An Oronoco Adventure
September 19th, 2008 in blog
Tim Lahti, contributor
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Sue opens up shop. Good morning, Oronoco!
NOTE: This is being written from my perspective of the event that was Downtown Oronoco Gold Rush Days 2008. The blog details JUNKMARKET’s experience from Thursday the 14th of August to Sunday the 17th. My sincerest apologies to Sue, Kimberly, Georgia, Elizabeth, and Sophalina if anything is embarrassing. You have been warned. Read on with caution.
Downtown Oronoco Gold Rush Days is something that all Minnesotan flea marketers look forward to. It is a true cornucopia of vintage goodies, ranging from the precious and pricey to the common and kitschy. A true haven for those who crave JUNK!
Thursday’s set up was an adventure in itself. The morning started off with a whirling whiz-bang. Our AM goal was to get the U-Haul packed with our stuff. The Junk Beautiful cover set, our many boxes of tee-shirts, projects, walls, tables, chairs, and floral decorations were stuffed with enthusiasm into the back of seemingly massive truck. (I say “seemingly” because the truck got a lot smaller as we realized how much junk we had to haul…) I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: y’know that scale on the Junk Beautiful cover? It sucks. It’s large, unwieldy, and hernia-inducingly heavy. Yes, Sue, I know it’s beautiful, but think of my future children.
By midday, we were off to the mystical land of Oronoco! Woo! Georgia took command of the U-Haul, driving it with an expertise that surprised us all. Where did she learn to drive that thing? (Sidenote: I was supposed to drive it, but they won’t let people under 25 put their name on the rental sign-out dealio. Score one for me.) Kim and I drove down separately, as we needed more cargo space to haul people, books, and newsletters.
Torrential downpour greeted our arrival. I had flashbacks to last year’s Gold Rush Days. Aside from the first day (last year,) Oronoco was plastered with rain. I got a bit nervous. Vendors were closing up shop on Saturday morning in 2007, despite the fact that Gold Rush Days is open rain or shine. Plus, people generally don’t like to shop when they can’t see four feet in front of them. I fervently hoped this would not be the case this year. A couple of vendors assured me that the storm was temporary—the weather was meant to be great all weekend. I cocked an eyebrow in disbelief, but the weatherman proved truthful and the sun shone Friday through Sunday. Thank the junkin’ gods!
Still, unloading the seemingly massive truck in a downpour was less than fun. I’ll give Sue and Georgia some credit though—despite our “not quite dressed for rain” attire, we got the stuff unloaded and under the tent in record time. Kimberly, thank you for getting that tent arranged. We would have been sad campers without it.
Most of you know this, but I need to emphasize something: Sue knows style. She knows junkin’ design. She gets it. As we were unloading, she’s pulling and crafting and concocting the entire set. At first it looks like a junk jumble, but with a few twists, turns, and chuckles, it becomes a rejuvenated delight. Even though our set would be haphazardly crammed under a tent for the eve, our Oronoco “booth” had some serious JUNKMARKET style goin’ on.
The Gold Rush! Friday through Sunday is something of a blur. We opened for business on Friday morning, selling books and showing flea marketers some fun repurpose ideas for their purchases. Sue hung out with JUNKMARKET fans, meeting many new people and getting reacquainted with familiar faces. Kim, Georgia, and I got to meet a bunch of cool people, too. I even got a hug from the Pfarkle sisters!
Sue signed books, Georgia directed people towards our new website, Kim organized the merchandise, I took pictures and recorded video. We all drifted to and fro within the booth, bouncing from one new face to the next, laughing and chatting with flea-market induced giddiness. Yes, we were busy, but it never felt like anything more than fun. After another whole year, Oronoco was upon us and we reveled in it.
Well…enough sentimentality. Here’s some of my notable non-lovey-dovey memories of Oronoco ’08:
The JUNKMARKET sign. It was hung at just the right height where it would thwop you in the head as you walked beneath it. It provided much amusement for me, and I was sad when Kimberly moved it down to a safer position. It was in this “safe” position that I finally bonked my own head. Sue and Kim about died laughing. I’ll get you yet.
Georgia’s haul. Georgia wasn’t technically
“working” for JUNKMARKET, so she spent a good chunk of time shopping. I figured she’d grab a few knickknacks and
haul them home in a separate bag. I was
dead wrong. Hour after hour, Georgia wheeled
back another large (but attractive) item, culminating with some old rickety
steps. “These will be great for display,
don’t you think?” she said with a smile. My head nodded “yes,” but my eyes widened with “how the heck are we
going to fit this stuff in our seemingly massive truck?”
Sue’s haul. You think it stopped with Georgia? Seeing that we’re redecorating the office AND
that we have projects to make, Sue went shopping too. The large, unwieldy, hernia-inducingly heavy
red oven made a perfect match for the large, unwieldy, hernia-inducingly heavy
scale. At least there were pans inside.
Picture time! We took pictures of people on the set of the Junk Beautiful cover for five bucks, with the proceeds going back to Oronoco. In order to get the physical pictures into the hands of customers, we had to print them using a printing dock that was stationed in Kimberly’s mom-car. (It’s not quite a minivan, but it’s big, so it’s a mom-car.) Unfortunately, the car was parked a ways away from the booth. This led to an assortment of miscommunications and printing screw-ups. Bonus: I got to look like a total geek, printing digital photos from a printer hooked up to a mom-car.
Kim’s organization. And reorganization. And reorganization. I’d say the merchandise went through about three shifts in setup and layout. I’m basing that on how many times she said, “this way is better, doncha think?” Note: Kimberly is originally from Colorado, but has mastered “doncha.” Kudos to her.
Flat tire. On Saturday night, I started to drive back to the cities to pick up my lovely wife Laura and bring her down to Oronoco. Why? Because I’m a great guy—a gentleman, if you will. Around Cannon Falls (about an hour away from the Twin Cities,) I felt the grumbly rolling of a flat tire. Awesome. Since I had no spare, I was forced to call AAA and get a tow to the local auto repair shop. The kicker? They wouldn’t be open until Monday. Laura was forced to pick me up at a gas station in Cannon Falls, stay in Rochester for an extra night, and ultimately be late for work on Monday.
Meat. Sue’s mean—sorta. On Sunday morning, Sue and Kim went to the firehouse for a nice hearty breakfast. Not quite the breakfast they expected, as the firehouse had a surplus of sausage and heaped it onto the gals’ plates. Mischievously, Sue grabbed a bunch of the sausage and wrapped it in some napkins. She then placed it in the bottom of a flowerpot. When Elizabeth, her vegan daughter arrived, Sue presented her with the flowerpot. “We found something really cool that you’d love, E,” Sue said. Elizabeth took the pot, opened the napkin, and snarled.
“Nice, mom.”
We exploded in laughter.
Well, that’s Oronoco in a nutshell, from my limited
perspective. We’d talked plenty about
the awesome junk finds, great junking friends…I figured it was time to reveal
the truth behind our adventure.
Until the next time Sue says “hey Tim write a blog,”
Tim
posted in: blog, minnesota
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Comments (3)
Posted: 10:46 pm on September 19th
Fall Gold Rush is this weekend in Rochester - will we see you there? :)
Cheryl in PI Posted: 3:05 pm on September 19th