Flea market fun

Sometimes  (actually many a times) I hate on hipsters for their appropriation of low-brow culture and then sometimes I can’t help but love them for transforming something that was once trashy into something funky (assuming that the prices are still right). In the case of the Somerville Flea Market, the latter is definitely true.

As a former Goodwill employee, I’ve always had a soft spot for second-hand treasures. So it’s surprising that it took me two years to make my way to a flea market just a few blocks away from where I lived. The Somerville Flea is conveniently located in the Harvard Vanguard parking lot next to the Davis Square T station, so it’s really easy to get to, even for non-Somerville residents.

As far as I can tell, the outdoor market takes place on Sundays from the summer to Oct. I randomly happened on the market one hot summer day when I found myself without plans. What I found was a small wonderful filled with reasonably priced custom-made/refinished furniture, live music, cold-pressed coffee, and gems from yo’ grandpa’s basement.

I hit the jackpot in terms of the perfect gift to get one of my best friends who just so happens to an MJ super fan. So much so that a few years ago for her birthday, we dressed up as members of the Jackson family (I was flashy Randy) circa the Victory Tour and performed the Thriller dance in my friend Mike’s living room. For those of you who don’t know, the Victory Tour is the first and last tour featuring all six of the Jackson brothers and it happened just as MJ was ascending to solo superstardom. This is also when they co-promoted Pepsi and MJ’s hair infamously caught fire during a commercial taping.

I called my friend after I left the market to tell her about the rare find and she begged me to head back. And because I wasn’t home yet, I did. For a mere $65 I got her this one-of-a-kind conversation piece. When she received it in the mail, I know it made her day.

Flash-forward to last weekend. After moving to the new apartment, I was desperate for a new dresser. My old dresser was a hand-me-down that had started falling apart at the seams. So, for the first month of life on Aberdeen Rd., I was getting dressed from a large moving box on the floor of my room.

The search for a dresser led me to lots of surfing on the Target, Walmart, and Ikea sites, where everything is cheaply produced, cost way too much money for the quality, and had to be assembled at a later time. And I was afraid to buy a dresser off of Craigslist because my roommate had done that a year ago and it had resulted in a bed bugs scare. So, I hoped that I could find something reasonable and bug free at the market.

And the perfect piece was found, less than five minutes after walking into the flea market. For under $200, I got a dresser from I Want a Pony, a badass jewelry/furniture/all things awesome co-op, and got them to deliver to my apartment. I was enamored with it upon first sight because of its funky color, unique drawer pulls, and how roomy it was.

It wasn’t until I got home that I realized the dresser perfectly matches my bedspread! WIN. Thanks to the Somerville Flea, I was finally able to get all the boxes out of my room, stop living like a transient, and finally get settled into my apartment!!