A Brief Excursion to Wolff’s Flea Market
On Sunday, Liz and I woke up early and made our way out to Wolff’s Flea Market (out at AllState Arena in Rosemont). It had been a while since we made it out there, and with the long holiday weekend… we decided to make the trek.
Unfortunately, given a combination of both the weather and the holidays… there seemed to be fewer vendors around. We parked close to the entrance, and started making our way from booth to booth. Liz was doing her usual searching, and I was a little hesitant to break out the camera. Consider it me being out of practice somewhat, but I was pretty decided on not using my camera this time around.
Eventually, I found one interesting thing… and then another… and ended up taking photos.
A large truck using the “open space / you sort ’em” method. Which seemed to work, as a lot of folks were going up and down the aisles, looking through things.
I loved the position of the guy, sitting in a chair and perched at the edge of the truck bed. When folks were going up to pay, it looked a bit like them going to give their respects to the king.
One of the more expensive toys I spotted: $100 for an original Carry-All Action Fort Apache play set.
An older GI Joe action figure.
The Captain America and Masters of the Universe thermoses were tempting. My first reaction was “Awesome,” and my quick-to-follow second reaction was “I have no use for these items.”
The guy who was running this booth had on a cap that said “He who dies with the most toys wins.” So great.
A rather beautiful and colorful display of ladders.
An enormous collection of used toys. When I saw this, I kept thinking that if I were a kid… I’d be going bonkers, wanting to play with all of them.
It’s disturbing, but seeing all these toys just lumped together made me think of a mass grave. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me.
Nearby, I spotted a kid who had on a skeleton hoodie. I was curious, and asked him if the hoodie zipped all the way up, covering his face. When he confirmed this, I asked his dad if I could take a photo. I explained the blog a bit, but he was cool with me grabbing the shot.
Of course, I couldn’t help but think of Bryan’s Skeleton hoodie. Really glad I asked, and I’m hoping the kid enjoyed showing off his hoodie.
Here’s the one thing I purchased: three used rolls of Kodachrome 40 movie film ($1 each). I believe they’re all used, so I’m really curious to see what’s on here.
It’s one thing to find old film of your own, and to develop it years later. But it’s another thing to do so with someone else’s film. Should be interesting.
Biggest question for me is: where do I take this, to get it developed?
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! garden planter, FTW!
That rug really tied the room together.
Box seats.
I think this is an old school film splicer. Pretty cool.
1896: (Diagnoses and Treament of) Diseases of the Rectum. What a FUN Book – $10.00.
In hindsight, I should have tried talking the vendor down to $5 for this. Kind of like that time I failed to pick up a copy of a booklet entitled “Cheese and ways to serve it”.
Related:
Early Morning At Wolff’s Flea Market
Early Morning At Wolff’s Flea Market, With Friends
Wolff’s Flea Market: Random Images And Comic Books
Up At 5AM, Searching For Treasure At Wolff’s Flea Market
Hate to tell you that the last lab in the entire world to process Kodachrome did its final roll in January 2011.
Alex (September 3, 2012 at 11:13 pm)Oh, MAN! I remember hearing about Kodak discontinuing something… but didn’t realize it was this. And I think it applies to both regular Kodachrome film AND movie film, right?
Now I want to see what’s on here even more than I did before…
avoision (September 4, 2012 at 7:41 am)I would totally have bought the diseases of the rectum book. Butt hen again I have a thing for antique medical texts. /just noticed that typo and rather than correct it, well…
Ian Rogers (September 4, 2012 at 3:15 pm)If you’re really curious, THERE IS a way of processing Kodachrome that makes it black and white. You lose the color but you’d be able to see the image. It’s a pretty nasty process though, and you’d be unlikely to find a commercial lab that would do it. Very DIY.
Alex G. (September 4, 2012 at 3:28 pm)I take that back, these guys might do it as black and white: http://www.bluemooncamera.com/ProcessingHome.php
Alex G. (September 4, 2012 at 3:31 pm)Yeah, a turn of the century diseases of the rectum book? And you passed on it??? Great pics.
Maureen (September 4, 2012 at 4:52 pm)