Flea Market Finds...

Its been a little while since I played along with my flea market finds. This of course does not necessarily mean that no shopping has occurred.

I was really lucky to come of across these items at a flea market sale I attended recently. There were a number of boxes on the ground with bits and pieces that did not really look appealing but of course I had to have a rummage around in the bottom (a skill honed during many a council pick up). It's amazing what you can find if you just take a look..

at the bottom of the box was this great portable slide projector and an original View Master still in its box! At first I was not sure what the little Cabin box contained but by the looks coming from the lady next to me, who was waiting for me to put it back, I thought it must have been something cool. The slide projector looked intact but the cord was slightly melted. My husband refused to let me plug it in at house, in case of a power surge but Dad surprisingly let me plug it in at my his house. It worked a charm.

The melting it appears was caused by the large amount of heat generated by the bulb as opposed to an electrical fault. It is such a nifty little thing which I think a. would have been pretty expensive in its day and b. akin to our our iPhone of today which makes our photos portable. It only holds two slides at a time but I could just image back in the day it would have been a prized possession which allowed someone to take their holiday photos anywhere.

I have a deep affinity and love of slides as I was brought up looking at the ones of my parents trip overland to the UK in the 1970's. On a Saturday night we used to get the projector out and mum and Dad would recount their adventures. It was so fascinating seeing pictures of Afghanistan and Egypt and have them recount their stories of earthquakes, Pakistan border guards confiscating passports and simply being able to escape to places we could only dream about. This find really resonated with me and filled me with such nostalgia. I just love how small things with not much current monetary value can evoke such a feeling. I think that is why I love looking for old things and find them so appealing.

You can see some more great finds over here at Her Library Adventures.