It was a quiet Saturday Market. Except for the bagpipers busking on the corner. And the fighter jets roaring overhead, buzzing Autzen Stadium for Ducks football spring scrimmage. And all the folks in town for the Eugene Marathon, with their baggies of green t-shirts and assorted swag. But, you know, quiet. No bullhorn street preachers, no chanting marchers. Quiet.
It started out grey and threatening; the weather app said only a 26% chance of rain, but it did spit briefly while I was setting up, so I kept the boxes under cover as best I could, moved them outside under plastic once I'd finished. Denise had thought of coming down for a while--it was her birthday, and we'd planned to get supper together afterwards--but ditched that idea when I got up in the morning. A lot of vendors seemed to have followed suit; I didn't have neighbors on either side of my booth, and a couple more spaces were empty further down. I was feeling a little grey as well, so posted some monochrome pics to the Insta for the day's theme.
Got a nice visit from some past customers, Wilson and Renate. They used to buy small plates and bowls for their grandchildren, back in the checkbook days, so they're on my mailing list, and always stop by to thank me for the postcard. Grandkids are all grown now, so they're not customers anymore, but I don't mind. They're sweet and friendly, and I love Renate's German accent, and I'm just glad to see they're still alive and out in the world.
Sales finally started to pick up a little before 11 am, and by 12:30 I'd turned the page on my record book, but then they dropped off again even as the sun was coming out--I blame the 2 pm Duck game. Talked to a lot of folks in town for the Marathon, from Nashville, Madison Wisconsin, even Canada. Gave away a lot of business cards. Did have a few nice sales: a brontosaur bank, a couple of incense dragons, a young couple that wound up buying a stew mug, dinner salad bowl and a couple of tall mugs. Starting their collection.
A couple came in, pleased to have found me, they'd seen my bowls on the morning news? Caught the end of the story on the local NBC station, looked for them all over 5th Street Public Market, before finding me at Saturday Market. I explained that it must have been an article about the
Empty Bowls Sale, happening next Friday at the Market Alley. I donated 86 bowls this year, so they must have shown them on air. They were from out of town, so would miss the sale, sadly. Didn't buy any bowls from me either.
Had a young woman recognize my cat banks, said our mutual friend Robert had one, and told her about my booth. Trying to figure out which Robert; the potter? The massage therapist who used to be our neighbor at Market? No, turns our this Robert is a friend and former neighbor from our Eighth Place days. His late wife was blind, and Denise met her through her Braille business. Had lost touch a number of years ago, happy to hear he's still okay, although they took away his bicycle privileges after a couple of accidents. Guess we're all getting older.
Around 2 pm, I called up Denise and asked if she wanted to come down to Market after all, as it had gotten quite nice; she'd had the same thought, so drove down to join me around half-past. Arrived just as I was negotiating with a couple wanting to buy the large lions cookie jar. They were trying to decide whether they could safely take it on the airplane home--they were cabin crew, so wouldn't be giving to the baggage handling gorillas. I passed them off to Denise and went to park the car; when I got back, they'd decided to take my offer to pay an extra $20 to have me pack and ship it to them in Arizona.
Sales wound up pretty good, slightly over $600, closing out April the same way we'd opened it. Packed up the van, parked it across the street and paid the meter to take us to the 6 pm free parking zone, then walked down the alley to Bon Mi for pho and banh mi sandwiches, followed by birthday cake and ice cream at home.
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Happy Birthday to me!
This is my mom, with Patches the cat, the day before her 90th birthday. She's still living at home, though my brother Tony's half a mile down the road, and comes to bring in wood for the stove and drives her to church and on other errands. 
Something Rotten was amazing. I'm always delighted to see how much talent a local theatre can access, and all the leads were stellar. The dancers were recruited from the local high school, and were damn good, and some of the costuming was brilliant.
