The Grateful Dead had a history of not showing up for their most prestigious shows, but that can’t be said for the one-off concert they played in front of over 100,000 people at a drag strip in Central New Jersey on this date more than four decades ago. and his bandmates were in fine form throughout two impressive sets at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey on September 3, 1977.

1977 is considered one of the best years in Grateful Dead history. The band played plenty of shows that year but would’ve performed many more had drummer Mickey Hart not sustained major injuries in a car accident early in the summer. As such, the Dead weren’t actually on the road when their Terrapin Station LP dropped on July 27, 1977. In fact, the Grateful Dead didn’t play any shows between a three-night stand at Winterland in San Francisco on June 7 – 9 and their visit to Raceway Park.

Promoter John Scher took a major gamble in booking the Dead to play the massive Raceway Park. Here’s what Rolling Stone wrote about the show:

The park normally held about 50,000; the band sold 102,000 tickets – up to that point its biggest nonfestival gig. Until then, everyone assumed the Dead’s on-the-road success was a result of repeat business – the same fans buying tickets to more than one show. But Raceway Park proved that the Dead could pull in huge numbers for just one show. “It said, ‘We’re a big band,'” says Loren. “It put the Dead up there with anybody else who was performing: ‘Yeah, the Allman Brothers are a big band, but they’re not the Grateful Dead.’ The industry stood up and said, ‘Holy mackerel!'”

But the Dead’s lone concert at Raceway Park isn’t just remembered for its huge draw, it’s remembered for the wonderful music that went down in New Jersey’s Middlesex County. The show on September 3, 1977 features outstanding renditions of “Mississippi Half-Step,” “Eyes of the World” and “Not Fade Away” as well as the return of “Truckin'” for the first time in over two years. It’s hard to believe the Dead went two years in their heyday without performing “Truckin’,” but indeed they did. Another notable moment came in the encore when the Dead played “Terrapin Station” for the first time since the release of the album of the same name.

The Raceway Park show was so good, an official recording of the evening served as archivist Dick Latvala’s 15th pick for the famed Dick’s Picks series of archival releases. Listen to Dick’s Picks Vol. 15 recorded on this date in 1977:

Set One: The Promised Land, They Love Each Other, Me And My Uncle, Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, Looks Like Rain, Peggy-O, New Minglewood Blues, Friend Of The Devil, The Music Never Stopped

Set Two: Bertha > Good Lovin’, Loser, Estimated Prophet > Eyes Of The World, Samson & Delilah*, He’s Gone > Not Fade Away > Truckin’

Encore: Terrapin Station

* – Band left the stage for a few minutes after Samson And Delilah

Some shoppers don’t need a mall, fancy display case or relaxing music to accompany their shopping spree – all they need is the shining sun, a few local vendors and some bins and tables they can peruse.

Now that spring has officially arrived, those shoppers are heading out to Central Jersey’s favorite flea markets, where some goods – such as antiques, artisan goods and discounted items – can be found far away from the department stores.

Ready to go off the beaten path and pick up one-of-a-kind clothes, jewelry, home décor and more? Check out these flea markets located in Central Jersey.

GO SHOPPING: Somerset Hills VNA Rummage Sale is May 4-6

READ: 5 New Jersey towns where you can to shop 'til you drop

Englishtown Auction, Englishtown

A staple in the Englishtown community for more than 80 years when it began as a meeting place for farmers to buy, trade and sell livestock, farm equipment and produce, Englishtown Auction is now an enormous flea market with antiques and collectibles, automotive supplies, clothing, electronics, hardware, beauty supplies and more.

Spend the entire day at this indoor/outdoor market open Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. year-round with more than 300 vendors and get lost exploring the countless aisles before grabbing drinks, food and listening to live music in the sunshine.

If you go: 90 Wilson Ave., Englishtown; 732-446-9644, englishtownauction.com.

Golden Nugget Antique Flea Market, Lambertville

Known as a “gold mine” for finding antiques, collectibles and art, the 50-year-old Golden Nugget Antique Flea Market brings in about 30 shops every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. and also has two on-site restaurants.

Voted “best in vintage” by Hunterdon Happening for the third consecutive year in 2018, the Golden Nugget Antique Flea Market attracts bargain hunters of all ages for the “thrill of the hunt” and to check out its eclectic mix of styles.

If you go: 1850 River Road/Route 29, Lambertville; 609-397-0811, gnflea.com.

Washington Valley Fire Co. Flea Market, Warren

When you shop at the Washington Valley Fire Co. Flea Market, you know you’re supporting a good cause – proceeds from the market, which has space for more than 200 vendors, support the Washington Valley Fire Co.

Open every Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., this outdoor market also allows locals to rent tables for $20 each where they can sell used goods. Here, you can also find indoor bathrooms, food courts, live music and spring and fall shrub auctions.

If you go: 146 Washington Valley Road, Warren; 732-718-1148, wvvfc.org/flea.

READ: Westfield shopping offers a mix of the old and the new

READ: On-trend shopping advice from local experts

Avenel Flea Market, Woodbridge

As it has been since it began about 80 years ago, the Avenel Flea Market is an ideal place for locals to both buy and sell new, used and antique goods year-round on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

With more than 150 vendor spaces, the Avenel Flea Market offers a huge selection of goods and also offers free parking and admission.

If you go: 1488 Rahway Ave., Avenel section of Woodbridge; 732-221-8178, avenelfleamarket.com.

Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market, various locations

Don’t miss out on this one – the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market takes place only three times per year, with its next market, featuring vintage clothing, original artwork, antiques, silkscreened posters and handmade jewelry, popping up Saturday, Aug. 11 from noon to 7 p.m. at Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company.

With more than 200 vendors from eight states, vendor spots sell out in a matter of minutes at this popular market that has grown exponentially since it began only five years ago.

If you go: Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company, 909 Ray Ave, Croydon, Pennsylvania; trentonpunkrockfleamarket.com.

Staff Reporter Jenna Intersimone writes the weekly Central Jersey Go column, which appears Fridays in the Courier News and Home News Tribune and spotlights five weekly local destinations.

She also writes a weekly travel column and is a regular contributor to the weekly Table section. Tweet her at @JIntersimone or email her at JIntersimone@GannettNJ.com.

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Thursday, June 9, 2022 Location: Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ Event: Formula DRIFT Link ECU PROSPEC Championship Round 2

RESULTS FROM FD PROSPEC QUALIFYING

NOTES

ROUND 2 TOP 16 PROSPEC QUALIFYING

BRACKET FOR ROUND 2 FD PROSPEC COMPETITION HEATS

FORMULA DRIFT NEW JERSEY RECAP

Qualifying results from the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 4: Type S The Gauntlet presented by AutoZone will be available tomorrow. Competition results from the FD Link ECU PROSPEC Championship and FD PRO will be available on Saturday. A recap of all the action from FD NJ with event images will be available on Monday

NEXT ROUND

World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, IL will host the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 5: Crossroads on July 14-16 as well as the Round 3 of the Formula DRIFT Link ECU PROSPEC Championship. Please visit formulad.com for the competition schedule, ticket information, driver profiles, special content, and the event livestream

The track-owning Napp family, who have operated the facility since 1965, made the announcement that it would cease operations of its quarter-mile and one-eight-mile drag racing facility while continuing to hold other auto- and motorcycle-related activities.

The stated intention is to reorganize the company’s business operations, the family said.

“Raceway Park will retain and use the ‘stadium’ portion of the facility including the VIP hospitality tower and grandstands, and continue most of its operations,” according to a statement from the track organizers. This will include “spring and fall auto swap meets, numerous car shows, both motocross racing and practice, kart racing, as well as drifting, a full schedule of road course activities, mud runs, monster truck shows, musical concerts, & festival events and more.”

The family intends to keep running Old Bridge Township Airport, a wholly owned and operated flight facility on its premises.

This year’s intended NHRA Summernationals event would have been NHRA’s 49th visit to E-town, as it’s widely called. The racing facility is home track for current three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Eddie Krawiec and for three-time Top Fuel title-holder Antron Brown, both of whom have celebrated victories at this venue. It’s also the site of an accident that changed the face of NHRA’s nitro classes, after Kalitta Motorsports’ driver Scott Kalitta perished in a top end crash in June of 2008. NHRA adopted 1,000-foot track distances shortly thereafter, deeming the quarter-mile too dangerous at many venues, particularly older tracks like Raceway Park.

“The Napp family wishes to express their most sincere gratitude to the NHRA and the many thousands of racers and fans, without whom would never allowed Raceway Park to become the iconic and nationally recognized drag racing facility it has over the past five decades,” their statement said.

Newly promoted NHRA president Glen Cromwell stated: “NHRA drag racing events have been held at the track in Englishtown for almost 50 years. The Summernationals have played an important part in our heritage and we hope that fans in the area will try to make it to another one of our events.

“Our focus remains on making the NHRA Mello Yellow Drag Racing Series a memorable experience for our fans, racers, sponsors, partners and tracks.”

NHRA’s most successful Funny Car racer, 16-time champion John Force is “really sad to hear about the loss of Englishtown. That is a great market and the fans were amazing,” he said.

“I won a lot of national events and match races there. This is a major loss. I want to thank the whole [Napp] family for helping me kick-start my career. I will always treasure them.”

Former driver Darrell Gwynn added, “This makes me sick to my stomach; I cherish my wins there.”

The nation’s most prominent drag racing series now has no activities in the NY/NJ mega-market. The closest venues for fans in those states to witness NHRA would either be Reading, PA, Epping, NH or Norwalk, OH.

englishtown3.jpg

A mannequin at Englishtown Auction Sales takes an imaginary puff on an e-cigarette.

(John Munson/The Star-Ledger)

‘I’ve been here for 20 years," says Casey Dangler, standing outside Babylon Video A-Go-Go, a shop at Englishtown Auction Sales.

"How old are you?"

"19."

"Wait, how is that possible?"

"My mother sold specialty foods here when she was pregnant with me," Dangler said, smiling.

In the mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world that is the Jersey flea market, anything is possible and everything is for sale.

At Englishtown Auction Sales — not in Englishtown at all, but Manalapan — you’ll find soccer and football jerseys, handbags, pet ID tags, socks (three pairs for a dollar!), duct tape, work boots, designer jeans, skateboards, rubber duckies, tweeters, turbans, sunglasses (three for $5), even, at one table, a leopard-print cat carrier.

That's just an infinitesimal sampling of the merchandise outside; inside is a warren of shops with a head-spinning array of merchandise — dog sweaters, VHS tapes, duck decoys, sneakers, toys, games, old stereo equipment, older cameras and ancient typewriters. There's even a tae kwon do studio and a food stand called Mutt and Jeff's.

Junk? Yard-sale castoffs? Maybe. But to the thousands of people who pack Englishtown and Jersey’s two other major flea markets — Collingwood and Columbus — on a typical weekend, it’s bargain hunting on a grand, cluttered scale.

At Englishtown alone, there are a staggering 2,000 vendors outside and another 250 or so inside, in five buildings.

‘’You can make money here, and save money," says Carla Sobechko, Englishtown’s manager.

Steve and Katie Sobechko, her grandparents, opened the business in 1929 as a farmer’s auction for livestock and farm equipment; in 1945, the retail end started.

"Flea market" is not exactly the most cuddly, complimentary term. Depending on whom you consult, the blood-sucking pests have everything — and nothing — to do with today’s flea markets.

A story in a 1998 edition of Today’s Flea Market magazine noted that "flea market" is a literal translation of the marche aux puces, an outdoor bazaar in Paris named after fleas that infested the upholstery of old furniture.

But Robert Hendrickson, in "Word and Phrase Origins," says flea markets "have nothing to do with fleas." The term, he said, has been an American expression back to Dutch colonial days, when there was a Vallie Market in Manhattan. Vallie Market was eventually shortened to Vlie Market and pronounced as "flea market."

No one will dispute this: there sure is a lot of stuff at Jersey’s flea markets.

Mark Cunningham, owner of Sell My Records in Collingwood Auction and Flea Market, on the Howell-Wall border, has 6,000 LPs and 1,000 45s in his shop. That’s nothing; he recently bought 40,000 records — mostly ’60s and ’70s classic rock — from someone on Long Island. Storage space is key.

Customers are not just aging Deadheads and Baby Boomer Beatles fans. Teenage customers tell him the sound quality on their MP3s and iPods don’t compare to the older LPs.

One youthful customer, Zac Blendin, was in the shop to buy Led Zeppelin’s fourth album.

"I don’t want to buy it online; it’s too easy," the Freehold resident explained. "I want to find it physically. I’ve been really looking for it for 6 to 8 months, kind of looking for it for a year and a half."

Classic rock, according to Cunningham, "will always rule, but people are coming in for oddball stuff."

Like the sound track to the movie "Blow-Up." Or "Martian Hop," from the Ran-Dells.

Down the seemingly endless aisles of Collingwood, you’ll find Fashion Funky Town and the Carpet Maven; a shop with no apparent name promises, "You name, we fix it." A fragrance shop is next to a burger joint. One sign advertises "Good Luck Bamboo Rugs."

Drainbusters and therapeutic massage soles; sharktooth necklaces and pinking scissors; Hot Sauce from Hell and incense sticks; toy guns and real swords — items you didn’t know you needed until you suddenly decide you do.

Asked what’s popular at MP Army/Navy, a salesman who gave his name as Dave replies, "AK47s and rocket launchers."

He's kidding, of course, but he turns serious for a minute to show his visitor the makeshift veterans "wall" he created three years ago alongside the shop. Hundreds of veterans have signed their names — some adding tributes to fallen comrades — on this wall.

"I can’t go to the Wall," the Vietnam veteran said of the memorial in Washington, D.C. "It affects me too much. I see my buddies’ names up there."

Outdoors is a giant grab-bag of cluttered, chaotic commerce: oils, sunglasses, leather belts, kitchen appliances, bikes, gloves, but most of all, clothes.

Leina Zigman sells women’s clothes — blouses, leggings, scarfs, yoga pants — from several tables and a half-dozen racks, all of which somehow fit in her smallish white van.

She, like many vendors, is here by 6:30 or 7 a.m. to set up.

"Market," she says, "is cheaper than going into store."

"265 70 16," said a man in his 40s, reciting a tire size at Tires & Mohr.

"How many do you need?" asked Charlie Mohr.

"One."

"I think I have one."

Mohr, a former pressman, has been selling tires here 15 years.

"Tires are so expensive today," he explained. "People don’t have the money."

An announcement goes out on the PA system that can be heard inside and outside the market: "When you’re here, visit our psychic adviser. She gives good readings."

"Make candy not war" is one of the signs on Stacia Alberta’s candy stand, adjacent to several tables with fragrances/personal products, which she also sells.

"You want to write this down," Alberta says cheerily. "She’s very beautiful and sexy. Forty-seven, and she looks 25."

Meanwhile, at Englishtown, the streets go by the names of Bowery, Lois Lane, Easy Street and Junklies. The last street is called, simply, The End.

CONNECT WITH US

On mobile or desktop:

• Like Star-Ledger Entertainment on Facebook

• Follow @NJ_Munchmobile and @petegenovese on Twitter

And check out our redesigned mobile site by visiting NJ.com from any mobile browser.

In the market’s back 40, Ed Bannon stands in front of Tony’s Italian Sausage, a food truck that his mother, Arlene, started here in 1984.

"My mom was able to put me, my brother and sister through college with this truck," he said.

Healthy economy? That’s not good news for flea markets, according to the food truck operator.

"When the economy’s good, flea markets suffer," Bannon said. "When the recession came, you saw more vendors, more people coming in looking for bargains.

"There’s an ethnic appeal to the flea market," he added. "For Eastern Europeans, it reminds them of home. There’s a big Latino draw, too."

One person’s junk may turn out to be another’s treasure, and then some. Craig Campbell, a manager at Englishtown and Carla Sobechko’s brother, tells the story of one regular who bought a Persian rug for $150 at the market and sold it for $10,000 to a dealer. The rug ended up at a Christie’s auction, where it sold for $150,000.

Outdoor vendors here pull items from cars, vans and pickups; there’s even a tractor trailer jammed with cans of paint.

The best food inside Englishtown can be found at My Two Sons, where Rita Simmons and her son, Rasheed, cook crabcakes, catfish and other Southern food. Next door is an unlikely tenant — a herbalist — but in the flea market grand scheme of things, it works.

"People told us if you don’t have a two or three-dollar item, you won’t make it," Rita Simmons said of her menu. She smiled. "We’re still here."

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.