Brimfield, Massachusetts, a Tiny Town That Turns Into a Time Machine in Search of Lost America
by Daniel J. Flynn BRIMFIELD, Mass.—Tens of thousands of atavists, capitalists, and human curios converge on tiny Brimfield, Massachusetts (population, 3,609), this weekend to party like it’s 1899. The Brimfield Fair, purportedly the largest outdoor antiques show in the world, resembles how eBay might look freed from its digital shackles. “There’s more business to be had, however, the margins are lower,” Tom Kienzler, a Connecticut collector selling a creepy mannequin (redundant?), a Canadian 1970s 7-Up ad, and much else, says of how the internet changed his side hustle. “Since the eBay-era has really blossomed, people will come in and...
by Daniel J. Flynn BRIMFIELD, Mass.—Tens of thousands of atavists, capitalists, and human curios converge on tiny Brimfield, Massachusetts (population, 3,609), this weekend to party like it’s 1899. The Brimfield Fair, purportedly the largest outdoor antiques show in the...
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