An Unexpected Detour

On our way home from the Berkshires this morning we drove by an indoor flea market in Torrington, Connecticut. An hour earlier, I had mentioned to Sophie that I was in a rush to get home. I needed to write a long-form Substack post about last night’s party. This put me in an uncomfortable position, as I clearly wanted to stop. She knew it, and I knew it, but I kept on driving. About 200 yards past the entrance, we made a u-turn, and found our way into the enormous warehouse. We can be quick, I said.

We had just spent the weekend at my dad’s house in Norfolk, CT. Skiing at Butternut during the day, and going to a big dinner and dance party at Hy’s Fried that night. This was actually my party, and it’s something that I’ve done for the past 4 years. This is a party for no reason. My four co-hosts and I invite a big group of people to an upstate venue, we charge people for their share, and then we party!

There’s a lot more beneath the surface here, but I don’t have the mental energy to fully unpack it today. I’m going to press pause for now. Consider this post a preview of what’s ahead.

Back to the flea market.

The room was longer and wider than a football field, and it was filled to the rafters with junk. Some of it was good junk, and a lot of it wasn’t. There were leaks in the ceiling, there was a smell. This is the difference between thrifting and vintage shopping — they are not the same. Thrifting is when 99% of what’s in front of you has no value, and it’s your job to see through the clutter, to find the object that’s worth taking home. I found three.

The ball was made in Pakistan, and for some reason it includes two countries that didn’t even play in the 1994 World Cup — Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Even weirder, both of those countries had already dissolved before 1994.

I bought the dish because I love deviled eggs and I love purpose-specific servware. The next thing I held onto was this unusual pennant. Some of you may be familiar with the North American Soccer League, or NASL, which was a popular professional league in the US from 1968-1974. Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, and George Best all played in this league at one point.

The Boston Minutemen is a name I hadn’t seen before, and the team only existed from 1974-1976. Eusébio, one of Portugal and Benfica’s best players of all time, made 7 appearances for the club in 1975 and scored twice. The Minutemen disbanded when their owner, John C. Sterge, a “Boston-based businessman and oil-stock promoter”, fell into financial trouble and was put under further scrutiny by the SEC. Ouch!

As I was checking out, the woman asked me if I collected “soccer stuff”. I said yes, I do indeed collect soccer stuff, do you have other soccer stuff? Follow me, she says.

This was no longer a quick trip.

The woman somehow remembered that she had a 1994 USA World Cup ball in it’s original box, even though it was buried in one of her many aisles.

After the initial rush wore off, I started to have this funny thought. This box is totally amazing but it’s also falling apart and it’s 32 years old. I really want this ball, but I don’t want to be the person who throws away the box. These are my internal thoughts. I carefully removed the ball from it’s packaging, and the box is now sitting on my kitchen counter — it’s fate is still undecided. How relatable.

I saved the location on my map, and we hopped back in the car. At that exact moment I think I knew that I wouldn’t be writing a long-form article about last night’s party, and honestly, it was a liberating feeling. I’ll get to it soon though, I promise.