A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood?

[sooZen]

Saturday dawned beautiful after the cold front that blew in the day before. Cec and I got to the Art in the Park venue early because we had only staked the tent and we still had to set up all of our display, the tablecloths and hang the artwork. It takes us a couple of hours just to do that.

Then I had a chance to see some old friends...Mary arrived with Autumn to set up her tent. We had a nice visit and I also had conversation with Jan and Leon. Everything was very pleasant as the day progressed but slow. Not like the old days of Art in the Park when the venue was packed with people. But I couldn't complain because it was such a beautiful day.

Well, it was a beautiful day but we could see some thunderclouds building off to the east and Autumn came to tell me that she had seen a couple of boys who had just come from the east side of town and a huge storm was on its way. Cec and I immediately started to secure the tent, zip up the sides and hope for the best.

Now, I have been in a few storms in all my years of doing shows and I have learned a bit about staking down a tent and Cecil, since he joined me has added to our knowledge. I don't just hammer a few stakes in the ground and call it done. Good durn thing!

Cec and I were in the front of our tent getting the side down when 'it' hit. Winds musta gusted over 50 or 60 mph at least. Fortunately, I was at the front of the tent and a couple of ladies who had just set up a table next to us, each of them grabbed a leg. Cec ran around the back where we had one side open and grabbed the tent from the inside. As I was sitting there holding on for dear life I looked over and saw Leon's tent sail over into the tent next to it and Jan's tent just collapsed into a twisted pile. Inside our tent, Cec was yelling over the wind about how everything was blowing off the walls, earring stands were blown to the ground and tables were shaking and everything on them was knocked down.

I was so busy as was Cec, it was hard to tell what else was going on in the park. Maureen, the lady that was helping us hold it all to the ground was wide eyed with fear but managed to smile and say, "how long is this going to last?" I told her it would stop and blow over but I was sure wondering if the tent would not just rip apart in the onslaught. When the winds did slow (a bit) I circled the perimeter trying to pick up jewelry that laid on the grass outside the tent and go inside to help Cecil. Once we got all the sides zipped up and I crawled under, I couldn't believe my eyes... It was like a tornado had hit in there, jewelry was flung everywhere, pictures and paintings hung askew and Cecil looked clearly like he was at the edge of sanity.

It took a long while (but I really have no way of telling) for the winds to die down, in the meantime, I was crawling around in the grass, looking for lost earrings, cell phone charms, all my stuff that had been tossed everywhere. Cec was trying to get his pictures down off the pegboards we use for display. We finally got most everything picked up and lowered the tent as low as it would go, leaving all inside in a jumble. When we emerged from our tent, it was a devastating sight. It seems we had had a micro-burst that tore a swath right thru the middle of the show.

New vendors always make the mistake of thinking that four little five inch stakes will hold a nylon tent down. Those tents are like sail cats or kites, the wind catches up under the tops and away they go. And a few of the old hands also made the mistake of thinking, heh, it's a beautiful day, we don't need to go to all that trouble. Wrong! Never try to predict what the weather may be. Anyway, piles of twisted tents were everywhere. Autumn managed to hold onto Mary's tent but it wasn't staked very well and luckily she had a few people that were walking by when it hit and grabbed her tent and helped her and I think they saved Mary's tent from much damage. But Autumn injured her just healing broken foot again.

Jan and Leon were not so lucky, his tent may be okay because it took off and flipped over onto another tent. When I had looked up at one point during the whole ordeal, I could see Jan hanging onto what was left of her tent for dear life trying to save her stuff but there was nothing I could do to help as I was trying to save ours! Fortunately for them, they had just gotten some insurance on the tents and contents just three weeks earlier!!! Sheesh! Leons' artwork was flying the last time I saw it and people were picking it up all up and down the park. That is so sad.

After the storm, vendors were picking up the pieces, piles of twisted metal that used to be tents were carried to the edge of the show area and tossed there out of the way. I thought about some of the vendors that were in the path of this storm, the artist that had the beautiful stained glass lampshades, the guy who had lost his leg to a horrible infection after he was injured on his construction job and started making wooden toys that reminded me so much of my Dad's, our friends Chino and Volie the sweet kids that graduated the same year as our Noah that do the tie dye tees and had a tent next to us at La Vina...man, the list goes on and all of them lost their tents, their stuff either smashed or blown away.

Many of my friends are regulars on the tent show circuit. Elizabeth who does stained glass is in her late 70's and not only sets up her tent by herself but carries her handicapped husband to all the shows. She lost one $5 piece because Liz knows how to set up a tent! She had been doing that show longer than anyone I know. Leslie's tent held up although her jewelry was tossed about too, and Gary's tent in the direct path of the micro burst had an intact tent. Only the old show farts survived...I guess that makes me an old show fart. I never take my chances with the weather.

Today is gonna be interesting, our tent is a mess inside and I am not sure what the Parks Department will do and whether there will be a show today. It is going to take us hours just to get it all back together and survey the damage. Mary said she may just call it a wash and many vendors are just gone. I am just gonna play it as it comes, hey, it just may be another beautiful day in Phar Lepht and when people come out, as they do after church, somebody needs to be there. It may be me.

[westcoast]

You are a trooper SooZen! My goodness, what a situation. I'm really glad to hear you and Cec had the sense to secure your tent and yo protect the product. I hope you do have lots of folks come by today

Most especially, I am thankful to hear that you are both safe.

best wishes,
~westie

[sooZen]

Thanks westie! For tuning in and the reply. What follows is the continuing saga of our Art in the Park show ripped from my blog, Zen Upchuck.

[sooZen]

Pick up and Truck

For some reason, I am still on South Carolina time and I can't seem to get my internal clock back in sync with local time. Needless to say, waking up (and I MEAN WIDE AWAKE) at 3 am in the morning is not something one wants to do. It's bad enough waking up a 4 every day but 3???
It is beautiful from my deck...the lights of Mexico sparkling in the distance and a full moon over the Franklin Mountains but still.

Okay, back to my story...in case you are staying tuned. Sunday at Art in the Park. We were not sure what we were going to find when we cleaned up and reorganized after the fiasco the day before. We were extremely fortunate (good karma, I guess) but none of Cec's frames or glass on his prints were broken and I only lost a few of my beaded barrettes (darn!) but that is nothing compared to what some folks lost and some of it was really heart-breaking.

One potter from Marble Falls, Texas who had driven all the way down here from near Austin and was paying for a hotel room, food and gas lost $700 of her racu pottery but she managed to save her tent and was still upbeat and positive. Somebody had bought a box of her broken pottery to use for mosaics and she was glad of it. Others lost not only their tents but much of their inventory as well and that morning the park looked half-empty. Some brave souls were brave enough to come back and just set up a table or two under the trees, trying to make the best of it.

Again, the day dawned beautiful but every time a little gust of wind would come up, well, we all were a bit gun shy but it stayed glorious all day. And we had a great day too! Except, I kept hearing stories from friends of tragedies in their lives...sobering thoughts interspersed with moments of laughter and shrugs. I won't go into the details but some people I know are sure dealing with the worst that life entails...been there, done that too and it sure is stressful when it happens so my heart goes out to them and all the light I can muster.

One of the worst things that happened in the whole show was that Elizabeth, the stained glass lady who has done this show since the dinosaurs had all her cash stolen!!! Liz, that wonderful and beautiful and most positive person I've ever met (except for my Dad) was ripped off! Damn! I hated that and even with what happened to her, she managed to remain philosophical about it all. "Another lesson learned!", she exclaimed. Earlier she had given Cec and I some of her pomegranate jelly and a bottle of her pomegranate wine that she makes for helping her out last year to get her tent broken down when it was pouring rain. I can remember what she said then as we were all soaked, "at least we won't have to shower tonight!" Geeze, I really hate what happened to her and whoever stole her money is gonna have to pay some big time karma, at least I hope so because I know, whatever you put out is gonna come back and smack you in the face. Elizabeth, you are one in a million and I bet you have a whole caseload of gold stars (as my Mom would say) stored away.

John B. stopped by with his beautiful girlfriend and it was nice to see one of son Noah's old friends and beaucoup other folks that I don't get to see until we do the shows. Truth is, the day was just beautiful and my old spot under the tree where I always set up my tent was nice and shady (and Cec got a nap in) and we just hung loose selling our goodies. All in all, another successful Art in the Park for us but what a cost for some folks. Like any show, you never know what will happen or what kind of fortune will shine on you but you never, ever give up, never! And like Liz, you put on your best face and keep on truckin'...

[westcoast]

yaaaay !!!

~westie

[Doreen Peri]

Wowowow! What an ordeal!

I'm so glad you didn't lose very much!

I'm so sad to hear the lady's money was stolen and that so many lost a lot. What a great attitude she had, tho. You were lucky!

A well-written snippet. Thank you for sharing this!

(((hugs)))) to you and Cecil!