Brimfield
As I drove to Holland, MA Thursday evening to spend the evening with the Horn-Eldred family, my route took me right through the heart of the Brimfield Antique Show. Although it was closed at the time, this was my first glimpse of what was in store the next day. I was on the phone at the time, and stopped mid-sentence to say, emphatically, "O. M. G." I said it several times. Kef finally had to say, "Focus," to get me back on topic. I had only seen the TV show once or twice, and I don't know that it really gave me any idea of the scope of Brimfield. I'm not sure what I expected, but the seas of white tents crowding field after field... the outdoor "food court" filled with fair food... the sheer magnitude of antique possibility... it was all a bit overwhelming. And super exciting!
Tim and I had planned to spend Friday at Brimfield, while Shannon (regretfully) had to work from home. That means he got to babysit Meg and Maya, who had happily come along for this trip. We were somewhat anxious about how all the dogs would fare, with Louis' high energy and the Freemans' schnauzer Fritz visiting as well. The introductions were decidedly uneventful. Tim got to experience for the first time Meg's alarming reminders that she's still there and no dog should approach her. Her yip is epic, and comes at the most unexpected moments. Maya was really good with no fence. She spent her time kissing Emma's face and cautiously investigating the chicken coop inhabitants and deer statue.
We planned to leave the house by 7:30 the next morning to allow time for traffic heading into Brimfield. The weather forecast indicated rain, but wasn't supposed to start until afternoon. By that time, we planned to be done. Emma got to skip school to come with us. Fun!
Since Tim has been to Brimfield many times, he has it scoped out. He knows exactly where to park (and they know him, so they give him a good spot), where to get apple cider donuts, and which areas have the nicest stuff. I highly recommend going to Brimfield with someone so experienced... it made things much less stressful.
Our first stop was donuts, and my priority of coffee. I hadn't gotten myself around early enough to have a cup at the house. The apple cider donuts weren't ready yet, so we grabbed simple sugar ones to hold us over. I started in on my coffee as we crossed the street and dove in to the greatness that is Brimfield.
Places like this remind me of that old adage, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." One bite at a time we strolled through tents filled with every imaginable thing that one might find in an estate. There was antique furniture and glassware, vintage clothing and record albums, violins and harmonicas, Hot Wheels and Barbies, farm equipment and ladders and broaches and military medals and family photos. Tiffany lamps, steampunk lamps, bat lamps (wish I'd taken a picture - it was fabulous), chandeliers, converted oil lamps and ones that weren't. Cast iron skillets by the ton. Yard art. Jewelry. Signs. Woodwork. Wrought iron beds. Patio sofa gliders a la 1960. Swords. One man even had the wooden patterns from which they made molds to create steel hatches.
I was continuously thinking about American Pickers as we picked our way through the fields. Things I wouldn't have thought about twice before made me stop and think. How do these things still exist in the world? Who keeps the wooden box that their cheese came in? Who still has oil cans from 50 years ago? I guess people who have a vision for the value of things do that. You can use that wooden box to organize things. You might find someone who has been looking for this can because they just like to collect them. Someone who has an old cream separator might want the marketing sign that went with it (like me searching for a Delaval sign to go with the old cream separator from our family farm). You just never know what a person is going to find valuable... what they can't live without.
Sometime in the midst of all that, we wound our way back to the donut stall to get those melt-in-your-mouth, hot, fresh apple cider donuts I'd heard so much about. It was a religious experience, I tell you. I had just enough coffee left to temper the sugar overload. The man at the tent handed me a handful of their popcorn just as I had taken my first bite, so I popped that in along with the donut. Heaven! A little bit of salty along with that sweet... just mmmm. I asked if he'd ever tried the popcorn and donut together. He said, "That's a great idea... we should crumble some of this popcorn over the donuts!" Tim told him that he'd have to call it "The Melissia." The man said, "Come back next year and we'll have it!"
One of the things I thought seriously about purchasing was an old photo album with a pillowed velvet cover. I didn't want it for the album. Inside it were hundreds of old family photos. The genealogist in me wanted to buy that album and figure out who those people were. Maybe there would even be someone in that extended family who would want those precious, irreplaceable portraits. I didn't get it because, realistically, I have enough projects right now that I haven't finished. When I go back to work, I'll have even less time to do them all.
Many of the proprietors had their pups with them. One friendly beagle named Otis took great interest in the many smells that were attached to my shoes. His owner said he loves feet. I'm sure mine smelled of at least six dogs, and possibly some chicken poop. Another woman explained that her Yorkie, who was sleeping peacefully in his carrier, couldn't be bothered to talk to people. But he would definitely have been up had there been a D. O. G. nearby. She had to spell it out to maintain his current calm. A couple of pups just hung out by the trash cans so that people would give them treats before tossing them away.
About mid-morning, the rain made an early entrance. We pulled out the umbrellas and continued on amidst a crowd of other colorful coverings. Emma had been wisely spending her five dollars, a dollar at a time here and there. We were on the hunt for pins for her to put on her vest. In the process, two plastic puppies were purchase, as well as an antique key. When we got to the stall that had the most promising pile of baubles to dig through, the light rain became more of a deluge. Although it was still early, we decided to head back toward the car. That cut short our pin hunt, without a purchase.
We browsed our way through booth after booth as we made our way to the street. Just as we arrived at a display of beautiful old stained glass in their wooden window frames, the rain eased. Just beyond was the street and a choice to be made. Emma had been having to walk because her stroller was now filled with rainwater, so I asked how she felt and whether she wanted to continue or go to the car. She said she felt "kinda good" so we decided to continue on through the next field. Some of the fields required a fee to enter, but for some reason the fee (at least on one of them) had been waived... whether that was because of the rain or what I don't know. So we took the opportunity to get in free and soldiered on through the mud puddles. We were rewarded with more and more fabulous abundance.
Although my only purchase at Brimfield was apple cider donuts (and what a good choice that was), I know I'll be back there. Tim will continue to go each May, July and September. I'll tag along when I can, and once I have a home there will be things that I simply must have. I'm sure of it.
We ended our visit by picking up lunch at Athens Pizza, where I got my first ever gyro pizza. It was quite tasty with tzatziki on the side. The dining room was closed (apparently during Brimfield, there is a problem with theft... even of decor inside restaurants!) so we took lunch back home and ate there. I love gathering around a table with this family. It feels like home.
The rain continued as Meg, Maya and I loaded up the car to head back to the Empire State. Google didn't seem to think the Brimfield traffic was bad enough for me to avoid it, so I chose to drive back through the way I'd come. On this time through, I realized that Tim, Emma, and I had not even made it as far as the food court. We didn't even see half of Brimfield in our time there! So much more to see and do.
I feel that way about this whole area of the world. There's so much that I haven't done in this time that I haven't been working. There are so many cemeteries, so many historic sites, so many state parks and museums and events that I haven't enjoyed yet. I really hope that I continue to have the opportunity. I need to make it a point to actually do these things, not just talk about them.
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