October 1 – “From library to market”

Chris got a text the other day from Christina.  Seems they were going to the Galveston farmers’ market, and we were invited to join them.  Now I knew there was a farmers’ market down in the Strand area, but it was only open on Sundays.  Sunday mornings.  Just a little out of reach for us.  People keep expecting me to show up on Sundays at church, and I’m kind of partial to that expectation myself.  So the possibility of a viable option was certainly intriguing to us.  We agreed to go.

We met them at the library.  They had to make a check out stop for the kids first.  Can’t beat going to the library, you know.  I guess I could wax into a commercial for reading here, but suffice it to say that the library was good to me when I was a youngster fascinated by all things baseball.  I am pretty sure I checked out every book in the Rosenberg Library that had anything at all to do with baseball.  Hall of Fame?  Read it.  Chip Hilton baseball novels for kids?  Read it.  Statistics records books?  Read it.  How to play the game?  Read it.  Biographies of Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig or Jo DiMaggio?  Read it.  Oh, and I remember the display cases they had.  More like display boxes.  Huge (to me) glass boxes with scenes inside depicting Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves or other fantasy tales.  I also remember doing some research there for a high school paper I had to write.  Something about being required to cite newspaper or magazine articles as one of the sources.  I spent a lot of time at the library.  Glad those kiddos do, too.

After the library we did, indeed, head over to Menard Park for our first look at the Galveston Farmers’ Market.  It was kind of exciting, actually.  Well, until we turned the corner and saw the setup.  Just a few tents dotted an area next to the playground.  As we exited the car I whispered to Kel, “Well, this won’t take long.”  And it didn’t.  There were four booths.  One was selling local honey.  A second did have produce.  Well, he had one head of lettuce, a tiny basket of those little tomatoes, a little tub of peppers, and some pears.  When Chris heard the price of the lettuce, she moved rather quickly on.  The next tent featured some kind of drink.  We couldn’t pronounce the name, and it looked pretty nasty  I assume it was “very good for you.”  We passed on that one as well.  The final tent appeared to be doing a booming business.  Well, by booming I mean the other family that was there was considering buying.  It was homemade sweets.  And she even offered free samples.  Some of the kids took her up on the free stuff, and that was that.  Oh, wait.  I almost forgot.  There was also a booth selling printed t-shirts.  And the printing on the shirts?  Advertisement for the Farmers’ Market.  And so our Farmers’ Market excursion came to an abrupt end.  Well, not so abrupt.  The kids went to the playground for a while to give Chris and me a chance to get home and order some pizza for everybody.  Gotta a day like that on a positive note, and it’s just hard to beat pizza.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says, “For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.  And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

Father, thank you for the “farmers” who showed us their wares.  Help them to be successful in what they do.  And help their little market to grow.  Amen.