The Slatington Marketplace
Route 873 - Slatington, PA
This is a prime example of something that the younger me would have blown fifteen bucks on. It's an empty Lehigh Valley Farms milk carton from the 80's. The vast majority of people who ever had this in their home bought it from the grocery store, drank the milk, and threw the empty carton in the trash without a second thought. The person who owned this carton was very likely a Phillies fan, and he or she washed out and saved the carton because there's a picture of Steve Carlton on the side. I'm not gonna lie... I know that I have absolutely no place to display it and it would just get stuck in a box with other sports memorabilia, but I almost bought it anyway.
Route 873 - Slatington, PA
The theme of this post is things that I probably would have bought ten or twenty years ago. I'd like to think its because I've matured as I've gotten older, but in reality, it's a combination of the fact that I'm not rich and I don't have the room to put these things in my house. Truth be told, if I ever hit Powerball, I'd give it ten years max before I'm featured on an episode of Hoarders. I have way too many hobbies and interests, and if I had access to millions of dollars to buy this crap and to arrange for a place to put it, I have no doubt that things would get ridiculous pretty quickly.
This is a prime example of something that the younger me would have blown fifteen bucks on. It's an empty Lehigh Valley Farms milk carton from the 80's. The vast majority of people who ever had this in their home bought it from the grocery store, drank the milk, and threw the empty carton in the trash without a second thought. The person who owned this carton was very likely a Phillies fan, and he or she washed out and saved the carton because there's a picture of Steve Carlton on the side. I'm not gonna lie... I know that I have absolutely no place to display it and it would just get stuck in a box with other sports memorabilia, but I almost bought it anyway.
This Phillies Budweiser sign probably isn't something that I would have bought when I was a teenager, but I can't lie - I did think about what it would look like hanging in the garage.
This autographed Pete Rose newspaper from when he broke the all-time hit record is exactly the kind of thing I would have bought when I was younger. In fact, the first thing I thought of when I saw it was the autographed and framed Nolan Ryan newspaper from when he reached 5,000 career strikeouts. That Nolan Ryan newspaper was hanging on my bedroom wall when I was a teenager, but it's been kept in a box with a bunch of other miscellaneous sports memorabilia for most of the past 25 years. As cool as I think this Pete Rose newspaper is, I know that it would very likely end up in the same box. There's only so much wall space, ya know?
Speaking of wall space, this monstrosity would have definitely been coming home with me if I was a teenager. In 1976, the Phillies partnered with Canada Dry Ginger Ale to release a series of cans with pictures of the members of the team. I've seen the empty cans from this series at just about every flea market and antique store that I've ever been to in Northeast PA, and I even have a few of them in my collection, but I've never seen an uncut sheet with the entire set before. The price was reasonable too, but where the hell would I put it?
There was also an uncut sheet of Dick Tracy trading cards that were released by Topps in 1990 in conjunction with the movie. I'd like to think that I had enough sense even as a teenager to stop myself from buying this, but the ten year old me would've went wild for this and begged my family to let me hang it on the wall.
Another thing that was big when I was ten years old were trading cards that were released to commemorate the Gulf War. As goofy as these are, they weren't the only ones that were on store shelves in the early 90's. Topps released at least three different series of Desert Storm cards, and there was even an early set that was released for Operation Desert Shield before the conflict turned into a war that was renamed Operation Desert Storm. I said it before and I'll say it again - Gen X kids in the United States grew up during a very weird time.
These little stuffed animals look very familiar. I think that I might have had a Phillies one when I was a kid, but I can't say for sure. The little coil between the baseball and the legs is a Slinky that's wrapped in fabric.
There were two Babe Ruth themed board games for sale at Slatington that I thought were pretty cool. It's not the kind of thing I'd ever buy, but I love seeing things like this out in the wild. I'm sure if they made a Richie Ashburn one, I'd be tempted to bring it home.
These plastic souvenir helmets were big when I was a kid in the 80's and 90's. I remember that I used to win them from the pitching game when dad and I used to go see the West Palm Beach Expos play when I was a kid. In fact, I still have that exact same Florida Marlins helmet in the bottom right of this picture. I won it when I was 12 years old, and it's sitting in my garage right now.
There's also at least twenty pennants in a box in my attic right now. They were hanging on my bedroom wall when I was a teenager, and have been in a box ever since. I'm pretty sure that Nolan Ryan pennant is up there with them.
