This event is held twice yearly on the main
street of Los Banos.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
I WOKE UP AT 4:45am and was out of my house by 5:00.
The 93-mile drive from Hayward was rather quick and
non-eventful. I exited I-5 at Highway 152 and
drove the six miles down to 6th Street. The sun
was just peeping over the horizon or whatever you want
to call it. Turned left and went down 3 blocks to
the check-in area. My space was #16, just a short
distance away. That was fine with me. The
farther down the street, it seems like less traffic
flow. Don't know for sure. I was all the way
down at the other end last year, and I just don't think
that the citizens of Los Banos were not walkers and did
not trek down there. I really think that somebody
screwed me out of my space last year because I sent in
my application early. However, this year I am
completely satisfied with my location.
IT TOOK ME 3-HOURS to get my stuff set up and it seemed
like I had hardly anything in my booth. Actually,
I did cut down on my display because I had to set up and
take down hours apart and I was there by myself.
TURNED OUT TO BE A VERY NICE DAY WEATHER-WISE as we had
sunshine all day and temps were around the 80-mark.
Gosh, it can be a real scorcher there sometimes,
especially as you move into the summertime. Today?
Perfect weather.
EVEN THOUGH THE SHOW started at 8:30am, there weren't
really that many shoppers. I guess between 11-2 we
had the biggest crowds, of course. Dwindled down
after that.
OLDER LADY TAKES OFF WITH ONE OF MY small bags. It
really looked like she was going to buy it as she asked
me the price and then said that she was going to get it
for her sister. These are small 4x4 embroidered
bags with a long 'rope' attached to the two sides.
I was standing right next to her and she began walking
away with it in her hand. She took a couple steps
away from my booth and kept going without saying
anything. I was standing there bewildered and
couldn't believe this happening. What the heck is
this? I stood there and when she got to the end of
the next booth and was looking at some items they had
there, she still had the tiny purse dangling from her
hand. I then said "Uh, Hello. Excuse me."
She glanced over to me. I point down to the purse
with my index finger of my right hand. "Are you
guying to pay for that?" She then looked down and
saw that she still had it. "Oh my gosh," I
forgot all about it." She walked over to me as she
continued apologizing. I looked at her and we all
began laughing, including the couple next door.
"We are getting older and we do forget things. We
ain't seen nothing yet!" Kind of reminds me of the
young lady that tried to steal one of my belly-dancer
skirts in Tillamook last August. However,
this lady was no thief. For three dollars, I don't
think so anyway.
LOADS AND LOADS OF GRABBERS out there handling my wooden
snakes, alligators and swords. Groups of 3-4-5
people at a time. Families. Teenager's.
Little kids. Ended up having them break one gator
and a snake.
DID HAVE SOME REAL GENIUNE SMART ASS teenage punks
grabbing my swords and swinging them at one another.
Automatic expulsion. I saw one of them make
some kind of wise-crack to me and I told them "Good bye.
You have to go." Bunch of punks. They were
asking me how much everything was and I got sick of
them. As they departed, one of them asked me how
much one of the parasols was and replied "Sorry, I do
not have that in pink." They began walking away
and I told them (14-15 yrs old) that they have toys
farther down the street. They then strolled
aimlessly down the street buying nothing from anybody,
maybe bothering other vendors also. I guess that's
how these kids here get their kicks.
OTHER THAN THAT it was a generally tamed crowd.
AS FOR FOOD, I really didn't see very much as I only
went down halfway. I spotted two hot dog vendors
and another one selling ribs and pulled pork but I
didn't buy from any of them. Don't like hot dogs
at shows, even if they are selling for a dollar.
Got to be careful. Got food poisoning once at the
Antioch Holiday Craft Faire a couple year's back.
Terrible. Went to the hopper over 50 times in 36
hours. Believe it or not, it was from a Philly
Cheesesteak Sandwich. The meat looked raunchy,
like it was left over from the week before. I was
hungry and ate part of the sandwich and threw it away.
Never imagined that would happen to me. There was
a Kettle Korn booth near me and I was tempted. No
way though. I am stil KKed out from Arizona.
I had a lot and many different flavors out there from
one of the vendor's.
IT'S A FREE BREAKFAST. Upon entering, most of us
were given a 'ticket' for a breakfast. I heard
them say it was free. After I parked my van in the
morning, I looked at it and it said $6.00, so I left it
inside the van. Later on somebody came by and
asked me if I wanted to have breakfast and I told them
"no, thank you." They then told me it was free and
I needed to give them my ticket. "Wow," I said.
"Bring it on." They then told me that they would
bring my breakfast and I should have my ticket for them
when they came back. So, I walked over and got my
ticket and 15 minutes later, there was my breakfast.
I had ham, pancakes and eggs. No bad, but the eggs
tasted kind of weird so I only too one bite of them.
First show I ever was at where they gave you a free
breakfast. I have seen other promoter's give a
free dinner afterword, namely Steve Maitland. I
did two of his shows before at Lake Tahoe and they had
steak one year and chicken the next. And don't
forget Festival Productions; we get fruits and rolls for
breakfast on Saturday and mimosa's on Sunday.
MY SALES WERE SPORADIC once again and a bit better than
Manteca. Not impressed though. I had a
couple good spurts that were a large share of my income.
Maybe some of the vendor's did decently. Don't
know for sure. The person across from me looked
like she hardly had any sales and next to me there were
these people selling dancing lessons. There were a
bunch of young teeny boppers there and they were quite
immature as they were constantly yelling at one another
and running in and out of their booth. They blew
up a bunch of balloons and they were flying all over the
place along with their 'registration forms." They
weren't really bad but they were a pain in the ass.
I BEGAN PACKING AT 2:30 and I was completely done by
3:45 and waiting to bring my van in. I was only
parked about a block away so it was a short walk.
I went out to my van around 3:55 and came rolling in
about ten minutes later. Took maybe 45 minutes to
load up and I was oughta there.
