junkin'

last weekend i took the kids to isabella. sunday we planned on riding, but we had most of saturday open - so round about 8am, i took ms b and mr braden junkin'. lake isabella/south lake has a hit-or-miss swap meet every weekend when the weather is nice and they generally have a few yard sales dotted around town as well.

now i don't know about you, but d and i have checked out all of the so-called "swap meet/flea markets" around here and they all have the same stuff. the *cough* vendors go to the *cough* dollar store and bring it out to sell. mostly new, packaged stuff - cheeseball ostrich skin cowboy boots and new knock-off brand denims (wonderfully displayed on the biggest bubble-assed mannequins i have every seen - once dared d to come up behind one and rub on it...'nother story). tons of raiders stuff, tons of banners and humongous belt buckles and hats and flags and remote controlled cars and car seat covers. okay, i don't know what to call these "gatherings", but they are not flea marts, they are not swap meets. these people have ruined flea marts. what happened to the junk that peeps used to haul from their garages and set up for the day on rickety old wooden tables out in a dirt lot on a warm sunday afternoon? other people's junk is where i find my treasures.

which brings me back to the isabella/south lake swap meet. THIS is where the real flea markets can be found. little po-dunk, poor towns where everybody knows everybody and they sell you a cool antiqued old globe for $2 and glasses to put votive candles in for $.10 each. this is where i find a perfectly perfect embroidered gb packers hoody for $3. this is what i'm talkin bout. LOVE this stuff. love digging through boxes of $.50 paperbacks, love finding an old complete compilation of mark twain's essays for $1. i love buying a bag of peanuts for $.25 and wandering around looking at people's junk.

which brings me to why i started writing about this in the first place. on the way to the swap meet last weekend i'm all excited telling my kids about all the treasures we might find and i happen to mention that "i absolutely ADORE looking at other people's junk!" braden and brynn both look at each other and i swear at the same time they screamed "EEEEEEEEW! gross mom!" followed quickly by, "we're telling dale that you're looking at other people's junk...!"

what kind of little perverts have i created? seriously. they are