Saturday was
another Chamber of Commerce day, as nearly perfect as a day ever gets. I
enjoyed our ride into town, past the cemetery and along the creek to the large parking
lot where the market gathers. It was filled with vendors’ pavilions, produce
and products for sale, and wall-to-wall, shoulder-to-shoulder shoppers. This
market was always much smaller than the Thursday night affair. Though there
were usually musicians on one side or the other, there were no belly dancers,
no jugglers, no bounce houses or two-story inflatable slides. Saturday’s market
was more business than pleasure.
It was also
quintessentially Chico—the neo-hippies with their dreadlocks and fabric
shopping bags mingling with gray-haired couples holding hands and well-dressed younger
families with toddlers in tow; the Hmong farmers working their booths
side-by-side with the lilywhite fifth-generation growers whose ancestors had
been among the area’s first non-native settlers; the potters and jewelry
artists hawking their wares beside the folks with the petition to legalize
recreational marijuana, while conservative politicians smiled and shook hands and
kissed babies in the next booth over. The whole place smells delicious—scents
of fresh produce or yeasty bread mingling with the patchouli oil and sandalwood
on the artisans.
“Are you looking
for anything special?” Robin asked as we locked our bikes.
“Really just the usual,” I said. Robin and I made a
ritual of coming into town for fresh fruits and vegetables most Saturdays. I liked being able to share one favorite facet of my hometown. I hope others will enjoy it vicariously. MAGGIE RISING is currently with my agent, hoping to find a publisher soon.
Susan Aylworth is the author of eight novels now out of print, but available as e-books for Kindle, Nook, and all other e-reader platforms. Her ninth novel, now retitled ZUCCHINI PIE: GRANNY'S RECIPE FOR LIFE, is coming in June from Covenant Communications. A tenth book, her first historical, has been accepted as is in process, to be published in 2014. MAGGIE RISING is her 11th book.
