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MANSFIELD - At 72, Eileen Cary has reached the age where a lot of people decide to take it easy.

Not Cary.

At 1 a.m. Friday, with the temperature hovering around 45 degrees and a light rain drizzling, the Brockton native was decked out in a blue parka and sitting in a lawn chair at the new Mansfield Crossing shopping plaza.

Cary and her daughter Carolyn, 41, were eagerly awaiting the grand opening of the area's first L.L. Bean store - which was not letting its first customers in for another eight hours.

Asked if she was, perhaps, past the age where an all-night camp out on a cold November evening was a good idea, Cary dismissed the notion with a laugh. "You'll be in the rocking chair long enough," she declared, her eyes twinkling. "You might as well have something to think about when you're rocking!" To top it off, Cary said she'd spent the day gambling at Foxwoods casino. Cary's attitude seemed appropriate for an event devoted to all things L.L. Bean, the mail-order mainstay arriving in the area with a flourish this weekend. Although there were only about three dozen people waiting in line around midnight, by morning L.L. Bean officials estimated that the crowd had swelled to 1,500. The company provided them with food and diversion, via a JumboTron, during the night.

The company had promised that each of the first 500 customers in line would receive a free gift card for an amount ranging from $25 all the way up to $500, and many of those waiting were crossing their fingers that they'd be among those walking away with $500 to spend at the store.

Matthew Nelhuebel, 25, drove up to Mansfield from his home in Falmouth, where he lives with his wife and works as an analyst for the women's clothing firm Talbots. Nelhuebel was decked out from head to toe in L.L. Bean clothing - in fact, he said almost every item of clothing he was wearing was the company's.

Nelhuebel was also alone. He said his spouse was at home asleep.

"My wife thinks I'm a nut for coming here," he admitted. "She likes L.L. Bean, but she would never do the whole night."

Most of those waiting in line said that despite their long night of waiting, they planned to head in to work after they left L.L. Bean.

Laurie Brooks, a spokeswoman for L.L. Bean who attended this weekend's events, said the store's sales so far have been significantly above the company's projections for initial revenue.

But Brooks was more interested in marveling at the loyalty - and the tenacity - of the company's most loyal customers and the way they had turned out in force for the big event. When one woman opened her gift card and found that it was worth $500, Brooks said, she screamed and then hugged the company's mascot, "L.L. Bear."

"It was amazing," Brooks said Friday night, sounding pleased but a bit tired. "Everyone was in great spirits. It was really a lot of fun."