When you start out on journey, you never know how the day will unfold. It was a sunny, beautiful Fourth of July and I headed straight for my favorite summer holiday weekend haunt – The Stormville Airport Antique Market. It’s a frugal one-tank option out of Manhattan. The market is held on summer holiday weekends, from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and often with an August meet thrown in for good measure. Hundreds of dealers from across the country gather with thousands of antiques, oddities, crafts & dollar-store crap to sort through. The airport itself is about 65 miles from midtown Manhattan and 60 miles from New Haven, CT, smack dab in the middle of nowhere.
I actually went there to hunt out art deco furniture and believe it or not – the Sham Wow! (I just got a new car!). I got the Sham but no furniture. Yet, nearly as soon as I arrived, I met a man with a wink and a smile and an amazing sense of humor, which is clearly reflected in his antique window art. Ron Gifford and his wife Laurie travel the country with Fiesta Ware and antique window art in tow. It’s their life and if you chat with Ron for five minutes, he’s got you! I walked away with a window sign for my law office (“Insane Asylum Entrance”) However, if a quirky sense of whimsy isn’t your thing, Ron will gladly personalize a window with any saying of your choice, for a price, of course!
There is free admission and free parking and if you walk around during a sunny summer day, you can get a free tan……..so all it will cost you is the gas to get there and you can’t beat that in these tough times.
By the way, if you get hungry walking through the aisles and acres of dealer booths and stalls, there’s a fantastic food court offering everything from breakfast pancakes and coffee to fresh bruschetta right from the farm. And how about some zeppole? What Italian, scratch that, what fair-goer can resist the taste of sugar coated, oil saturated globules on a hot day? Yummmmmmmmmm!
