Narcissistic Souffle

I wish I could take credit for that phrase but I have made it my own, since it often describes my state when I get attention...I get all full of hot air and inflated ego. But it's fun for awhile and I hope I didn't embarrass myself. I'm talking about the panel discussion that we just finished on Saturday Market and OCF at the Lane County Museum.

I filled an entire table with my archives from just those early years, the signs and photos of signs and cards and calendars and all the things I produced back then. I did a little transition to the wonderful things we made at Fibergraphics but there were no t-shirts, and I have made hundreds of those, so we just touched on a little part of my productive life. I did remember to mention the "high touch" aspect of crafts which is another reason why we have managed to carve out such a significant niche. People want what we make, and they love buying it from us in person.

It's amazing to speak about oneself to an appreciative crowd. I know it wasn't about me, but I did feel that I was an important part of what we created collectively. It's like when someone came into my booth and said they ran the Fair. I said, yeah, you and 5000 other volunteers. I did all this while hundreds of other people did far more amazing (as well as far less, let's be honest) things and there were plenty of people who dedicated much more energy than I did to it all. But we all get to own it. It's our communal history.

It's hilarious when we get started, especially the many intersections socially when we try to remember how we met and how we are connected. Your ex- was my co-worker and we were at that one party when...those conversations are really fun. We could have had a lot more of those. I forgot to mention working at Sprout City, kind of a rite of passage, and a lot of my friends worked at the Newf, as we still call the New Frontier Market. We sent our kids to Family School. There are all the other branches of the family, the Deadwood folks and the many other groups that came together on Saturdays and that one special weekend in July, and still do. The Radar Angels and Jell-O Show, the Extravaganzas they used to stage at the WOW, all the many performers we knew and loved.

There were so many things I didn't mention, the bike carts for one. I built my first booth so that it would become a bike cart at the end of the day. It failed as a bike cart, so I commissioned George Braddock to make me one, since he was the only person I knew who could weld. He built me a fine one that I used for several years until Mike and I started the businesses and the load was too big for a cart. Now I use one again, and I've written about it before. There was always a wheeled culture at Saturday Market, handcarts and other types, and it has never gone away. It hearkens back to early merchants, as long as there have been wheels I guess. That's symbolic of how we do things in our culture, with low technology and lots of ingenuity and resourcefulness.

We're a bunch of eccentric people, mostly, but we fit together really well. We find delight in each other. It's amazing that we found each other and this place and time, and that we have managed to keep ourselves so alive and well together. It has been a lot of fun, and created tons of enjoyment for others.

I'll deflate soon, and get back to the slogging of the everyday work like cleaning screens, making painstaking drawings, dyeing shirts on days too wet to hang them out, doing my taxes. Finding the money to get my Fair booth going again. It's step by step. That makes a life. I'm glad I took some steps on some unusual paths. I hope I get the chance to tell more of my stories. It's like when I did the Story Corps recording, it feels like my legacy and it's such an honor to get a chance to tell about it. It's rare that I'm that proud of myself.

I hope I get to hear more of other people's stories. It's amazing to hear how brave and original people can be. I don't know if that gets through to people, especially young people, but I know most of the Market kids grow up to do similar things, though usually more integrated into the mainstream culture it seems, or the online culture anyway. We wanted to live original lives. That can probably be traced back to Kesey or Leary or some beatnik or other, but it really stuck in my generation and seems to be a permanent part of the culture now. It has provided a good ride.

It was thrilling that so many people turned out tonight. The Museum could be encouraged to put on some more of these panel discussions. We could get much more specific and narrow with the topics, or broaden them to include more of the cultural aspects rather than the physical ones. It's pretty fun to gather and trade memories. I'm sure lots of people are politely waiting to see if anyone will ask them to tell their stories. I didn't realize how much I wanted to do it.

Thanks Suzi! Thanks all of the listeners! Thanks Colleen for preparing so well and having so much to say about Saturday Market. Thanks, everybody, for making life so rich.