This weekend we attended the Little Red Truck Cottage Market in the historical Trades and Industry Building at the Montana Expopark Fairgrounds.
The building was crammed full of stuff from many different vendors that included things like art, crafts, antiques, and other things.
Our son is really into the vintage/retro stuff and we happened across a few genuine antiques from one of our local vendors right here in Great Falls. As some of you may already know, The Picket Fence is located at 1219 13th Street South.
While at The Picket Fence booth, our son discovered a camera — A Kodak Vigilant Six-20 to be more precise, in mint condition. This camera was made in the U.S. by Kodak between 1939 and 1949 and it cost $38 when it was new (that’s $839 in today’s money). He was so excited about it that when we got home, he went right on the internet to see if he could still get film for it. He came back sort of disappointed however because Kodak quit making 620 film in the mid 80’s.
While he was lamenting the fact of not being able to buy 620 film any longer, I reminded him that they still make 120 film, but only on narrower spools. You can respool 120 onto 620 spools, or buy it pre-respooled at a premium price. If he needed the 620 spools, he could buy 4 of them for $20 over on https://filmphotographystore.com/collections/620-film/products/620-4-620-film-spools.
The next piece of vintage we found was a Zenith 300 transistor AM radio that was manufactured in 1958. It didn’t have the required 4 AA batteries in it and no one knew if it even worked, so we snagged it up anyway in the off chance that it would work (I learned at a young age that these little transistor radios were virtually indestructible). When we got home I pulled 4 AA batteries out of my old Fugifilm Finepix camera and put them into the radio. Low and behold, the radio fired right up and was tuned to 560 KMON. I told our son to wait until after the sun went down to really listen to it because AM radio has a huge range after dark.
These little transistor radios seem to hold on to a magic all their own, because as you see, our son usually has his face buried in his phone … he hasn’t touched his phone since he got that little radio … his face buried deep into and listening intently to sounds of the real-time airwaves. They just don’t make things the way they used to.
When I was a kid I’d lay awake at night under the covers and listen to Boise or Salt Lake City with my little AM radio when I was supposed to be going to sleep. Those were indeed the days and I hope that our son might have a chance to experience some of that right here in 2023.
This little Zenith 300 Transistor Radio came with a list price of $59.95 in 1958 (that’s $626.80 in today’s money)
There were so many vendors and so much to see. I had planned to stay longer and poke around some more but we got in there mid Saturday afternoon and the market was scheduled to shut down at 4pm. I’m hoping that we can get in earlier next time so we can stay longer. The longer we’re able to stay, the more in the way of one-of-kind treasures we’re able to find.
Over all, the Little Red Truck Cottage Market at the ExpoPark was a blast. We’ll definitely have to do it all again soon. We were told that they’ll be back around again in October.
I can hardly wait.
Thanks for the read.
Happy Trails
