The Thursday Before Memorial Day

This year it was extremely uneventful except for the fact that it was the last day the Parent's Center was open before closing for the summer.  However between the years of 1999 and 2005 I would spend the Thursday before Memorial Day the exact same way.

My morning would start by going into work early (7am) where my boss and I would start loading up the booth and boxes of pottery I had been packing up most of the week.  Some years I would have to take a box or two in my car as they wouldn't all fit into her minivan.  We would then head out and meet in the bank parking lot where she would go in and get cash and I would go to the Subway next door and get our lunch.

Then it was off to the fair grounds to start setting up for the Paradise City Arts Festival.  The festival is one of the top ranked ones in the country and since it was in our home town it was the only retail show my boss did, all her other shows where wholesale shows.  Also thanks to us being so close the location we where often among the earliest arrivals to set up and so had the luxury to spread things out a bit while putting up the booth walls.  Usually by 2pm the booth was up and the lights installed, by 4pm the boxes were unpacked (and in the last 3 years – the mirrors hung), by 5pm I was finished hauling the empty boxes back to her van and heading home while my boss finished pricing and arranging the pottery on the shelves.

The final year I did this I was already 6 weeks pregnant and hadn't figured it out yet.  We also did the Columbus Day show that year but I did not help set up as I was pretty largely pregnant at that point.  My boss did one more Memorial Day show after that, but I was already gone – at home with my daughter. 

And now – I am still at home with my daughter full time and the studio has officially closed, I still like to remember those years though.