Gazebos & Jars
Dear Ann,
I was hooked, lock, stock & barrel. I think markets are going to be the boon of my life until I leave the planet or until God ceases to give me the energy to continue.
Along the way I have learnt quite a lot. To start with it was the fundamentals I needed to learn. These were to have a cover in case of inclement weather & I needed jars to put relish in because now I was into the throes of this new hobby I was going to run out of jars very quickly. I will tell you the story of jars first.
Last year when taking a batch of relish to Prime Timers each month I soon ran out of jars, just any old ordinary jars that most people put in the recycling bin. I put out an SOS via Joan, our leader, who announced my dilemma to all & sundry, asking our members if they would bring any unwanted jars to the monthly meetings for me.
Well they love the relish, so I got the jars – some hundreds of them, all shapes & sizes. Just before the end of last year I had to ask Joan to put out another SOS to thank them all for their support, but as I had four hundred & thirty four jars housed on every available shelf to please stop!
So they did. Then with the advent of needing them for markets, after two months I had to put out another SOS via Joan, to please bring them again as Dawn desperately needs jars! I could see myself running out of them within the next month as I am currently using at least seventy a month & I don’t want to have to buy jars. I am hoping the members will respond as they did before so that’s the first part of this story.
With gazebos, I was lucky last year as I didn’t have one but the weather was kind. However, that won’t always be the case. With the Christmas puddings particularly, that was sheer luck & I could see it was necessary to have cover.
My lovely lass, Sue, who was doing my housework almost weekly at that stage, brought along her gazebo to lend to me, but it wouldn’t fit in the car. She suggested I take my car & go to the home hardware store & say that if they had a gazeo that would fit in it I would buy it on the spot.
This I did & the day before the Warners Bay Market was held last year I mentioned to the organiser, Roslyn, who was going to make sure I had cover under a tree, that I had bought a gazebo.
She happened to say that she hoped it wasn’t one of those that ‘a’ had to fit into ‘b’ & ‘c’ into ‘d’ & so on with masses of poles to fit into one another because she had seen the menfolk at the council putting them up before & they were a real hassle.
Well, you guessed it, when I asked them to put it up at the market the next day, that is exactly what I had! Finally, the stall holder next to me said that he had better come & help them as he was very familiar with that type of gazebo & knew what a problem they could be.
He got it done & I had good cover that day. Needless to say the nice lad did not go home empty handed for his help.
That particular day as I was leaving, an elderly gentleman & a stall holder from way back gave me the name of the gazebo that was the best & easiest to erect. He even spent time showing me how it was done.
I went off armed with the information thanking him for his help. This information eventuated in Philip taking me to the Boating, Camping & Fishing stores that had been suggested. We did this on the way home from Line Dancing as I had my next & last market for the year the following day.
The first store we went to didn’t have any in stock & said they thought the manufacturers were no longer making the particular one I needed, but he was kind enough to suggest another store further on. When we called there the salesman did not have that particular one either, but showed us another which he stated was similar. I was very happy to get it & it was sitting on the back seat of my car as I happily drove off.
My happiness on that score was short lived as, when the Lions Club men went to set it up for me, I realised that I would never be able to manage this one either. I am always going to need help in putting a gazebo up, but I don’t want it to be too much of a difficult job when others are helping me.
I was really disappointed with making another mistake with my second choice, so David came to my rescue after my first market day this year. He looked it up on line & found that it was available at a huge hardware store. Indeed the most popular one in our State, which was also near to where I live.
I took myself there the next day. I should have gone there in the first place as they not only had the one recommended for me in stock, but they also had one erected in the store. The salesman took me through its advantages at length as I didn’t want to make a third mistake.
I was just so pleased at having the right one at last & could scarcely wait to see it up & operating.
I decided it won’t just be relish I would be selling at the market. Sometime in the future I will have two gazebos on sale at very good prices, as both have only been used once.
That’s the story of the gazebos. In addition I bought two new folding tables instead of old fashioned card tables that are a thing of the past.  Now I am starting to look like & feel like a real professional stall holder with all the right equipment! Look out Fennels Bay, here I come!
God Bless & Fond Love. Dawn X O X O