Sunday Adventures

Admittedly I'm a bit late writing all of this down, but I wanted to make sure I knew how to write down all of the wonderful things that happened on Sunday. We had planned to visit a bunch of garage sales on Long Island during the day, but being that it poured rain all day long, we had to devise other plans. Instead, we decided to visit the Tri-County Flea Market in Levittown.  Despite the massive selection of used clothing and accessories in the basement of Tri-County, I wasn't really finding anything that interested me and was getting ready to go home empty handed.

Just as we were about to leave, Nick stopped at a booth that sold trading cards and I wandered over to a booth covered in old black and white photos of movie stars. There was baseball memorabilia, political memorabilia, movie memorabilia, all laid out in glass cases or pinned to the walls. I found autographed photos of Lauren Bacall and Elizabeth Taylor, checks signed by Lucille Ball, and bubblegum cards of Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. For lack of a better description, it was wild. Finally I came across a little glass case with children's toys in them. A few years ago I started collecting little lead soldiers from the 20s and 30s. I started picking them up at yard sales and antique shops, and over the years my little collection has grown into something I quite enjoy.

Anyhow I found a few of these lead soldiers in this case and while they were slightly different than then ones I usually look for, I couldn't resist asking the owner how he'd come across them all.

They say you meet the most interesting people in the most unexpected places. I got to talking to this man, Vinnie, about my collection of toy soldiers and his collection; how he came by them and why he started collecting all this stuff. Well. The toy soldiers were his when he was a little boy. And the photos adorning the walls of his booth were all photos he had taken.

I learned that Vinnie was a press photographer. He took photos through World War II, through the Allied occupation of Germany, and throughout most of his civilian life as well. He started by showing me pictures of him with Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio, and Babe Ruth's wife! He had pictures with The Munsters, pictures of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It was overwhelming almost. Then he pulled out the big guns, so to speak. He took out a box of photos that literally took my breath away. He had original negatives of photos he had taken during the liberation of Paris during World War II. He had photos he had taken of Nazi officers being taken prisoner, and most jarringly, he had photos of concentration camps being liberated. Photos like that are disturbing enough when you see them in textbooks. But to look a man in the eye and know that he was there. He took those pictures to tell that story to the world. It's enough to stop your heart really.

This man. This humble little man from the Bronx, spending his days in the basement of a flea market, selling his personal photos and collections, has lived one of the most eventful and unbelievable lives I've ever encountered.  I cannot even fathom what that man's life must feel like. I imagine I'd feel incredibly old after all of that. It just seems like so much. And yet there he is. Excited to be talking to a young girl about his life. Excited to have someone interested in him and his experiences.

So of course I bought one of his soldiers. How could I not after all of the amazing stories he'd shared with me.  I picked out a little lead soldier from World War I. Vinnie said I have good taste. And he promised to bring me a picture he has of a soldier from the First World War to go with the lead soldier I bought if I come back and visit him. "You have to display them together, you see. They go together. That's how it should be."