I'm so relieved to be finished with retailing. Every Friday I would fight down my distress about going to Holiday Market, reminding myself how well people were wearing masks and respecting distance, and what a supportive community we live in. The shorter days of the HM were the best. It compressed the selling day into a more dense experience, so all we had to do was stay in the booth and sell things, with a little tidying up now and then. The weather was hard to believe. Over the five weeks, not one was rainy. Twice rain moved off until later in the day, and yesterday the rain did roll in at 4:00 so I got wet on the way home, but almost all of us were finished packing or could quickly wrap it up by the time the wind started gusting. No booths to blow over.
I moved to the front row spot so I could more easily use the pop-up but didn't bring it once...with the weights and all, I have to leave products home to accommodate the weight, so I gambled on the forecasts and that worked out for me. The masks were a huge hit. I felt good that they were different from what the other mask-sellers were offering, as I know I cut into their sales, but mine were late to the scene so I couldn't feel too guilty. Also no one else was offering dyed jersey with head straps, except tie-dye, and once people tried the head straps, they mostly liked them a lot better. The nose strips are also really sturdy on mine, which keeps them in place nicely. The only thing I don't like about them is that they do collect moisture so I had to change mine about every hour on the colder days, but I had plenty, so no problem for me.
I did notice the main drawback of the shorter day...what we lost were the slower hours at the end when we did all of our own shopping and our visiting. I ran off a few times but hardly had time for the farmers or anyone else, just essential errands and those quickly done. I was also exhausted the whole time and unable to properly respond to the many kind friends who brought me cookies and greetings and wanted to visit...it just wasn't possible. But of course that is always true at HM indoors too...it is rare to have the time for a satisfying visit. I'm considering sending some letters and cards once I catch up on reading and housework.
I'll have to go out briefly to pick up library books and deliver merch but aside from that, I plan to stay home hard. My stress level from putting myself at risk was constant, and even though it was low risk, and I had other motivations besides just selling my still vast inventory of crafts, it was still risk I would rather not take. I found myself assuming at times that I would get sick, and making contingency plans. I want to stay in the zone of having those plans in place but not using them. I do not want this disease.
Though I am only 70 and have a great immune system, there's just too much still to do to even spend weeks feeling ill. I would rather stay home and gain 20 pounds. Which is possible...I really stocked up on tasty foods in the last few weeks. I have stacks of books. I want to organize and archive 2020 while it is still fresh...I doubt I saved enough of the news stories and relevant info to make a coherent narrative for anyone who didn't know what we were going through with the Market. And of course it is not over yet and we might want to look back at our early decisions and remember some of the reasons we stayed closed for ten weeks in what now doesn't look like such a risky period. I'm so glad we could end it and not have to push ourselves any farther. And I don't really know how to deal with archiving in the era of email...almost all of our Market interactions were electronically. I did print out and save some emails, but there's no way to capture all the social media posts and those were really the essence of our progress. Bless Vanessa's heart, she created a group photo from our individual photos (not all of us of course, but not everyone got into the HM family photo either) so we didn't lose that warm tradition. Plus we had a poster! A great effort by Daniel Conan Young to keep our art level high. We didn't lose a lot if you look at what we kept. We might have lost members...we'll find out in March.
So all is well, we made it through, and Market will revive in the spring sometime and might someday reach its former size and form. It will be interesting to see how things change permanently...it looks like shorter days have found approval finally. Some people have wanted to close at four for years, and some of the arguments against that aren't as powerful. One of them of course was me saying that those slower hours were our shopping and visiting times...but as we were physically more distanced, we may have emotionally distanced a bit as well. Those tight neighbor relationships are a little harder, and many of the neighbors didn't sell this season. Some who strengthened their online offerings won't feel the need to come back to the in-person sales. Some will retire and do other things. Some aspects of the gathering got a little random.
The loud amplified music on the corners will be hard to dislodge, even when we have our stage operating again. I suppose we can ask for enforcement of the noise ordinances but it won't be easy. Some of the music was great, and I was grateful, but yesterday it was super chaotic and I could barely tolerate it. Maybe we can turn the fountain back on so we can have that muffling influence. I know the perimeters have been problematic for years, not just this season. The farmers' project will be some construction noise and disruption, with some kind of move for the farmers, unknown yet as to when and where. I'll try not to worry about it. Maybe I'll have to go back to shopping at Tuesday Market.
Our community will likely not forget about buying locally, although the coming recession will hit harder and harder and some types of crafts won't sell well. It will be about values and relationships and the lessons we all learned this year: supporting the things you want to retain and the people you care about. Recessions and job loss often swell our membership and that might test us, particularly in the transition back to more crowded spaces, if that happens. So many unknowns about the pandemics...we could be finding way more illness in our collective future. And more climate-related problems, too...weather patterns, and fires. More things to put on the worry list and try not to think much about.
I'll need to find energy and passion. I had a sweet reminder of the passion last night as I sat down finally and Craft in America was on TV. I have been enthralled with watching these artisan profiles, with all that joy of being in the studio, making discoveries and working quietly with hands and heart to create beauty out of raw materials. I have a lot of art to explore still, something that I can really only do when the retailing doesn't dominate. I have a lot of writing to do too.
Hooray, it is the off-season! May we all thrive in our splendid isolation and return from it healthy and peaceful. May we find warmth and the ability to help others, maybe even happiness in our abundance and the ability to share it.
Thank you immensely to all of you who supported me, appreciated me, and loved me as I worked to shore up Lotte's legacy. We are so lucky to have the Market, and so much more resilient than we knew. A whole village. A healthy village full of peace and love and light. Returning light.
