When The Commander asked if I wanted to attend the church bazaar, my first reaction was something like, “What the…???” I have not gone to church since I was a child. Heck, The Commander doesn’t even go to church. And then I immediately reconsidered. There are many reasons I don’t “have” religion or however you want to say it but none of them have anything to do with the church bazaar.

The church bazaar was always one of the *fun* things about church. It was an event to look forward to. You put on a party dress and your best shoes and ate pretty little sandwiches and cookies and nuts and mint candies. Just like in the picture. And the church ladies would pour tea and coffee out of highly polished silver tea sets. There was punch (in a crystal bowl) for the kids but your moom, if she was anything like The Commander, would let you get some tea and lace it up with as much cream and sugar as you wanted. And then you could go and get some punch.

The ladies of the church would also make lovely things to sell at the bazaar. I remember lots of beautifully crocheted lace doilies and pine cone Christmas arrangements, spray-painted with gold. All kinds of colorful stuff in general. I was bedazzled and I wanted to buy it all.

Today’s bazaar was a lot like the ones I looked forward to as a child. There were lots of beautiful knitted hats and mittens, placements and napkins and kitchen towels and things. Painted wooden ornaments. I didn’t see one crocheted doily or spray-painted pine cone, unless they were lurking in the “Attic Treasures” room, ghosts returning from bygone bazaars. Times change. Speaking of the “Attic Treasures” room, I thought The Commander was going to cane a couple other cute little old ladies! They actually had the gall to suggest that The Comm buy some “attic treasures” and take them home to throw out. After a tense couple of moments, I realized that the other women were Audrey and Shirley, her Sunday movie buddies, and it was all an act. They know that The Commander is in a deacquisitional mode and they were teasing her. Whew!

This whole event was a little bit time-warpy. I even dressed up. Er, that is, I wore my new black/silver tights and my beeyootiful new metallic blue foldable slipon shoes. (I’m not sure The Commander thoroughly approves of those 😉 ) I didn’t buy one single thing (except lunch) but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Oh, and we went with Barb, our beloved life-long friend and beach neighbor so the conversation wasn’t limited to me and The Comm nattering away at each other.

Some of my childhood friends who grew up here have moved away and so have their parents (or their parents are dead, we *are* at that age) and they have no reason to come back here. If they do, they have to stay in a hotel or whatever. Some of my childhood friends never left here and are part of the community in a way I haven’t been for many years. I am in the middle. I have built a life and community of friends on the Planet Ann Arbor but, when I come here, I have a place to stay and a little window into the community of Sault Ste. Siberia.

I gotta go. We’re meeting my beloved cousin, none other than that mean old sweetheart Mr. Grinch, at the Italian restaurant for dinner.

Good night. Typos and poorly constructed sentences be damned,
Kayak Woman

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 13th, 2010 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.