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Blogs by D L Johnson
View from my 6th floor balcony
6/6/2010 5:50:52 AM
I apologize for how long this blog turned out, but for me it was an experience that I could not place in just a few lines. dlj
I would imagine that at every television station in Portland, all of the weather guys and gals are dancing triumphantly around their computer models, singing praises to the weather gods, that they finally got something right. They all forecast that there was rain coming from the coast and should hit Portland sometime early Sunday morning...well, they were right, and oh yeah, they are also taking credit for the absolutely beautiful day we had on Saturday.
I finished leading our discussion group at 10:30 Saturday morning, and was filled with restlessness. I have three writing projects that I'm working on, but it would have been criminal to sit around the apartment all day, when the weather beckoned me to go out and play, and play I did.
I called Marge and asked her if she had plans for the day and she said the only thing she had thought about, was going to Farmer's Market, held each Saturday during spring and summer on the campus of Portland State University. Marge also graduated from PSU, so she could give me a short tour of old structures where she once studied art.
To say there were many people wandering through the market, sampling goodies, and soaking up the glorius sunshine, would be an understatement. I do not do well in large crowds, but yesterday it was fun, it was like Marge said, "For just a few minutes, it feels good to rubbing elbows with youth, sort of invigorating."
After an hour and a half of Farmer's Market we walked east to SW 6th Street, and caught the light rail to take us down to the more eclectric Saturday Market that has become a longtime tradition near the Willamette River. It was purely coincidental that this the weekend of Rose Festival in Portland, so the US Nave, Coast Guard, and Canadian Navy all line up for tours, and the place transforms itself into a party atmosphere.
When we got off the light rail, we were immediately swallowed into a sea of humanity. It would be safe to say that whatever population of people visited Farmer's Market, if you multiplied that number by 5, you many come close to the crowd gathered at Saturday Market.
Many of the vendors that set up shop at Saturday Market, make their own goods, items like clothes, painings, ceramics, and food, lots of food. The only thing I was interested in was the beer vendor, and sadly, it took over 20 minutes of standing in line to get a nice cold beer, to only be told that I could not take the beer away from his tent, I had to drink it right there with thousands of others, yet again, for some reason this didn't bother me, sort of just took it all in stride.
Before I forget, I need to tell you about the entertainment. Keep in mind most of the musicians are street people, playing for what change they collect, and a few of them were doing quite well. There was the one armed Mandolin player,that was a Jerry Garcia look alike, then there was the old man that sat at the curb, playing guitar and singing old country tunes...a little pitchy I think, but no one cared. Little kids danced wildly while he sang "Tennessee Waltz" and their parents clapped their hands and dropped change in his guitar case. The musician that stole the show was a young boy, maybe 7 or 8, that stood in a large open space and played his violin. We stopped to listen while he first played a slow number, then smoothly transitioned over to a toe tapping mountain music kind of song that got the crowd all jazzed up. He was collecting lots of folding green stuff as well as silver that jingles and jangles.
We ended our trip downtown by going to Pioneer Place, an over priced shopping center in downtown Portland. We stopped at a Greek joint run by some enterprising Asians. I had a gyro platter, and Marge had Falavel, it was good but not the best. The nice part was that all we had to do was walk across the street to catch our bus.
I cannot remember when I last felt so good about just another Saturday, but the view from my 6th floor balcony told me to seize the day. dlj
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