Published via Ecency

I came across the Market Friday community quite by accident when @dswigle commented on a post of mine here and invited me to submit a post. Of course I said, sure thing, I'll do it! But I have not been able to attend a market in the past week, so what to do?

mmm... so I had a thought... maybe I'll dig out some memories of previous markets that I have attended. And dig I did ❣️

When I was a child my parents would frequent the local village markets as something to do outdoors on the weekends with the family. This included the main Saturday craft market just outside of town and the smaller flea market held in its centre. My siblings and I would follow in tow.

So this is a post really about Market Friday that for me in my childhood, always happened on Saturdays 😂

We lived out in the countryside, away from the bright lights of the city and the local markets were a place to chill out in the community, grab a nice outdoor breakfast on the weekend and use ones eye to go in search of the elusive bargain.

I usually went with a clear idea in mind of what I was looking for, be it a specific book from the throngs of the little pop-up second hand book 'stores', a music cassette, trinket or something interesting to adorn the walls of my bedroom.

Three memories stand out very clearly for me.

The first was my hunt for a copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull written by Richard Bach. My mom had a copy and I was desperate to have my own. I had read it a few times and had fallen in love with both the story and the author.

I remember searching through a few tables stacked feet high with books before coming across a tiny little table under a tree right near the food stands. And there in the shade, sheltered from the sun by the leafy branches above, I found my copy! It cost all of 10 cents! Bargain. I was filled with joy!

After Jonathan Livingston Seagull,I fell in love with Richard Bach's works and one by one added each successive novel to my personal library. I still have them all to this day 💗

The blurb on the back:

People who make their own rules
when they know they're right...
people who get a special pleasure out
of doing something well (even if
only for themselves) ... people who know
there's more to this whole living
thing than meets the eye: they'll be
with Jonathan Seagull all the way.
Others may simply escape into a
delightful adventure about freedom
and flight.

I did both.

On a second journey to the market I was fortunate enough to pick up a copy of the Jonathan Livingston Seagull LP replete with Neil Diamond's narration of the book and overlaid with hauntingly beautiful music throughout. This too, I still have today.

And finally, a little copper plaque that I discovered on one of our journeys. It meant a lot to me then and means a lot to me now. I took it home and asked my Mom if I could hang it in our entrance hall. Everyday thereafter, it was one of the first things I saw when I walked through the front door of our family home. I feel like it was priming me for the rest of my life. When my Mom passed away, and my dad packed up their home to move, he returned it to me.