A Horrible Day in Terre Haute

A few weeks ago I received an email from someone in the Parks and Recreation Department of Terre Haute, Indiana asking me if I'd be interested in participating in a Christmas Craft Sale. She had seen my work on Etsy and felt I was the sort of vendor that they would like to have at their event. Since the booth fee was very low and I was in need of the money I hoped to earn at the sale, I said yes.

I lived to regret it. Terre Haute is about 72 miles from where I live and since I had never been there, I was told it would take about 90 minutes to make the drive. Since the sale started at 9:00 a.m. and I wanted to give myself plenty of time to set up, I left my house at 6:30 in the morning. It was still dark out. When I started up the car, I discovered that my car radio wouldn't come on, so I made the drive in silence. That was the first bad omen of the day. About 30 miles outside of Terre Haute, the highway narrowed down to one lane because of some road work. The traffic jam stretched close to 8 miles and put me about 25 minutes behind my scheduled arrival.

By the time I got to Terre Haute I had a half an hour to unload my car and get everything unpacked and on display. As soon as I walked in the door of the gymnasium in the old YWCA building (it wasn't that old, it looked like it was built in the 70s), I began to wish that I hadn't come. I was the last vendor to arrive and set up. To my immediate left was a family selling ugly lamps made from whisky and vodka bottles, also toy guns cut from a jigsaw. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but their stuff seemed light years away from my delicate glass pendants, bookmarks and Art Nouveau inspired prints.

The day went by very slowly. The gymnasium was freezing cold, like being in a meat locker. The sale attracted very few people. During the five hours I was there, I made 4 sales, compared to over 60 at the show I did here in Bloomington last month. I made enough money to cover the booth fee, but not enough to cover the gas I used to drive out there and back, not to mention the loss of almost an entire day.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the Wabash river in Terre Haute was nearing flood stage. That's the flooding Wabash in my blip photo. The YWCA building where the sale was held, was about 400 feet from the banks of the river. There wasn't any danger of flooding, but it definitely added to the disastrous atmosphere that hung over the day.

On the drive home, I had to take a 9 mile detour because of a bridge that was out. I was so depressed and tired by the time I got home, I don't know what I would have done if my dog Poppy hadn't been so happy to see me when I came in the door. I will never do another sale in Terre Haute.