My Beloved Sunset Swap Meet
A formative childhood memory I have is visiting the local Sunset Swap Meet every weekend morning with my dad, located in San Luis Obispo, CA. Hundreds of vendors would meet in the Sunset Drive In parking lot, below the huge drive-in movie screen. The ticket booths, snack bars, and structure itself are all yellow and red, fading a bit from the years of Cali sun. The parking lot itself is paved (crumbling in areas, but technically paved) whereas the outside lot is packed dirt. I remember this lot being incredibly muddy in the rainy seasons, to the point where cars (and my boots!) would get stuck. Every week, I was given around $10 in cash and a plastic baggie to do my treasure hunting. Plastic dinosaurs, pokemon cards, and YA books were my usual goodies. I remember my dad buying me 5 big binders of pokemon cards from one serious collector, telling me he was saving it for my birthday. I still have the cards and many of the plastic toys from this era, especially the Jurassic Park dinosaurs which were my more prized possessions.When you first enter the swap meet, you need to pay a $1 entrance fee to the cranky old lady at the yellow ticket booth. I have memories of her smoking, yelling at visitors for one reason or another, and telling my dad he couldn't bring in our pet dachshund (named Corky), who we managed to sneak in a few times anyway. She had this unique, high pitched voice, similar to a cartoon witch. Seeing her every week was an event in itself. There was one week she wasn't manning the ticket counter, and I wondered where she was (hopefully she was ok!!) but we saw her every time after that.
I don't even know why this swap meet is so important to me. Some time after I had moved from CA and was starting to miss it terribly, I started to have dreams of the dirt lot, the rows of vendors, finding treasures for a good deal... (why a greasy flea market, and not like, I dunno, the beach or something?) Swap meet dreams were always good dreams. I would think about the ticket lady, my dad haggling for his 50th ammo case, my precious Jurassic Park dinosaurs, and the Costco hotdog lunch I was always promised after. Surely, after so many years, the swap meet would have changed, or not exist at all, right? I knew the drive-in was old, in fact I didn't know it still operated even as a kid- I assumed it was an abandoned lot this whole time.
The view of the theatre from highway 101, near the famous Madonna Inn.
During our California trip in 2024 we found time to visit the swap meet (which I found, to my surprise, still ran every Sunday), and it was surreal. It had been 15 or so years since I had last visited, and the pavement, dirt lot, EVERYTHING was the same. To my amazement, the old lady at the ticket counter was still there, with her witch voice saying "one dollar" as we walked up. She handed me this absolutely beat to shit bill that I will treasure forever and ever. The sights and sounds of the swap meet include: kids throwing bang snaps onto pavement, corn on a stick, haggling, blaring pop music, blaring Mexican music, kids running and shouting, etc etc. It was joyous. I will say, the swap meet felt cleaner than it did to me as a kid. There wasn't as much cigarette smoke and trash on the ground (I distinctly remember oily bags of pork rinds spilled onto the pavement). I kept saying "this is crazy... this is crazy..." to my lovely boyfriend who woke up at 7:00am for this.
Pictured above: the drive-in screen.
Pictured above: the dirt lot outside of the drive-in. "Mud season" had cars and shoppers get stuck.
Now showing! Sunset is one of the few remaining drive-ins in the state.
Vendors I met:
The beautiful thing about the Sunset Swap Meet is that everyone is a little strange. You get a lot of beautiful weirdos selling their wares, and you get to talk to them. Being an adult now, this was a lot easier (I was very people-shy as a kid).I saw one vendor I recognized, who always sold tons of toys on a giant blue tarp in the second aisle. For the 30 seconds it took to pick out the plastic dinosaurs I wanted, it was like I was 10 again. The lady approached me with a bag and I handed her $13 for my goodies. She of course had no idea how important that moment was for me (I also didn't want to be a weirdo like, "hey I remember you from when I was a kid! You're in my dreams sometimes!") so I waved goodbye, snapped a selfie of the blue tarp with my poor groggy BF, and headed down the aisle. I couldn't believe she was still selling toys on that blue tarp, after 15 years. Did she have a lot of kids? How did she come to acquire so many dinosaur figures? I've come to the theory that she runs a thrift store business somewhere, and takes in people's donations to the swap meet on the weekends. Of course this is just a theory... a swap meet theory...
The infamous (to me) blue tarp vendor.
I also met a guy, biker jacket clad, smoking a cigarette, who was selling handmade jewelry. What caught my eye was a praying rosary, with a short handheld chord. I knew this style was common in prisons and I asked him about it. And well he said he made it in prison! The chordage was tshirt material and it was beautifully made. He also had a box of dice, the dots on each face were carved with a sharp metal object he "wasn't supposed to have in prison". I bought both for $30. He also had a beautifully made plush dinosaur, also made of tshirt material. It was realistic in proportion and not much bigger than 6 inches. He wanted $50 for it (rightfully so-he should have charged more) but I was at the end of my budget. He said he was using the funds to fix his motorcycle. I didn't ask any more questions about his time in prison, but did tell him how much I appreciated his handmade work. The praying rosary is a gift for @pepsiharlot, so enjoy!
A praying rosary and dice, made in prison.
This will be for another time, but I'd also like to visit the Nipomo Swap Meet again, where I have just as many fond memories there. There used to be a handmade marble vendor, who I overheard someone talking about at Sunset. He was also selling marbles and I contemplated getting a few. There were a lot of vendors like this, who sold specific items that I would see every week.
Because I bought too many dinosaurs (oops) I had to mail home most of them in a box (we were flying home). I'll be taking pics of them and turing them into graphics at some point!!
History of the Sunset Drive In:
I don't know much about the drive-in, besides some basic info I could scrape together online. The drive-in began construction in 1949, and was completed in 1950. Currently (as far as I know) it's owned by a local movie buff with a love for the property. Each day the theatre opens for two showings with an intermission in between. Heaters and speakers were installed at some point but no longer work (if you ever visit, you may notice rows of white metal poles, this is where the speakers/heaters were.) There have been some rumors that it's closing, but I don't think this is the case, as of 2024 (need to look into this...) More info below and in the yt videos above.Links:
https://mustangnews.net/sunset-drive-in-is-one-of-the-few-remaining-drive-in-theaters-on-the-central-coast/https://atomicredhead.com/2023/11/30/sunset-drive-in/
https://localwiki.org/slo/Sunset_Drive-In