Octobering

It was definitely the first real fall Market. Chilly and grey during set-up, and well into the morning. It was misting as I got produce at Farmer's Market, though it never actually rained, and the sun eventually broke through around lunch time. Didn't go full Halloween for my display, but squirrels and ravens, maybe even owls, gave a definite fall feeling.

Horrifyingly poor mask compliance in the morning, though that got better, oddly, when the sun came out and all the University students showed up. Sales started well, a $65 server sold before 10 am, a small server shortly after, and I sold a piggy bank that's going back to Iowa. (snicker) After that, things slowed down until sunshine occurred, at which point I did steady business right up until closing, ending up just over $700 for the day.

My neighbor Tammy was another potter, new to Market, though she and her husband Lars had been doing the Whitaker Market all summer. Nice cone 6 stoneware mugs with impressionistic skies painted in underglaze, silhouette landscapes and wildlife along the bottom. They sold quite well, I'm happy to say--I hate it when I'm the only one selling; even if my neighbors aren't feeling resentful, I'm feeling guilty. As it was, we had a good conversation between customers, I showed her my inventory book (She was quite impressed I could tell customers whether I had what they wanted without digging through the boxes), shared where I bought my paper bags. She says her next professional goal is to have restock like I did, everything they had was out on the table. I was very impressed with their 4-1/2 year-old, Eli. Well-behaved, friendly to people in the booth, and at one point when he was feeling bored and confined, he said "I need to go somewhere else for a while," rather than having a melt-down. Lars took him to move their car to the parking structure, and promised they'd park on the top so he could ride the elevator down, and he was much more relaxed when they returned. (He also told me, "I really enjoy your work." Thanks, Eli!)

Around midday, a line of sign-holding protesters came up the sidewalk, led by someone banging a frame drum. My first reaction was, Why aren't you wearing your masks? at which point I realized they were militant anti-vaxxers. I didn't quite yell "Get away from me, ya plague rats," though I admit I thought it. Later, we had an influx from the pro-choice rally, who were much better at masks and distancing.

About 2 pm, an enormous ice cream truck turned onto East Park street, somehow managed a U-turn and parked, against the one-way traffic, in front of my booth. I was going to inform the Info Booth when I met Vanessa, already on my side of the street. I'm on it, she told me, and when the woman opened her vending window and said "Yes?", her response was NO.

Everybody wants to take advantage of the Saturday Market crowds. We had a Bernie Sanders campaign van do the exact same trick a couple of years back, and got told the same thing. No.

Saturday Market pays the city a pretty penny for the exclusive use of these two blocks every Saturday, and only Market members are permitted to sell. Furthermore, you can only be a Market member if you make your product. Soft-serve ice cream and popsicles don't qualify. We have our own food booths, and pre-packaged food vendors, and they get priority; anything that interferes with our ability to run our businesses, commercial or political, isn't allowed. (That said, we do have a booth reserved for non-profits every week. The Bernie crew would have been welcome to sign up and use it, rather than blocking traffic and crowding out the sidewalk.)

It took nearly 20 minutes before she pulled away to park, legally, over by the courthouse square, during which a mom and kids started queuing up behind Vanessa. Not wanting a riot, I tapped on mom's shoulder and quietly said, "She's not setting up here. She needs to move to a legal parking spot," so mom and kids followed her across Eighth Street.

It's October!

You know what that means? Another drawing challenge!

I first did Inktober two years ago, a drawing a day for all of October and into November (until my sketchbook was full). Did it again last year, renamed "Oc2ber," as the originator of Inktober proceeded to copyright the term. This year, I'm using the tag Octob3r to index my 2021 drawings.

Oh, and I made a new sketchbook again.

I started out the season, appropriately enough, with a pumpkin and three squash from our garden. Didn't actually plant them; they're volunteers from the compost bin, the cross-bred descendants of the delicata squash seeds we threw out.