Business closing
We have had fun, I suppose. Crazy George at Fremont calls this business is an addiction. Two kinds of rush. The hunt, snatching something interesting from piles of random junk, having a good eye, in our case it's Mary Jane with the good eye; that's the heart of this business. Hard to match that kind of thrill on the outside. Said the same about pulling king salmon over the stern of a trolling boat.
Then there's show time. Performance art. Carnival. Create a space out of nothing, draw the rubes* in for a look. Dangle pretty things before their eyes. Folks pay for entertainment. Everything in life is just a little bit better when we are standing under the lights in our Sunday pop-up shop. No worries until eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Go through a lot of shit to maintain that kind of high.
Seen it coming. Like cousin Jon seeing the stump slowly advancing toward his car, I have seen changes in business and lifestyle looming just over the horizon for the past couple years. Even in the best of times, two of us working seven days a week barely paid the bills. Lower sales tended to increase the work load, and one does not have the time or energy to make changes even when the need to do so is obvious.
Current plan is to be out of Fremont before the end of the year.** Mary Jane will still be marketing her stuff on line, open a mall space somewhere and we will be doing a few summer shows. Work for wages to pay the bills.
Two minds about the changes. Sad to see the end of an era in our lives, exhausted from working every day for fifteen years.
Its just business.
*rube : for me the word is a connection with the carny tradition of setting up a little side show booth and drawing in the folks for a show. I think of it as respect for the tradition, not disrespect for our customers.
** re-reading this at the first of that year Fremont is still going to be a part of our operation but at a much lower level than in the past.
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