Lately, Chizz and I have been visiting places close by that we have always meant to go to but somehow have never gotten the chance. When we took Kiki to the airport recently, we drove by this huge flea market/swap meet that is very close to the going to the airport freeway. I said aloud "we should go there sometime and just see what it is like". Sometime was this past weekend.
Actually, we went to the flea market next door. Who knew this area would have more than one flea market to visit? Parking in the area is pretty difficult, apparently this is a very popular flea market. There are actually two sections, one is a more formal pay $1 flea market and the other area is the people who just kind of set up a little area to sell their items. I am not sure what the odds are that this is true, but I got the feeling quite a bit of this stuff was stuff that had "fallen off the truck" or just out and out stolen. There were stalls after stalls of used work tools, drills, hammers, sanders, all used. Loads of used bicycles. We saw tables of laptops, one after another. Used but still pretty nice looking. Televisions, stereo systems, speakers. The "paid" area of the flea market had mostly new stuff but still, how are these people selling table loads of 409 cleaner, or toilet paper, or socks. You have to wonder how they actually got the items they are selling but you don't have to wonder for too long. We could have even gotten a stun gun from a table with a sign that declared they had several for sale, along with some whips and stuff. I wanted to take photos of both sides but I had a feeling that people would not take kindly to having their photos taken. So because I didn't have my running shoes on, I chose not to take the photos.
After we left the flea market, we decided to go to another area we had been too before
but it had been many
years before, Jack London Square. On Sundays there is small farmers market going on. We got there kind of late so not much there and it was a pretty cold day. Not too cold for Asian string players.
I think this man is a regular.
One of the things we liked best in London, wait one of the things Chizz liked best in
London, was finding a new pub to try out. Very often the pubs were historic, frequented by this prince or that famous author. Very often the pub looked like it hadn't changed an iota since it was founded. So we were excited to see this on our arrival at Jack London Square. It is a cute little small bar or pub. It appears to have quite a few names: J.M. Heinold's Saloon, First and Last Chance, or Jack London's Rendezvous. The inside is adorable, about 3 tables and five or six stools at the bar. The floor has a definite tilt, you can see it in the photo of the bar, the whole bar is tilted downward. The bar does have an interesting history as well. It opened in 1883 and was built from the timbers of an old whaling ship. In the 1920s a ferry between Alameda and Oakland ran from a nearby pier and Heinold's was literally the last chance, commuters could get a beverage before getting on the boat. Over the years, the bar enjoyed a mild success. It was the teenage hangout for a young Jack London, who used to study at the tables. He confided with the owner that he really wanted to enroll in the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Heinold lent him the money and although London didn't make it past his first year, London must have felt some gratitude as he used Mr. Heinold's name and the name for the First and Last Chance Saloon in his novel, John Barleycorn.
In the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the pilings of the pier that bar was
situated on, sunk into the mud under the pier, causing the floor to slant. Over the years they have tried to shore up the floor to straighten it out, without much success. So eventually they stopped trying. The clock in the bar stopped that morning and they have never wound it back up so you can still it at 5:18. It is hard to tell from this photo, but the walls just have all kinds of stuff on them. Chizz was interested in a display case that contain lots of Germany army pins with swastikas. There are pieces of currencies from all over the world tacked up on the wall. The bar and rail are original to the bar. Can't you just imagine Jack London sitting there, having a drink making notes for his next book?
There is lots of history in our own backyards. Chizz and I speak often of how lucky we are to live in an area that folks all over the world come to visit on their vacations. Sometimes we all take for granted those things right in our own neighborhood that are available to explore. I doubt too many tourists have the Oakland Flea Market on their list or even Jack London Square but these are places I have always wanted to visit, but never seemed to find the time. This weekend we found the time. I challenge you to visit something in your figurative backyard, something you have always meant to check out. In this economy, it pays to be a Backyard Tourist. The airfare is cheap.
warning. Not today. Today's emergency was a tornado alert!! Holy Wizard of Oz, Batman! Right here in our county. Apparently a funnel cloud was spotted in a town not far from here. It was exciting. Of course, the warning lasted all of about five minutes. It was over fairly quickly after the instructions to "shelter in place, go to the lowest elevation in your house" and "do not take shelter under a freeway overpass". Since we didn't have any freeway overpasses in our house, we were pretty lucky. We were still contemplating where the lowest elevation in our house was (we think the sunken living room, we weren't sure) when the warning was over. So we escaped the tornado.
