Junk Find Five: First Monday Sept 2015

It's time to start a new recurring segment.  We'll go to flea markets and swap meets in East Texas and find five interesting things for sale.  They may provide some interesting insight into Texas Culture or they may not.  But they are the five items that caught my eye on that particular trip.

This time we we visit First Monday in Canton, TX (and to be honest, most of these will probably be First Monday since that's the one I go to the most).

5.  Elephant Playground Ride

A little elbow grease and some cleaning supplies would turn this rusty antique into a top notch backyard playground toy.  It has the benefit of not needing extraneous tools or supplies to install (like a McDonalds Playland piece that you find from time to time).  Just clean it up and set it out and the kids are happy.

4.  Tyson Corporate Award

I probably can't articulate why I think this is so cool.  It's just a rare piece that you can't find in any store.  It's an award for "Excellent in Safety Slaughter Facilities Finest".  I'm not exactly sure what that is or what it means but I'm sure Tyson doesn't just hand them out like sticks of gum.

3.  Horseshoe Certificate

Just like the Tyson Award, this is another one-of-a-kind item.  I'm not exactly sure what the significance is but it appears to be a certificate denoting exceptionalism in the field of shoeing horses by some type of national body that regulates that type of thing.  The date is from the year 1907 and I really love that it is framed.  This was important to someone.  And it could be important to you for the right price.

2.  Mickey Mouse Kazoo (Megaphone?)

This has all the traits of a great flea market find: a long lasting character, a weird/vague purpose (it says kazoo, but it's clearly in the shape of a megaphone), and a general retro vibe.  What was this thing?  What was its purpose?  I guess I could just Google it but that would take all the fun out of it.

1.  Grand Canyon Souvenir Plate

These things used to be THE top souvenir from old-school family road trips in the 60's and 70's.  They then adorned the walls of baby boomer houses above the shag carpeting and adjacent to the China Hutch containing the family's prized fondue set.  They all had original artwork and the Grande Dame destination was always the Grand Canyon.  This plate has it all!

I'm very happy with what we found on this outing.  But there's always something else just around the corner at the next flea market.  I guess we'll see...