Yesterday, I was at the Fremont Sunday Market as a Vendor. Pretty cool! Well, it was raining and cold, so it was literally cold. 🙂
I showed up just after 7:30 am just after the Market office opened. Just under the Red Door were two cheery women organizing the market for the day. There was a clipboard for the signup and an second clipboard for the rules and regulations. Later during the orientations, I would be told to acknowledge all the rules, just not the ones we felt like following that day.
I wandered a bit before the orientation at 8:27 for new vendors. The street was a bustle from cars being towed, merchants unloading trucks, assembling canopy tents and getting their displays ready. I got a cup of coffee to off set the chill from a nearby coffee shop.
About 8:20 am I headed back and found a small semicircle of new vendors waiting. A bit of a chuckle as she chastised us that we didn’t need to back before 8:27 am. It was then it started to drizzle a bit. I wasn’t worried, I was planning on being on inside the parking garage. My book journals can’t stand having their feet wet, so it was a good fit.
We were asked to come inside so that we would be a bit drier. There was short orientation, description of fees, and more banter. Then one by one we were called up to the register where we issued our booth number and parking permit. After learning the traffic method, I retrieved my car and unloaded it near the mouth of the parking garage.
Once inside, I realized that many lights had been rigged to light up the garage. I’m too new to know if this is the Fremont Market or if the long term vendor have an astonishing array of bright lights.
I got to setting up and before I had finished customers were already coming into the garage. The rain was pretty thick at that point, and I was a bit soaked. I went off to put my car in the official parking. I ran back and got my feet soaked. (Next time, I’ll bring some thicker soled shoes to help with the puddles and to easy my feet during the long day.)
I settled in for the day. Lovely people came to my tabled and looked at the book journals. Kind things were said. The rain eased on and off. When the rain was the hardest, we had the most people inside the garage. When I went to a food vendor for a snack, I could see the street was a bit empty. Later, when it was sunny the market street was full of shoppers. Never say that Seattle shoppers don’t mind the rain. They were there, they were just hiding between the rain drops.