What it was like
The alarm goes off before five and you do not hit snooze, because you are not a morning person except on swap meet days, when the math changes and every minute in bed is a minute somebody else spends walking away with the carburetor you have hunted for six months.
Six hundred-plus vendors spread across the stadium grounds, and they have been doing this here since the eighties. Matching-numbers carbs next to crates of weatherstripping next to the guy selling a complete small-block out of a '69 Chevelle that he swears ran when parked. If you know what you are after, it is here somewhere. If you do not, you will leave knowing what you are after next time, and that is the trap, and it works every time.
Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach, gates early, finished by early afternoon. Bring cash, bring a wagon, and bring the friend who will talk you out of the third intake manifold.