Flea Market Finds #185: Taro, Terry, & Talkin' Baseball

Mother Nature helped California with their drought concerns by dumping a lot of rain throughout the state over February Break.  It cleared up on Saturday enough to motivate me to check out the Branham Flea Market.

The ground was dry and the skies were fairly clear, but I think the cold temperatures scared away a lot of the regular vendors.

I did manage to purchase a few items for my collection though...

Purchase #1:  Sports Related LP's  $13

There's one vendor with sports memorabilia that you can always count on to be there.  I've purchased plenty of stuff from him over the years.  He's the guy that sold me the uncut Mother's Cookies sheets last month.

He had a box filled with sports related record albums, but only two were still sealed in cellophane:

Terry Cashman One Stop Along The Way

The Ballad of Johnny Bench (1983)

Terry Cashman Talkin' Baseball

American League (1982)

Sometimes I buy record albums because I enjoy the band.  Other times I just think it's a cool piece of history that fits into my collection.  These two LP's fall into the latter category.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Cashman's Willie, Mickey, & The Duke found on Talkin' Baseball.  If not, it's a classic you can listen to here.  I wasn't familiar with the other song, but I found it on YouTube.  If you want to hear a slow jam about The Little General, click here.

Purchase #2:  A Classic from my Childhood  $1

My second purchase was from a vendor I hadn't seen before.  He had a bunch of old books.  I'm always on the lookout for books I read as a kid.  I might have struck out on finding baseball cards, but I did find this:

Taro and the Tofu by Masako Matsuno

I don't remember owning this book when I was little, but I was very familiar with the cover.  It's one of those books I checked out during our weekly trips to the library.

It's a story about a boy who received too much change from the tofu salesman and is faced with the decision to keep the money or give it back.  Not going to try and convince you that this is a timeless piece of literature, but I will say that it's a tale that stuck with me all these years.

That wraps up my flea market finds for this past Saturday.  I still have some free time, so I'm going to continue sharing some gifts from Ryan's advent calendar.

Let's start from the beginning with his Day 1 haiku:

There were two parts to this present.  The first part is a vintage trading card that pictures Mt. Fuji rising above Katase Beach on Enoshima:

Here's a look at the card back:

Thanks to Google... I was able to translate the card back which essentially talks about Enoshima and Mt. Fuji being in perfect harmony and beauty.

The second half of the Day 1 present was this Christmas card from 1912:

The cover features another great look at Mt. Fuji.  Here's a peek inside:

According to Google, this image shows off Itsukushima Shrine located on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Bay.  I'm super impressed at how well crafted this Christmas card was for being 114 years old.

Both of these items are huge additions to my Mt. Fuji PC.

Well that's it for today.  Hopefully the weather is nice in two weeks for the De Anza Flea Market, because this recent trip to the flea market wasn't very memorable.

And thank you Ryan for these two vintage Mt. Fuji items.  They're awesome!

Everyone else, here is your question of the day:

When you think of sports, are there any songs that immediately pop into your head?

I've got two:

#1:  Celebration by Kool & the Gang (1980)

Whenever the A's won at the Oakland Coliseum, this song played.  Can't hear this song without it taking me back there.

#2:  Winning It All by The Outfield (1992)

I was a huge basketball fan for decades and I watched as many NBA Finals games as I could.  This song played after the Chicago Bulls won the NBA Title in 1996.  It's a great song by an under-appreciated group.

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments.  Until then... 

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!