To get up to New Milford, Connecticut early enough from NYC I have to get up around 5am. I actually think the Elephant’s Trunk Flea opens at 5 or 5:30am for the super hardcore folks. That’s some real flea market shit right there. By the time I get to Westchester to scoop up my sister, get coffee and drive out there it will be 8/8:30am. That’s pretty much the earliest we can make it. For a little perspective I think the Brooklyn flea opens at 10am – but the Brooklyn flea is a different beast than the Elephant’s Trunk. Go to both of them and you will see what I mean. The Trunk is more work if you live in NYC, but the prices are better and you find different stuff. I have been going for at least the last six years (I moved to NYC in 2001). I took some photos this past weekend and thought it would be fun to share them with you here. I hear rumors that the land where the Elephant’s Trunk is located has been sold and the flea’s days could be numbered. I hope those are just rumors. I suppose only time will tell.
That Blatz box is magic. If you see one again… buy.
total hardcore flashback seeing these old magazines!!!!
Thanks for this post.
Antique Americana is my crack.
next time you go i’m hitching a ride!
its a real flea market, a buyers market. A bargain can almost be had (rare these days)
IF YOURE ARRIVING PAST 9 DONT BOTHER GOING. VENDORS PACK UP AT 11
I want that green stool/step ladder!
So whaddya buy?
I love those shoe racks in photo 0136. I just got a large one like that at Todd’s Farm Flea market (totally worth checking out for anyone near Boston) and am using it for a bookshelf.
It’s great.
this is great – thank you. we had a flea like this in Canton, TX back in the day – its still there but total changed. back in the day i found: little cement rabbits, a pith helmet, army helmets, first pair of levis 517s – nice and worn, lots of old LPs (they’d warp in the heat if you were not careful), tshirts with old gas station logos, old old comics for .50 a pop, a duck (named duckie) and a $40 guitar that some hippie took a check for! nowadays its all “craft” crap and people selling steam cleaners… at least they still have new braunfel’s sausage on a stick. thanks for the flashback!
Man, I think I have all of those beer cans in my parents basement.
what a bunch of junk!
I can’t wait until the day when I’m gonna live in USA. Love everything in this country !
Very very nice. Makes UK car boots pale somewhat.
My eyes…….my eyes!
The Yale flag is pretty chill. The way the red pops out of the main picture with the Life mags is pretty cool too. Also, it’s awesome to wear a “Drill Now” t-shirt in Connecticut, but we should send that dude and his top hat to the Gulf and observe how accomodating the people down there are to him.
i have a friend who has a place in New Milford. his barn is full of this stuff. not because the previous owner(s) left it that way…because he lives at the flea markets. but he IS a prop stylist for photo shoots. makes sense. i wanna go next time i’m up there.
JonIndia took the words right out of my mouth. That guy makes me sick to my stomach.
Sick to your stomach? Bit of an overreaction, don’t you think? I wasn’t aware that ACL was a feeder site for dailykos.
That flea market would be killer even if everyone were wearing an offensive t-shirt! More crazy stuff than you find around these parts!
Craig – I wasn’t aware voicing a reaction to something posted on ACL wasn’t allowed?
And yes, pure nausea. To each his own right?
Wow, there’s some great stuff there!
Just goes to show that one mans trash really is another mans treasure…
Wonderful treasures! Too bad they don’t make that a traveling road show – to the south – I’d definitely buy!
Wonder if the “patriotic” guy with the drill-now-shirt still wears it today!
I recently scored a pair of George Nelson/Herman Miller dressers at this market for $18 each! It’s a 1.5 hour drive from NYC but well worth it!
Seems like a lovely flea.
I find the first beer can picture fun though, those gold “Tuborg Gold” cans is one of my regular beers.. And I can only say, they’re worth a try, a quiet light pilsner but quiet hard-hitting as well. Just out of curiosity, how much would those cans sell for?
See…this is a flea market. The pale excuses for flea markets in my part of America (SF Bay Area) are sad and depressing. A box of old Better Homes and Gardens from the mid 70s is about as good as it gets.
yeah, this looks like a real flea market. The kind you have to “dig” through to find the gems. I love em.
Reminds me of Mpls. Ragstock in the mid 80’s and $20 could bring in a huge haul. Stuff was usually in bad condition from being stuffed into large bins. But with a bit of love…I still have a few pieces from then.
I’d love to join you on a trip up there.
dear god, that is actually amazing!!! i want every one of those life magazines!
Wow! I also want all of those magazines! Love flea markets!
i want it all
Who cares about the shirt…I want that top hat along with the NAVY pennant!
Rumors are indeed true developer purchased the property….but there are other similar fleas close that most of those vendors travel to.
Here’s the deal on drilling: if we allowed more off-shore drilling, the oil companies would be doing so closer to shore, in shallower waters, where costs are lower because the extraction is easier, and–oh yeah!–accidents are easier to deal with.
As it is, we have the Chinese drilling from Cuban waters into what would otherwise be US oilbeds. Yeah, that’s a good policy. We also have a continued dependence on foreign oil, a dependence which can be used against us (anyone else remember the “oil crunches” of the 1970s?), and which drives up oil prices (supply and demand, doncha know).
So yeah, go ahead, get on your elitist and very left-wing high horse, and tell us all how naseous you become at the thought of the US drilling for oil in the US. Yeah, I’d just hate it if we had more jobs and more oil, leading to greater economic activity because it’s cheaper to get around and to move merchandise, and the increased tax revenues due to the increased economic activity. That’d suck, dude.