I took a brave step out the other day, not coming out of the closet, I blew the door off the closet years ago. On Saturday morning, I was up early, the weather was heavenly, 66 degrees, blue skies, I masked and gloved up and headed off to the farmers market in Old Town Alexandria. It claims to be one of the oldest continuously operating markets in the country. I love going, I had not been since last fall. It is a little changed from the past, the market vendors handle the produce, you can point at what you want, but not touch. There were city employees at the entrances checking to make sure those entering were wearing masks, and counting the number of people in and out, to limit the number of people. There are arrows on the pavement directing people in one direction. If you miss something and double back, people stare at you (I only did this once, went back 20 feet to the most glorious local tomatoes.)
Most of my favorite vendors were there, the local organic farmer dude, the egg man, a couple of larger scale veggies direct to the public farmers. The market resellers where there, those are vendors that don't grow anything, they buy from farmers, or more likely wholesale markets. I will buy from them, but prefer to buy from the small farmers.
It was strange to be spending cash. I have drawn cash from the bank just once since the end of February. Most of the vendors prefer cash. I bought a new pocket change wallet in Ireland, a wonderful piece of leather work, but kind of bulky.
The crowd was thin, and well behaved. It felt good to be there, I felt reasonably safe. Slowly I am learning to be comfortable in public. As I say, take care, stay safe, stay well.
Are you venturing out yet?
