Last week as I was trying to decide whether to do the market or not, I kept looking at the weather reports every few minutes, trying to find a site that gave hourly forecasts. Every site was different! No one could agree on whether it would be stormy or not or when it would or what it would bring. It seemed like we were most likely in for a little rain and some thunder and lightning, maybe even hail – but maybe not. (They forecast a storm for the prior week and nothing happened at all!)
With that in mind I sent an email to the Market manager to let her know I’d be there. I added that I didn’t know what the weather would do and maybe it would be a little crummy, but I’ve got to have at least one bad market day this season, right?
I am not usually in the habit of making prophetic statements, but this was truly an exception.
We were supposedly going to get rain and storms as early as Friday night and all night long. But nothing happened. Saturday, 6am, dawned bright and beautiful with not a cloud in the sky and even comfortably cool. We loaded everything up and headed off to the market to set up. I was all set up just after 8:00 and sat down to do a little finish-work on a few projects I’d brought along. A little breeze had picked up and about 8:30 clouds had started to roll in and there was a very large, dark, ominous bank of clouds in the west that sort of looked like it was heading our way.
Always a positive thinker, I kept saying, “no, it’s just a beautiful summer day, nothing is going to happen, there won’t be any rain,” etc. And there wasn’t any rain – but all of a sudden there was wind. Out of nowhere it got really windy. My tea cozies and other things blew down, and then blew off the tables. Other things started blowing around. The tents started lifting up and all the vendors ran to hold on to their tents. I was so grateful for my new weight bags that kept the tent mostly on the ground. Even so, I had to hang on to the tent with almost all my weight to make sure it didn’t fly away when really big gusts came up. I did see two tents sort of implode and get destroyed by the wind. In the midst of this there was a huge crash and sound of breaking and a collective groan went up through the vendors and people in the market: two full shelves of pottery had blown down and crashed to pieces in the wind.
The market manager ran through telling everyone to drop our tents. Customers helped hold tents, and in between gusts of wind we all picked up bits that had flown all over and lowered our tents. Luckily it had not rained a drop yet or we would have had an awful mess to deal with. Folks with smart phones were calling out that more waves of storm were approaching, and then the lightning started and none of us felt safe under our metal canopies! The entire arts/crafts section decided to pack it up and head for home! I never took things down so fast: I just grabbed everything I could and crammed and stuffed it into my bins and got the lids on just as it was starting to sprinkle. We loaded everything back in the car and headed for home. Within an hour there was a massive downpour of rain. But I was safely inside spending hours cleaning and straightening and fixing everything up.
Amazingly, the storm passed and by 11 or 11:30 the sky was blue and clear and the weather was perfect. The vegetable vendors all stayed on at the market! Luckily for them, veges aren’t as susceptible to rain and wind as arts and crafts are.
So, that was truly the worst market I’ve ever had! I didn’t sell a thing and I was slightly terrified for awhile there that my tent was going to blow away as well as all my things! But I survived, and I’ll be back this Saturday! It promises to be an absolutely glorious day with no prediction of wind, rain, or thunder/lightning.
And I have a brand new tea cozy design to debut. It is very likely the cutest thing you will ever seen in your life. Come on down and meet the new cozy! Saturday, July 30, 8am – 1pm.
