Dear Tucson...

Each issue  we link up with Rachel Miller's Love Letters to Tucson blog for a letter from a Tucson inhabitant about why they love this fair city. This month: Mark Bloom on a little-known Tucson swap meet. Photos by Rachel Miller.

"If you're a collector of 'vintage' stuff then antique fairs and malls, thrift shops, estate sales and yard sales have their appeal. That's as long as you don't mind paying top dollar, wading through piles of crap, being informed that everything is 'collectible' or driving around town following poorly written signs, often with questionable spelling and arrows that point in the wrong direction. These activities I tend to leave to the hard-core collectors. On most Saturday mornings I'll be rummaging through the dusty tables at the Tohono O'odham Swap Meet.

"Clinging onto the edge of the Tohono O'odham Reservation, outside the city limits, I get the feeling, to paraphrase The Wizard Of Oz, we're not really in Tucson anymore. There are no fancy paved pathways like they have over at the swanky, by comparison, Tanque Verde Swap Meet. There's no lighting, no beer carts, no concession stand, no ATM, and very few vendors selling brand new mass-produced generic goods.

"TOSM is a collection of folks selling all sorts of stuff from the back of their trucks, on wobbly tables, strewn on blankets on the ground and from a random array of run-down structures (calling most of them buildings would be unfair to buildings). Many of the vendors have complexions as weather-beaten and leathery as the old saddles they sell.

"What this place lacks in sophistication it makes up for in character. The range of goods on display is both extensive and eclectic and includes all the usual swap meet stuff: tires and parts for your vehicle, a knock-off Spider-Man toy (re-named Spaderman to avoid legal issues), old vinyl records ("these are what we had in the days before CD's, but you'll need a record player to listen to it and I don't think they make those any more"), fresh fruit andveg, old black & white TV's ("I have a VCR that goes with it if you're interested"), artwork of a questionable nature ("I love this nude velvet painting, the new wife hates it, so it has to go"), coffee cans full of nuts and bolts ("I have a storage unit full of these"), assorted birds, chickens, goats, rabbits, and puppies (I like to think that they're all intended as pets, but I have my doubts), and thousands of knick-knacks, tchotchkes, baubles, bangles and beads.

"There's usually someone somewhere singing songs in Spanish accompanied by a karaoke machine or, if it's a good day, a real musician. Some of these Mariachi types are pretty good, and some are not pretty good, but they generally provide the necessary enthusiasm to get a small crowd clapping their hands. You can get your hair cut at a place that blares out Mexican cover tunes of Classic 60's Rock n'Roll.

"And then there's the food.

When I first took the wife to the Swap I hadn't yet braved the food offerings. I am, after all, a transplanted Englishman, with no back-up plan in the language department. I asked her to help me order something and she told me to say "Mi gusta la cabeza" to the nice lady working at the food truck. Being a trusting sort, I took her advice and placed my order. I couldn't understand why the nice lady blushed and then laughed until the wife told me I had just said "I like the head". Cheeky woman! To this day I frequently see the nice lady at the food truck and she always smiles at me. I also learned my very first Spanish phrase (and learned also that I am not very keen on la cabeza, as a meal).

"People come here to buy stuff they need and find stuff they didn't know they needed. They bring the family, they come to chat, they come to sell, they come to eat, they come to socialize. From sunrise to about noon, on Saturday and Sunday every week, the TOSM is exactly what a Swap Meet should be: vibrant, eclectic, entertaining, surprising, full of character and characters, and inexpensive.  You have to wade through a lot of dusty, dirty junk to find the good stuff, but that's what Swaps are supposed to be like."

* Mark introduced Rachel to the Tohono O'odham swap meet on a balmy Sunday morning in October. The tacos and the Fresca for breakfast were an excellent start to the day, as was digging through the records, the wrenches, the children's books and the funky art. Next time, and there will be a next time, Rachel says she's going ready to buy some of fresh veggies.

* You can find Mark online at Velvet Glass, where he and his wife, Maggie Rickard, share their glass art. Mark is also a graphic designer and created the Love Letters to Tucson logo. Read more Love Letters to Tucson here.