Happy Tofurkey Day!

Back Porch Maggie
June 2006 Raleighwood, NC
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Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who are celebrating the holiday. The original holiday, as many of you will undoubtedly recall, was a celebration in thanks for a bountiful harvest of food for the “American” Indians who had shown the befuddled pilgrims how to farm, fish, build shelter and, basically, not die out completely in their first year in The New World. In gratitude the pilgrims laid out a huge banquet that looked nothing at all like our modern day spreads and sent the indians home with piles of smallpox-laden blankets which all but wiped them out within a few short months.

I like to think of it as a slightly more subtle version of our modern-day foreign policy.

I have never been a big Thanksgiving person. Turkey was always one of those take-it-or-leave-it meals and my family never did much to celebrate the day when I was growing up. Once I became a vegetarian there became even less of a reason to make a big deal out of “turkey day” -- tofurkey never quite making the impact on me that the manufacturers had hoped it might.

For the past 12+ years Thanksgiving has meant Set Up Day for the three day show we do over the Thanksgiving Weekend. Tomorrow will be no different, with me making two trips to the set-up area (90 miles away) for the day, the first to do the set up, solo (so Bonn can work finishing up the polishing and stone setting of her pieces) and then to take us both back up with luggage so we can stay at a hotel overnight. (The first day is close to a 14 hour day and driving 90 minutes back home after that is possible, but not preferable)

The weekend and nights have been spent stringing pearls and making bangles; my days have been spent knocking my head against web pages at work for the Encyclopedia. (I didn’t do any of the graphic design work for the Encyclopedia pages -- that impressive work was done by someone else -- but, dang, getting all of the content and links to cooperate has been stupidly annoying)

(There’s this part of the back of my brain that has these warm, fuzzy thoughts about my web mastering experiences. However, every time I get involved with actually doing web work I cannot for the life of me remember why I have those positive feelings about it)

And can you believe that “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses is twenty-five years old this year?

Neither can I.

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Before and After

Pre-Show Loadup
23 November 2006 Raleighwood, NC
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The pre-show load up was pretty simple this morning. Bonn was staying at home to continue working on polishing her jewelry and setting stones so I was only taking those pieces of the puzzle necessary for constructing the booth. Staying at home, aside from Bonn, were the jewelry, displays, papers and, of course, luggage.

The ride back home on Sunday night will be significantly more jammed.

And, yes, the long white wooden planks do, indeed, go all the way up to rest on the dashboard at the front windshield. It was a happy coincidence that the Volvo designers made that distance 10 feet.

(The odd brown thing in the lower left corner is my satchel where I keep my camera. The stuffing is actually bubble wrap -- I can’t afford to have anything happen to the camera before heading over to the UK in a couple of weeks)

So, take all of that, add in an hour or so of driving (to the tune of my one Thanksgiving tradition: Alice’s Restaurant), add water, shake well -- for a few more hours -- and what you end up with looks something like this:




Post Set Up
23 November 2006 Greensboro, NC
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I hadn’t noticed the patriotic Red, White and Blue and Stars motif until I downloaded the images to my laptop. Believe me, it’s completely unintentional. We’re supposed to be Christmas-y. The red and white curtains behind our green ones are from the show promoter to help designate rows of booths (booves?) and to designate who has what space.

Now, just sprinkle in some displays, some jewelry, a couple of people to sell the stuff and lots of people to buy the jewelry and we’re all set to go.

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