Friday, June 7, 2013

A Day At Brooklyn Flea (Ft Greene)

Growing up in Bergen County was painful for me.
I often felt like I did not belong. Like a misfit, weirdo, and odd.
Lucky for me I was very good at sports and rather than gravitate to the other "odd ones"...
(you know them, every generation has them, back then they were pseudo hippies, DeadHeads, potheads and freaks.) 
 I fought my way through childhood by being quiet, sporty and mostly hanging out with boys.

High School was equally painful if not more so, just keeping my head down trying to somehow fit.
I spent many a day/night in the walk in closet in my room, reading Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King, drawing, painting,writing and creating. Or even watching TV. I was obsessed with commercials....
(I had to share a room with my sister who was 5 years younger, total culture shock, it was bad)

To this day, I maintain sports and art saved me.

On the outside everything "seemed" pretty normal, but I never felt normal.

I'm not sure exactly when it happened but eventually I got comfortable in my own skin and realized that  all the creative "ones' felt exactly the same.
At that point I started hanging out with people "like me" and all was good in the world.

And sooooo...
 From the second I stepped foot on the schoolyard in Ft. Greene I was in love.

But let me backtrack a bit...
When I closed SHV I knew (quickly) that I had to have another way to have cash flowing in to
 *eh hem, pay the bills.
Having done markets in the past, I knew this was a sure way for me to make money on a regular basis.
Yep, it's extremely hard work, yep, I was not really ready. But I had to put on my "big girl pants" and have a go.
So, knowing a few people in the "biz" I asked around. I knew it was a busy market and I am only 25 mins away (including cutting through Manhattan)
So I contacted them, sent in some pics......and they "picked me"
Woo hoo.

Crap
Now what...

The first week end was ROUGH....
I had to rent a van for 3 days, load, unload, load, unload, load and unload again
by MYYYYY SELF.
Not easy.
But.....

From the second I stepped onto the schoolyard in Ft Greene, I was in love.
Every single thing about this was right.
It took me about 5 hours to unload and organize my stuff, I was a nervous wreck.
But customers came, and came and came.

After about 1pm I was able to actually sit down and have a look around.
How FABULOUS!
Everyone was just so absolutely cool, and artsy and well, cool.
I spent the rest of the day with a smile on my face talking to customers, meeting other super nice vendors and people watching.
My things were photographed and I got a great blurb on the Flea blog.

Isn't it wonderful when you can be happy and content in a moment. I mean totally present, feeling every inch of an experience.

So as I mentally and physically prepare for another day "At The Flea" in a couple of weeks, I can't help but be excited at the prospect of another day of pure joy, saturated, by smells (Asia Dog, Dough and Pizza Moto), sights (the dapper hipster guys in their too small suits, the "whats hot in collecting weekly") and sounds (every language imaginable, the Bawston twang to the Southern Drawl).

If you should decide to venture to Brooklyn with me on the 22nd, and are anything like me, I promise you will absolutely NOT be disappointed with the experience....and I'm certain you will go home with someeee thing new(old)

In the very least, your mind will be filled with inspiration to create.......

and how great is that....




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