool. I always like to see that.

Throughout all this we found a lot of weird things but no umbrellas for sale (‘least we missed them.) It was an adventure best summarized by my companion’s comment, “I wasn’t expecting emus today.” No, because no one expects emus.

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