Just Write Something To Grease the Wheels

Practicing writing for the book and history displays about the Market. Obviously this would need a huge edit for a display, and maybe even more detail for a book, once I work out the structure it would take. I have a good idea for the book, something Erci Witchey told me about this other book I was writing. I plan to use it for both projects, eventually, at least in some form. It's called mirroring. I would take something from one part and compare it to another part, and make my points inside that structure. We started by framing our first history poster as Then and Now. It was mostly about our sites and an overview, and you will be able to see it this Saturday right next to my booth! Come by and tell me some stories.

I also think it would be an awesome way to feature some of our artisans. Do a profile of Gil Harrison another of our early potters, next to a profile of one of our potters today. Do the same with a jeweler, a printmaker, and so on, and in the process show how techniques, styles, technologies, and crafts have evolved through the work of the hands of these members. I love the concept but I would need to develop some interviewing skills, which I don't currently have. And it would be tough to write about people who have died...there just would probably not be enough information available to write a good profile. However, that particular book coule be kind of simple perhaps, featuring one signature piece and just enough of the artist's statements to tell the mirrored story. Anyway, it's one of my ideas.

I wrote this piece after I had just finished reading all of the newsletters and minutes from our first decade, everything I had at the time. I have since found more sources, about six more boxes of old things, and JoAnn told me she had saved every newsletter! So now I need to go back, figure out what I am missing in the newsletters, and see if she will let me borrow hers to make copies. I may develop more insights through additional materials. I'm thinking that each decade probably had a theme of sorts. Considering all that was going on in our world in the 70s, experimenting seems right. Perhaps at some point I will write more about the politics and the alternative community and how Market fit into all that. Now you can see why Suzi's book about the Fair is two volumes and she still didn't tell every story. These are big stories.

Saturday Market in the Seventies

Though based on an ancient tradition of artisans bringing goods to the commons for a market day, a weekly craft market was a novel concept in 1969 when Lotte Streisinger and her group of craftspeople and artists decided to create one. They had successfully mounted craft sales events for a decade and were part of a renaissance of handcrafting. The 1960’s cultural shift toward more authentic and natural lifestyles contrasted with what was seen to be the bland disconnecting lives of the 1950’s Americans, and Eugene became a center for seekers of healthier choices.

The founding values of having crafters sell their own goods directly to the public, on public space, outdoors and in as simple a fashion as possible proved to be popular and accessible. Though the first rainy market was small, the new gathering grew to uncomfortable size in the City-supported Downtown Mall, and some rent-paying merchants resented the group. After Christmas, the founders looked to find Lane County land, which seemed more abundant, and faced a different set of conditions.

The County Commissioners required incorporation and liability insurance as conditions for even preliminary discussion of siting. Though the group had only been charging $1 per space, they now needed to spend $500 to incorporate and $800 for insurance. They formed a Board of Directors and had the goal of being a 501(c)3 nonprofit, though subsequently finding that they could only qualify as a Mutual Benefit Corporation, which is not federally tax-exempt. They decided to structure themselves as closely to a nonprofit as possible, and set up not only the decision-making Board of five, but a Market Committee, composed of everyone who attended any particular meeting. This level of democratic management fit the community of artisans well and often Committee meetings included well over one hundred participants. When a space lottery was included, three hundred members would show up. Policy discussions were thorough and impassioned, and policies were hammered into shape, by a consensus process learned by many community groups of the era.

The County Commissioners were reluctant to support the Market but did allow them to stumble toward stability which finally came on the “Butterfly” parking lot across from the Lane County Courthouse. The first full season of May-Christmas happened there in 1972. The gathering had been embraced almost instantly in its first season by the public, and although it took a little longer for the downtown merchants to embrace the benefits of increased Saturday traffic to their businesses, several community leaders helped support the fledgling organization while it worked through its internal challenges.

Those were many. Volunteers governed and managed at first, and though the County required a hired manager, which soon grew to a team, salaries were very low and benefits were subjective. Winter layoffs when the Market was dormant guaranteed new managers nearly every season. Volunteers were still needed for many functions and the idealism brought passionate energy to every decision. Often the Committee would reverse Board decisions or the Board would have to survey, assess, and make decisions for the group for the common good. Every area of operations and philosophy had to be debated, and the first decade was highly experimental.

Should the Market open in April or May? Could the overflow of interested crafters be handled best with a Sunday event, a lottery system, or something new? Could food be sold, and how? Would it be a good idea to incorporate nonprofit groups for free, as a community service, or should the event try to be nonpolitical and sales-based? Decisions had to be made about fees to accommodate both the higher earners and the beginners or artists who failed to sell well regardless of their dedication to craft.

The fee structure changed often as expenses increased, as staff retention became a goal and the number of selling opportunities blossomed with the popularity of crafting. The Saturday Market intentionally mentored other markets as a way to keep the event small enough to fit in the 250 spaces

of the lot, and markets were started in Portland (1974) as well as many smaller towns. In 1975 a popular manager, Lou Elliot, used his on-the-ground training to move to manage an indoor venue that became the Fifth Street Public Market. Originally pitched as the next evolution for every crafter, that development encouraged some 85 artisans to move indoors, where the everyday gathering space also appealed to the community. The nature of the Saturday gathering changed with the need for it, and some wet weather years helped shrink the event and eliminate the viability of the Sunday markets, which ended in 1976.

Conventional advertising was discouraged but promotional events began early, such as Easter parades and Egg hunts, Tricycle and Wagon parades, and a pet parade before it became apparent that pets would be a continuing problem as the temporary restaurants increased. It became accepted by the public to bring kittens and puppies to give away on the surrounding sidewalks, and despite discouragement of the practice, it continued for the first decade until finally being controlled in the next. As a lively and unusual event, the Market attracted many types of individuals who had their own goals, whether that was to show off a costume, a performance, or a baby cougar or chimpanzee. Both animals were seen briefly in 1975 before being asked to leave, and the continual appearance of parrots, ferrets, and even a truckload of rabbits, meant to be meat, challenged the managers. A gallon of worms was permitted in the produce booth. The “No Dogs” policy had been set at the very first market in 1970, as essential as “Rain or Shine.”

At first busking was seen as panhandling, which was illegal at the time. Free entertainment was a welcome addition, however, so the musicians and mimes were asked not to appear to be begging, but to step up their professionalism. Paid entertainment developed gradually as the budget grew healthier, but soon the newsletters listed individuals and groups who are now legendary (and some still appear!)

Christmas markets were difficult in the weather and privately owned indoor markets developed, though the Saturday Market continued to be held each week. Many years there were several indoor Christmas markets to choose from, with predictable effects on the volume of crafters on the Butterfly. Still, sales potential for the season was attractive enough for the crafters to develop ways to stay warm and dry. Booth models and tarp arrangements evolved as the craft professional remained determined to adapt.

A Food Committee formed as it became apparent that regulations would bring conditions that required careful management of the risks of selling in hot weather, by inexperienced operators, and in outdoor conditions. The County Sanitation Department worked along to educate, inspect (every Market day) and secure compliance with licensing, and the Market tried covering licensing costs until the operators were doing well enough to manage their own costs.

Produce and other farm products were always considered essential to the event but farmers struggled to participate, preferring to sell from trucks. Early years included consignment produce booths managed by Market staff, and a farm or two tried having a booth. By 1978 The County had done a feasibility study for a separate Farmers’ Market and on June 23, 1979, the first Lane County Farmer’s Market was held at the Fairgrounds, attracting twelve trucks. It grew to as many as twenty-one, but the season and decade ended with a better solution still up in the air. Saturday Market continued to pay for the Farmers’ Market manager, permits, and costs, often at a loss for the budget.

Newsletters were created back in the day of the mimeograph with its purple ink. Usually 81/2” by 14”, they were given to all vendors and contained not only instructions for parking and registering properly, but minutes of meetings of both the Board and Committee, and creative stories and drawings of members and staff. Various logos and lettering styles appeared, graphically representing the evolution of the Market image, and in 1977 the basket of flowers replace a pushcart drawing. “The Basket” persisted as the iconic logo to the present day, although it was redrawn for special occasions to include holly or hearts, and for the 50^th season in 2019 it appeared as a more realistic, antiqued treatment of flowers, signaling a shift that will likely continue into the future as the Saturday Market reinvents itself each season.

Patience

That old homily about Patience being a Virtue is misleading I think. It's a skill. I'm still working on it, noticing today how directly related the lack of skill in patience is to obsession, second-guessing oneself, and other irrational responses to distress. Obviously for me and my circle, waiting for all this political shit to settle out has been excrutiating, particularly as we watch the progress of our lives being so quickly dismantled in such destructive ways. It's more than daunting to even stay informed.

Week before last at Market loading out was finishing up and someone roared down 8th in a big frustration about traffic, I guess, though who knows what the real story was. Another member who sells big items was slowly loading his massive trailer from his booth on the east block...carrying each item across the street on the green light, loading in the careful sequence that we all have to learn to fit everything efficiently on our trailers or in our cars. I've seen him park in lots of places that are generally not too convenient for him, because all those people with cars have to work together in another and less controllable kind of sequence. I don't really know him but he looked at me and I looked at him and we both started to say "Patience is a Virtue" but neither of us finished the phrase. We both were exhibiting our patience, and it was a warm moment of recognition.

I thought about it all the way home as I do, biking home from Market tired but satisfied, writing blog posts in my mind. All of us do a lot of waiting, and have developed plenty of strategies to keep calm and fill in the gaps while we do so. As a creative writer, one of my worst habits is making up stories about the non-response.

Electronic communications have set the expectation of rapid response but as people grow to avoid the stress of that, some go to impulsivity but many just shut down and let the messages drift down in the inbox to obscurity. It's way easier to put off responding until it may not be necessary than to commit in writing to something we may not actually do or want to do. It bugs me to be on the receiving end of the non-response but I have encouraged myself to learn to use it. Impulsivity is not as functional a response to distress as patience. Setting the dilemma aside can clarify it. I try to journal about it so I can lay out my rational arguments in sequence and allow my feelings while also trying to craft a clear communication about them.

Then I try to respond to the situations in what I think is a rational and calm way, but of course in emails or texts (with someone like me who refuses to use emojis) often rationality sounds like coldness and then I second-guess myself. I have to reread the messages and look for ways they might be misinterpreted, while I resist making up stories about what the other person or persons are thinking and doing but not telling me about.

Naturally this is a huge problem if I act on those stories. It's good to be old enough to have made that mistake enough times to see the patterns. It's usually something emotional at the core, something primitive like "You don't love me" or "I'm so damaged I can't communicate no matter what," or even simpler things like "I can never get my way" or "That person is just impossible." Patterns can easily be seen and pointed out by someone not involved, which is where empathy can be so useful...the listener could say "It sounds like you feel confused about that," or some other response that helps get down into the base distress that is causing the adaptive behaviors. I am aware of most of my patterns but I would not say I am aware of all of them. Things are subtle deep in that subconscious.

Skilled manipulators use confusion and distress to push people into their traumatic reaction zones but mostly distressed people just cause their own situations to get worse by imagining negative scenarios. That's what I've been fighting for the last few days (maybe months, actually) as I have some big, not controllable situations happening in my life that I am responsible for navigating.

I've been trying to use reminders like "What is the best that could happen?" and "What's the most important goal that you really must take a stand on?" and then remembering that I am not in control of the situations, just my reactions. Just my patterns.

So how about if I don't flare up, don't get discouraged, and don't second-guess myself. How about if I continue to wait for things to become clear, especially if there is indeed time to do that? How about if I apply the non-response technique to myself, as well as to the situation? How about if I have some faith in myself and other people (but oh no, that brings up religion...)

Other people can be so helpful in this process, but I usually employ silence as my helper. I listen to my internal dialogues and try to assure myself of things. I say what someone else would say, such as "You don't know that for sure yet," "There isn't really any proof of that." Or I ask more questions, or I just use gardening or work or writing to get me through the anxiety to a calmer place while I wait.

That damn Mueller report situation was like that, and it did deliver satisfaction but will still need tons of patience applied. I've been reminding myself of other times when it was (almost) this bad, coincidentally other Republican criminal administrations and corrupt regimes in my own lifetime, as well as historically. Learning about the racist regimes of the past, the geopolitics we know about, the times we've been barraged by forms of deceit that didn't fool us, and remembering my past responses has helped this time too. All of this stuff is a continuum, it's always been happening, and my little thoughts and actions, while significant in my sphere, are only a tiny part of that big reality. My job is to keep learning and keep holding on to what I know is right and true.

I used to make a lot of political t-shirts and I stopped doing that, for one reason because it dominated my retail day. All of my conversations became about reassuring other scared people that we would prevail, that things would get better, and checking in with each other about brutal truths served a good social purpose, but was way too hard for me to do every week. As it is, my products touch on environmental issues and of course politics still comes up, but images of birds and plants are much easier to exchange. I still engage in many social conversations but one reason people come to Market is to enjoy their community so I don't want to be the center of all things dysfunctional in our world all day.

I feel guilty about that though. I still have good ideas and a soapbox with the power of dissemination but instead I am putting the things up on social media, which I can turn off and walk away from so I'm not as captive. I've been posting "Get Him Out" on a lot of threads. It would make a good hat. I might just make a few radical hats while I sit in this obsessive distress. Really it's environmental issues that need my help though. I kind of fall into a rabbit hole there.

I'm selling products. They are manufactured, whether by someone in a foreign country using plastic or by someone in Springfield using cotton canvas. Cotton uses a lot of water and I haven't gone organic on those bags yet. I would jump to organic hemp and will continue to try to get there. I would use locally made hats too if it didn't mean big changes when I need stability. Woulda coulda shoulda.

The convergence of Earth Day, spring itself, my 69th birthday, Mother's Day, and Founder's Day is overwhelming me. The amount of things I am negotiating right now is way too much. It's making me shut down and hardly do anything. I haven't been able to work on the archives much at all for a month now. Mom's book is getting really close to completion. I'm trying to draw several important designs that I need to do right now. I'm trying hard not to freak out.

So I sit and write this. One by one these things will resolve. Patience will help some of them, or I can go back and try a different type of communication on the ones that might need that. I can go out in the garden and see if I can find out where those bumblebees are nesting. I can finish The Overstory so maybe I won't have to re-reserve it at the library. It's pretty good but I'm still deep in the distress parts of it. Most novelists know to end with some hope and joy so I'm counting on Richard Powers to do his part. At least I get to sit on the deck and read a bit so I am enjoying the good weather and feeling productive. It's a writer's job to read too, to keep building those skills. I'm going to need them. I'll get back into the archives with new inspiration. Founder's Day will help.

See you tomorrow for a non-rainy Market! Yay! Full on spring!

Speaking Only for Myself

That's what I created this blog for, to talk to myself about complex things and work them out through writing. I like to wander through an essay without much editing and just get my thoughts down. I don't often think about repercussions but of course there have been some, so I will carefully say that I am not speaking in any sort of an official role for anyone or any organization. I'm just doing my thinkng out loud.

Big things are happening for the Market as we navigate the changes at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza and Terrace. I've been keeping my thoughts mostly to myself so things can proceed and settle down and I don't inadverdently fan any flames. I've written my complaining posts in the past about what I perceived, being resentful of my efforts being taken for granted, paying for people who were opportunists and feeling like I had no control about what was happening to "my" event. I gradually lost my self-righteous ownership as the activities increased and I was always conflicted about the truly needy and how similar it felt to me to when I was a hippie with some of the same political goals to subvert that dominant paradigm. It took a lot of processing and looking from various perspectives to get a grasp of what was even really happening, as it wasn't any one thing. It still isn't a simple situattion over there.

In the past year or two I viewed it as the Market's community service to support those artists across the street who were genuinely trying to make their way. Our economy now is much more harsh than it was when the Market started 50 years ago, but the obstacles people face as they try to invent themselves are much the same. Everyone has to start somewhere. Expenses to have a safe and "free" event have mounted significantly and it has not always been the case that Market members were willing to tax themselves enough to really make it work. Our values have changed over time. We want to pay our managers well so they will stay with us and love us back. We want to be respected by other businesses and by public entities. We want to respect ourselves, and we want to thrive, not just get by. We're mostly willing to put our money together to meet our goals. It has been working and we are thriving.

For the first few decades we had to work out our rights in what we had been taught was a free market economy. The Saturday Market founders had faced the music rather often by the time I arrived in 1976. Fees were kept super low (it was $3.50 when I was first selling over there, with the 10% of sales,) but there were still days I didn't want to pay that much as I got established. Being always a person who had learned to value honesty ( I got disciplined a lot as a child for lying or just obfuscating and not taking responsibility) I appreciated the faith put in me with the honor system. I knew how to rationalize the times I didn't comply with the full intent of the law. My finely developed sense of guilt did prevail mostly.

Today I'd fight hard to retain the honor system, even though we know people rationalize. Offering the opportunity to rise to the highest levels is the finest way to operate, in my view. Of course the general moral values of our society have been seen to be declining, as maybe they are, but if we play to the lower values we all lose as we are forced to become authoritarian in our policies. This is most certainly not the time to trend that way, no matter what the conditions!

So I support the changes on the FSP, even as I'd like them modified a bit as things settle out. I empathize a lot with people who feel they are being forced back to blankets with the ban on structures. I would personally prefer to allow them, with weights, or at least to build in some exceptions under some conditions. But I don't make policy for the DAZ, and neither does my Market. That is up to the City and County and their attorneys. It is up to the public to give feedback and advice to the governments on those policies, so I have faith that over time a more equitable solution will be found than just an outright ban on structures for shade and rain protection. But that is what we have at the moment over there. And Market has had booths over there in the past when we needed to grow, so that part feels pretty natural. Parking was blocked and one of those spaces is a handicapped sticker space that was unavailable for use. So that needed to be dealt with. Tourists and other customers, and the sellers themselves, needed to be safe over there. And there had to be space for real free speech. Losing that gathering space for protests, those being forced down to the cold Federal buiding, without a plaza, has hurt our community. I want protests to have the audience of my Market, especially those about climate issues and authoritarian, cheating governments in chaos. I want to yell from the sidewalk in support of those on a sunny Saturday.

I suppose I show my age and privilege and relative comfort that I am willing to wait for the public process to evolve and am not up in arms over any particular position on the changes. I had accepted that it was not Saturday Market and we didn't have the desire or right to make policy over there. I could see the parts that are enjoyable about it, the actual freedom of expression that was happening in the drum circle and in people who were just beginning to find ways to use their artistic expression to support themselves. I have sympathy that it is hard to join an organization and pay them money when you are really on the financial edge. What seem like acceptable fees to me would not have when I was in my twenties. We didn't have a membership fee then. Over the years since we instituted it, it has grown to $50 from $5. I can afford it now, but not everyone can. The $25 annual DAZ permit is reasonable. Registering in that way is a step that helps the person access services that are unfortuately not free to provide.

It is still hard for plenty of Market members to make it work financially, at the mercy of weather and customer whim. I know exactly how lucky I am to have developed good-selling products. It's not easy and I have certainly failed at it many times since 1976. I'm mostly stubborn and determined so I've persisted and now it's pretty hard to change. I don't have the resources to stop working and do something more self-indulgent like writing all the books I have on my list to write or read all the ones piled on my coffee table even. I have a vague plan for how to make it when my body gets even less willing to keep up with my desires for complete mobility. I'm at risk and in denial, and I still like to build compassion for others into my thinking in an effort to balance out my relative comfort and privilege.

It was hard to bike down there last week. I was sooooo slow. I had put off getting my bike tuned up but now I have done that so it should be easier this week. I resent that it might rain at the end so that means I have to bring the pop-up and weights. There is nothing harder for me than to haul 75 pounds of sand down instead of a tub of hats. But I don't want my booth to fly away and break in the wind and I'm already doing my little rationalization about my missing 4th leg which still technically requires 25 pounds on it somehow. I bring an extra tall grid to rest that corner on and it complies with the spirit of the law I expect, so I have to call it good. I'm going to continue to do my best as I learned in kindergarten.

I always try to make the best balanced, most reasonable accommodations to reality that I can imagine, but often I see with a start that I have been blind to something glaring to others and have miscalculated. I think that is what happened on the FSP. Politically and realistically the "free" market was very attractive and coherent to some people but the glaring reality to others is that someone was paying for what those sellers weren't. All of us paying fees knew we were bringing the customers, renting the bathrooms, supplying the security and staff that kept it all running smoothly and safely as much as it did. There was just kind of an energy sink over there that was somewhat balanced by the drum circle beating out our heart rhythms, but not fully.

Most people using the space intended and did no real harm to us across the street, but they did not actually enhance us either. Balance was needed. It was inevitably going to feel harsh at first. We had talked about a long, gentle negotiation where gradually leaders emerged who would take responsibility and organize accountability over there, with involvement from supportive nonprofits or other entities committed to progressive solutions. That just did not emerge. I patiently waited for that and tried to support that solution but this quick change is probably much more practical.

I believe it will settle out into some improvement. A lot of people feel better. There was an overload of police presence and I'll never enjoy being surveilled but generally there was compassion and responsibility was developed. I am hopeful that conditions will be found that will allow change within reasonable parameters. It's rather looking like a middle way to me over there although I know it looks more radical to many. I can retain my acceptance that it's not something I personally control, nor do I want to control it. I just want it to work as honorably and honestly and generously as possible.

So that's my two cents. I think the community gradually came to a consensus on most of it. I think we can navigate the rest in good faith without blaming and fighting. I've always been an optimist. Too late to change that. Of course I have also always been a cynic, but there's a balance in there.

Until some glaring light shines in my eyes again...and I blink and reset my thoughts. I guess I'll write again when that happens. In the meantime, I will see you Saturday! Rain or shine.