Jul 282008
 

Henry wanted to get his son Blake out of the house on Sunday, so we decided what better way to be all familial for free than to go to the fucking flea market.

I had no coffee in my system; my head was thumping and a sour scowl was perma-etched on my face. Henry was all, “OK, this shit ain’t gon’ fly” so he went to one of the snack bars for a remedy, commanding Blake, Chooch, and myself to stay put where we were. As soon as he turned his back, we did what any other miscreants would and wandered off into the abyss of redneck unwantables.

“Who the fuck would buy this shit?” Blake mumbled as we pushed Chooch’s stroller past a table of romance novels and metal scraps.

“That guy,” I answered, as some loser handed over a fan of bills.

We continued strolling along, taking turns complaining about how gay everything was. Then we talked about Chiodos for awhile, which briefly lighted both of our faces, until it occured to me that we had been led too far astray and Henry was probably walking in circles, crying into a Styrofoam cup of coffee. So we hurried back to where Henry left us, but he wasn’t there. We then made the mistake of leaving the Abandoned Child Depot in order to find Henry, which was fruitless since he was doggy-paddling in the sea of beer tee’d bargain hunters, hoping to find us.

 
Fuck you, assholes!

 We made it back to our spot right as Henry called Blake’s cell phone. When he finally made his way back to us, we were all, “What the fuck, we were here the whole time, asshole!” Henry looked dumbfounded.

 

“I walked right past here and didn’t see you. Didn’t you see me?” he asked, eyes squinted with confusion.

“Probably, but everyone here looks like you,” I said. I don’t think he heard me, but Blake did, and as soon as Henry turned his back, we laughed like children.

We walked past one table weighted down with incredibly worthless junk, just as a very manly woman with the roughest smoker’s voice barked, “How much you want for that bottle of Eternity?” It seriously sounded like a knife-fight was happening in her throat. Her interest in a bottle of perfume tickled me so greatly that I was falling into Henry’s back from laughing so hard. She was with some social reject who had a lipstick print tattooed to his neck. God, what an asshole.

Just when I didn’t think anything could top those two, some broad petrified in makeup from 1975 began advertising loudly for the shitty cat nip mats she was shilling. “They make extraordinary gifts!” she called out jovially and I lost my shit all over again.

“Oh, they’re fucking extraodinary alright. I hope I get fifteen of them for my birthday. Motherfucker.” Then I thought about how much hate I had boiling in my belly, and I smiled.

Around the bend, some dumb ass colostomy bag of a broad was selling CDs and at the very top of one of the stacks was The Cure’s “Disintegration”. Henry pointed this out, probably thinking I’d go all Pollyanna and realize that the flea market really was a place for extraodinary gifts, but instead I grew angry. I mean, I was practically roiling.

“You don’t re-sell a Cure CD!” I bitched loudly. “WHO DOES THAT? An asshole, that’s who.” And I know that shitty old lady heard me too. SUCK IT, bitch.

It wasn’t until we fell upon some old dude slinging the mother lode of incense and natural soap that my edges began to soften a bit. I wasn’t too interested at first, until he stood up from the perch he had on his van and started teaching us of the miraculous healing properties of some shitty soap that sounded like “doo-doo” but was really something else that I just didn’t give a shit about. That was when I realized he was awesome. At first, it was because I thought he had a British accent, but then I think he was just slurring really bad from prolonged use of psychedelics. How nice of him to come to Trader Jack’s flea market straight from Woodstock.

“Buy some of this shit,” I hissed at Henry.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because that is one cool asshole.”

And so Henry bought some shit, that scared little bitch. He bought a whole heap of incense and found out later it makes him sneeze.

 
“This stuff is made in India. This ova’ here is from New Yorkkkkkkzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzsnore.”
Normally, I would try to be a little covert with my mean-spirited picture taking, but by this point I had adopted the “fuck a bitch, suck a dick” attitude and began walking RIGHT UP TO PEOPLE, stopping in the middle of the aisles, and holding my phone all the way out at arm’s length. Henry was not pleased. Especially when, afterward, I would justify my actions by shouting, “What? That person’s an asshole. They deserve this, and worse.”

 Yeah, you count that cash, you cock sucker. Bet it’s going straight into some yeasty g-strings, you sex addict. SUCK A DICK.”

Speaking of sex addiction (a very serious plight not to be taken lightly), there seemed to be a LOT of porn there this time. Large cardboard boxes marked ADULT DVDS XXX  in thick black marker were nestled smack in the middle of baby clothes and Care Bears. I desperately felt the urge to rummage and pilfer, but felt strange doing so with Blake with us. I’d like him to not speculate upon my sex life with his father.

 Apropos placement if you ask me.

 

I saw a produce-hawker go apeshit on a pile of empty banana boxes. I don’t know what got all up inside his puckered sphincter, but he was hurling the boxes out of the back of his truck and plowdriving them into the gravel. His face was red and his fat lips were a’quake with obscenities. I stopped to gawk for awhile, savoring the terror that was arresting my heart. Violence makes me wet.

 

 

 

More flea market assholes, plus Chooch and Blake.

 

There was some girl there who was clinging onto her youth even more desperately than me. Quite possibly the oldest scene kid ever, and ridiculously so. As she pushed a stroller past us, she giggled and very coquettishly said, “I like your piercings!” to Blake. After she walked away, Blake mumbled, “Dumb bitch.” It was high-five worthy.

 

 

The only cool people there. Aside from Blake and me.

 

Sometimes, for no reason, I would growl. Say, for instance, someone in a Kenny Chesney shirt would push past me, in a huge fucking hurry to look at fake designer sunglasses, my arms would get all stiff and I’d just fucking growl. Ew, grr.

 

 

Henry wouldn’t buy me this awesome Jesus Loves Me hat. Now I’ll have to find something else to wear to the church fair. My garter belt and a Cannibal Corpse shirt, I guess.

 

Later that day, Henry was telling me that his mom asked him to take her to the flea market next weekend.

I laughed, it was an angry laugh, and said, “I think I’ll sit that one out.”

“You ain’t kidding,” he said. Supposedly I’m banned for life or something.

  23 Responses to “Flea Market Fuckarow”

  1. Can you tell me who did your layout? I’ve been looking for one kind of like yours. Thank you.

  2. you’re so angry.

    i feel so guilty when your anger makes me laugh!!!

  3. I had such a horrible day today. I hate people so much. You have no idea how happy it makes me to come home and read that you hate people that much too. <3

  4. This post really got to me. I love it. There is so much I would like to offer up for OMG’s and WTF’s and *dying*s….but I’ll just pick out two.

    “She was with some social reject who had a lipstick print tattooed to his neck” Nu-uh!! For real? Someone would DO that? I am amazed.

    And the picture of the porn on a fucking produce table with SQUASH??!!?!?!?!? Holy crap, I cannot express my GLEE at this photo. I mean really….it’s so perfect that it’s causing me pain. There are even green beans for the virgins for when the zucchini is too much! If I had seen that in person I would have stroked out right then and there.

    • When I read the first line of your comment, I swear I thought you were going to chastise me for giving Kenny Chesney fans a hard time. I thought to myself, “Oh NOW you’ve done it, Erin!”

      :)

      Did you see Alyson’s comment?? One of Hector’s friends has that tattoo and Alyson hates it too!

  5. The best is Chooch, with his foot straight out, commanding Henry to go forth, deeper into the fray, tied with the porn and recreational veggies.

  6. “I stopped to gawk for awhile, savoring the terror that was arresting my heart. Violence makes me wet.”

    Holy fuck me to tears, that was some funny shit!

  7. string beans and used porn!
    TOGETHER AT LAST

  8. Amen on the Cure CD. I would always become privately outraged when we’d inventory a used CD store and I’d find some of my favorite albums of all time being sold for 5 bucks (or less!). It’s just not right.

  9. “You don’t re-sell a Cure CD!” I bitched loudly. “WHO DOES THAT? An asshole, that’s who.” And I know that shitty old lady heard me too. SUCK IT, bitch.

    I KNOW! What the HELL!?

    One of Hector’s friends has that lipstick tattoo, and I have never told him how much I absolutely loathe it and think it’s horrible.

  10. Lipstick tattoo? Ridiculous!

    And I just about died over that picture of the porn with the squash and green beans!

  11. I’ve analyzed this post and decided that your hatred of the flea market was your subconscience pre-mourning the loss of Tina in your life. The patrons reminded you of her and therefore you lashed out at them. It’s OK, Erin. Jesus still loves you without the hat.

    • I was about to reply to this and thank you for giving me a good, genuine laugh on such a bittersweet night, because this was seriously an A+ comment, and THEN you went and bought a painting!

      You’re my favorite person. I love you!

    • Aw, heck, you’re welcome.

      I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at house stuff. I mean, A LOT of time. And while some of the wall hangings are kind of cool my soul still rebels at buying them because it’s not art, ya know. There’s only a certain level of mass produced “art” I can have on my walls. Now that I have some wall space I want something made by actual people and not in a factory.

      The stupid thing is I know I could easily buy a bunch of the mass produced stuff since it’s so easy to coordinate. I get on these kicks where I forget things aren’t my style and throw myself into it because there’s something I kinda sorta like about it. I once bought an entire back to school wardrobe that I ended up hating because I liked the chenille embroidery on a sweater. I didn’t actually like the sweater, just the yarn used to decorate it and I coordinated everything around that. Here it is 19 years later and I’m still working to avoid another chenille sweater disaster.

  12. Trader Joe’s is like the Star Wars cantina scene.

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